Mike Francesa thought the New York Mets would be thrilled with Juan Soto’s comments to the New York Post.

But of course, he didn’t account for Michael Kay’s feelings — something the Sports Pope has historically overlooked. The voice of the New York Yankees has already scolded the Bronx faithful for chanting “F*ck Juan Soto,” even though the Mets don’t face the Yankees until May.

Now, he’s turned his ire toward Soto himself.

When asked how pitchers are approaching him without Aaron Judge batting behind him, Soto simply pointed out that he saw different sequences last year and that he’s adjusting accordingly. By acknowledging a verifiable fact, as Jarrett Seidler of Baseball Prospectus noted, Soto became the latest target in a manufactured outrage cycle, one to which Kay has eagerly contributed.

Juan Soto is seeing a pitch in the heart of the zone with a runner on base just 16 percent of the time, per Baseball Savant.

Among players who have seen at least 100 pitches with a runner on base, Soto’s percentage of pitches seen in the heart of the zone ranks as the lowest.

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“You just signed this magnificent contract with the Mets. You have pretty much sealed your fate with them for the next 15 years,” says Kay on his The Michael Kay Show. “You’ll never play for another team, in all likelihood, unless there’s this unbelievably unforeseen divorce, which I don’t foresee happening. You can’t tell Mike Puma of The Post that you’re being pitched differently because you don’t have the greatest hitter in baseball behind you. It was your choice. It was your choice, Juan. You could’ve spent the next seven years of your career with Aaron Judge hitting behind you. You chose to ignore that.

“Now, if I’m a Met fan, not only does it bother me that you seem like you have this wanderlust for a guy that you left, but it’s also kind of a back-handed slap at Pete Alonso. Pete Alonso has been great. He has been great. He’s hitting .345. He has an OPS of 1.146. He’s done everything that you could possibly want. Now, teams are choosing to pitch to him rather than pitch to you. So, your average at this point is .250, you’re getting a lot of walks… and after you said this to Mike Puma of the New York Post, you went out and got a two-run home run yesterday against the Twins. So, you have two home runs and six runs batted in.”

Soto hit his third home run of the season in a 6-3 loss to the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday.

“I am wondering why would you even say this?” asks Kay. “Where is the pressure coming from, Juan? I haven’t heard Met fans rip you. I haven’t heard Met fans run out of patience because you’ve gotten off to a somewhat slow start, but certainly not terrible. Why would you say this? Why would you insult the team you’re on now? Now, something does come into a little more focus for me, because one part of Juan’s quote throughout all this, is he knew the Yankees were going to be good for the next six or seven years. After that, he’s not so sure.”

That’s the remaining length of Judge’s contract. That’s what Kay deduced.

“Why’d you leave? Why? Because of a suite, which you could certainly afford. ” Kay continues. “The Mets made you feel like family? To me, and Juan when he got introduced at spring training as a Yankee, he wore a shirt, ‘The Generation of Juan Soto,’ which was very apropos. He’s a generational player. He can put stats up that will put him up with the greatest players that ever lived. And the best way to do that, is have the modern-day Ruth and Gehrig extend the next seven years. And then you worry about eight years after that. Who knows, Juan? Maybe Jasson Domínguez will become just as great. And in eight years, he’ll be 30 years old, and he’ll be the guy to take the mantle from Judge. Or maybe the guy who will take over for Judge is in high school right now.

“You can’t predict the future. But here’s where it doesn’t make sense to me: when you sign with the Mets, unless you have some inside information, you have no clue that Pete Alonso will be hitting behind you. So you sign with the Mets thinking that you’re going to have Mark Vientos hitting behind you or Brandon Nimmo hitting behind you—none of them approximate Aaron Judge. In fact, in all of baseball, there’s only one guy I think that would provide similar protection to you in a lineup, and that would be [Shohei] Ohtani. Incredibly enough, he provides protection for the No. 9 hitter on the Dodgers because they lead off Ohtani.

“I would not be surprised — I know it’s early in the honeymoon — if Steve Cohen gives Juan Soto a call and goes, ‘Dude, shut up. What are you doing? We made you fabulously wealthy, and you’re pining for your old girlfriend?’ You broke up. It’s not like the Yankees didn’t want you. It’s not like the Yankees made you a bad offer. The Met offer is better, but the Yankee offer certainly wouldn’t have sent you to the poor house. So, now, you’re talking about how you’re not getting pitched the same way because you don’t have the greatest hitter in baseball behind you. Well, duh. You didn’t think that was going to happen? Aaron Judge is phenomenal. You knew. You lived it. You put together your greatest season ever… and now you’re going to sit back and talk about it?”

Kay continued by saying that Soto has nothing to complain about.

His advice to Soto? “Pipe down.”