WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg were throwing off the mound Sunday morning when a star player of another type walked into the bullpen.

What was Juan Soto doing in there?

With a helmet on and bat in hand, the left fielder asked if he could stand at the plate while Strasburg went to work. Soto wanted to get a live look at some of baseball’s best pitching as a way to help himself stay in his strike zone. Strasburg agreed. 

“That’s how I train my eyes,” Soto said. “I try to take bullpens.”

Soto stepped in not to swing, but rather to watch and learn, creating an image of two of the game’s dominant performers facing each other. This spring, Soto has stepped up to the plate against Strasburg and Aníbal Sánchez (twice), and he watched Scherzer throw a side.

“He never gets to face our pitching,” manager Dave Martinez said. “So he likes standing up there to see what they’ve got. He’s always working on something.”

The 21-year-old picked up this routine when he was playing in the Minor Leagues. He doesn’t plan it in advance -- schedules can be hard to coordinate during workouts -- so when he sees certain pitchers already throwing, he simply asks at that moment.

“Some guys like those guys [the Nationals pitchers], they throw some pitches that look like strikes and then go to the outside of the zone,” Soto said. “That helps me a little bit and knowing sometimes some pitchers, they do that too.”

Often times, Soto will have a goal in mind. On Sunday, it was watching Strasburg’s curveball, the reigning World Series Most Valuable Player Award winner’s most-utilized pitch. Soto hit .288 with five home runs and 17 hits off that delivery in 2019. Once he feels comfortable observing it enough times, Soto leaves the box.

“He’s got a really nasty curveball,” Soto said of Strasburg. “I wanted to see it a couple times and see the change in it.”

The pregame exercise, which lasted a couple of minutes, is another example of the steps Soto is taking to continue improving in his young, promising career. Last season, he slashed .282/.401/.548 and tied Anthony Rendon for a team-high 34 home runs. He broke out in the playoffs with five home runs, 14 RBIs and a .927 OPS.

Soto entered Sunday's 7-5 loss to the Tigers hitting .417/.650/.917 with five RBIs, one homer and two stolen bases in seven games. With this fast-rising success, Soto can expect to be approached differently by opponents in his third Major League season. 

The time he puts in during Spring Training is a building block to become even more effective. 

“The more I try to track those pitchers -- Strasburg, Scherzer, Aníbal, all those guys -- they know what they’re doing, and they have nasty pitches,” Soto said. “That’s why I like standing out there.”