By ESENDOM
December 4, 2025
Lea en español: Juan Soto: cuando ser el mejor te convierte en blanco—de un selfie negado a fotos falsas con Inteligencia Artificial
Santo Domingo – Signing the most lucrative contract in the history of professional sports—$765 million with the New York Mets—not only guarantees ovations and statues in the collective memory. It also means becoming a permanent target. Juan Soto has learned this in recent days: first by respectfully declining to take a photo in a restaurant in the capital, then when fake images generated with artificial intelligence linked him romantically to Mia Khalifa.
The first episode began in a very ordinary way. Soto was having dinner with his family in Santo Domingo when TV personality Evelina García, ex-wife of Odalis Pérez—a former baseball player who died in the Jet Set Club tragedy in Santo Domingo—approached him asking for a photo for her daughter and a cousin. According to García, the player refused and the encounter ended awkwardly—something she immediately took to social media.
In her videos, García questioned the outfielder’s humility and used a popular Dominican phrase that went viral: “Las palmas son más altas y los puercos comen de ellas” (“Palm trees are tall and pigs still eat from them”). She compared him to legends like David Ortiz and Pedro Martínez, presenting them as examples of players who take time to engage with their fans.
The responses came quickly. Thousands of users rushed to defend Soto on X and Instagram: “Let him eat in peace,” “being a public figure doesn’t force him to always take pictures,” repeated messages from the Dominican Republic and abroad. Sports journalist Laura Bonnelly weighed in: she confirmed she was at the same restaurant, that Soto was sharing a family moment, and she reminded people that the outfielder almost never refuses photos or interviews… except outside the stadium.
At its core, the clash revealed two visions of fame: one that sees fans as “owners” of fragments of an idol’s life, and another that defends that—even with a $765 million contract—someone still has the right to dine in peace.
While that debate was burning, another fire ignited. Images began circulating showing Soto walking hand-in-hand with former adult film actress Mia Khalifa in what looked like a luxury hotel, along with another photo where they were dining across from the Eiffel Tower. For many, the “confirmation” of a romance. However, verification tools and AI models showed they were fakes: the original photos were of Mark Wahlberg and his wife Rhea Durham while on vacation in 2018, repurposed to fabricate a false story around the Dominican player.
This is where the other protagonist of this era enters: artificial intelligence (AI). The same technology that helps teams analyze pitches or prevent injuries can also fabricate romantic relationships, destroy reputations, or fuel global gossip in minutes. In Soto’s case, a few clicks were enough for half the world to believe in a private life that does not exist.
For the Dominican community—inside and outside the country—these stories leave several lessons. First, our sports heroes are not customer service agents available 24/7. They have the right to say “no,” especially when they are with family. A historic contract does not include the obligation to partake in every photo request.
Second, not everything that appears on screen is real. The “perfect” photos, the supposed romances, the apparently irrefutable proof may all be the product of an algorithm. Sharing without verifying is no longer just carelessness: it is participating in disinformation.
And third, pride in a Dominican athlete breaking records in New York must be accompanied by a more responsible digital culture. Juan Soto will continue to be a target for cameras, gossip and fabricated images, reminiscent of what happened to Alex Rodríguez years earlier; that is how fame works in the age of AI. But if there is something we can learn from these episodes, it is that supporting our own also means respecting their boundaries and demanding, as a society, better use of the technology that drives social media today… and can crush a person just as easily as it entertains us.
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