Future Stars Series 2025 Grad Class Profile: Josian Soto

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Mike Ashmore

November 14, 2023

If you’re looking for information online about one of the more intriguing players in the 2025 grad class, there simply isn’t much out there just yet on Josian Soto.

In fact, some Google searches will ask if you’re instead looking for Juan Soto.

Not quite. Although he may have some company with the same surname at the game’s highest level in the future.

Josian Soto has been on the New Balance Baseball Future Stars Series radar for quite some time now, first getting seen at a Regional Combine in his native Puerto Rico early on in 2022, and then eventually making his way to the United States for big showings at both the National Combine and Underclass Elite this year.

“I want people to know that I’m a very electric player,” Soto told FSS Plus. “I like to take advantage of every aspect of the game, I like to show my emotions. I like to bring that to the field, bring everyone to play hard on the field and bring 110 percent.”

Standing out in a baseball-centric country like Puerto Rico can be difficult, but the slick middle infielder has managed to do just that with a smooth, easy swing from both sides of the plate that produces consistent line drives as well as his prowess with the leather.

“It’s difficult, because you have to get off the island, and not everyone has the economic ability to go to the States,” he said. “Maybe you’re getting to do it five, six times a year. There’s a lot of good players here, but there’s not a lot of people that can see us. It’s really tough, but it’s getting better.”

Currently uncommitted, Soto — who was identified as a D1 prospect who will have a future in professional baseball afterwards by the FSS scouting staff — is hopeful that his unique skillset, one in which he recently ran a 6.7 in the 60-yard dash and showed power to the gaps this summer, can be seen by the right coaches so he can find a fit at the college level before fulfilling the potential on his scouting report.

“The 2025 Draft is on everybody’s mind, but it’s not my main focus,” he said. “I want to go to a school where I can study, keep developing myself as a baseball player and as a person. Right now, I’m focusing on trying to look for schools that have the things I want to study, and finding the right college that has a good baseball program where I can feel comfortable. I’m open to go anywhere in the U.S.”

It’s one thing to have opportunities to be seen, however, and it’s another entirely to make the most of them when you are. Soto did that and then some, generating genuine buzz at the Underclass Combine in Nashville that made him a no-brainer invite to take to the next step at the Underclass Elite, where he thrived in a professional setting at Hartford’ Dunkin’ Donuts Park.

“The Future Stars Series has helped me not only get seen, but to know a lot of players and to get to know a lot of coaches,” Soto said. “Right now, I’m talking with a guy from Wisconsin, a guy from Arkansas, and I have that connection with them. I have that friendship with them now thanks to Future Stars Series, and we have a lot of things in common. With the Future Stars Series, when I came out the first year, it was in Puerto Rico where I made the combine when I was 14 years old, but I couldn’t go to the National Combine that was in Lake Charles that year for economic situations. But this year, it was different. When I came to Nashville, it was very eye-opening to see a lot of players that are like you, so passionate about the game and trying to level up their game like you to get seen.

“Going to Boston this year, it was really like an MLB experience. Guys treated us like pro players. Those three days, I felt like a pro player. It was great competing and to get seen by all those coaches and those scouts. Going to Boston helped me realize the things I need to polish with my game, the little details I have to get better at…it’s not just physical, but a mental approach at the plate, being present with things. When you go to Boston, you don’t know the players, so you have to really try to see them in practice. At least with my opponents, as a shortstop, you’re trying to get a feel for who gets the ball on the ground, who’s fast, things like that; little details that will help me with the game.”

There’s a lot of moving parts in Soto’s game to manage, including being a switch-hitter. With a most recent scouting report that reads, in part, “Nothing not to like here…watching him for the next two years should be fun,” continuing to swing the bat from both sides will continue to be a part of what will make him a must-watch name leading up to that 2025 MLB Draft.

“I’m staying with it,” Soto said. “I’ve been practicing switch-hitting since I was six years old. I started at ten years old, hitting that way in games…it’s something that I’m looking forward to, and it’s one of the things I have in my arsenal that I think helps me a lot. It gets difficult sometimes, because it’s two different swings and it doesn’t work the same, at least for me. Two different mindsets. But, I’m trying to get that feeling every day, where it’s not how many balls you hit, it’s how mentally prepared you were on those swings and the focus on those swings.”

The future is inarguably a bright one for Soto, if still a bit uncertain as to where it may all unfold. But eventually, it will lead him back to professional ballparks, and he’s grateful to have had that first taste while with the Future Stars Series.

“It meant a lot,” he said. “It’s not easy to come off the Island and play in the States. Playing on a big stage like the Underclass Elite in Boston with the national coverage and all that kind of stuff, it was great. It was a taste of our goal and what we want to be as professional baseball players. The field, the treatment you guys gave to us, the clubhouse, the gear, it was great.

Mike Ashmore
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