WASHINGTON — Almost everywhere Juan Soto goes these days, there are questions about his future.

But when he returned to his past on Monday — to the place where he made his major league debut in 2018, won a World Series in 2019, became one of the best players in the game and ultimately turned down a hefty contract extension offer — Soto was in the midst of perhaps the best season of his career, all in a contract year and at age 25.

While questions persisted Monday as Soto returned to Nationals Park for the third time as a visitor, this time as a Yankee and just months away from the open market, the generational talent stuck to his familiar script.

“At the end of the day, I’m playing for the Yankees,” Soto said in the visiting locker room before the Yankees and Nationals began a series. “I’m happy where I’m at right now. We’ll see what happens in free agency.”

A day after the Yankee Stadium crowd reminded Soto that they wanted him to stay — to which Soto said after the game, “They need to talk to (general manager Brian) Cashman” — the fans at Nationals Park gave him a standing ovation when he came to bat for his first at-bat.

Soto removed his helmet and saluted the crowd, which later softly chanted “Come home, Soto,” even though the crowd was mostly Yankees: 32,812.

Whether the Nationals are a serious contender for Soto’s contracts remains to be seen. They did reportedly offer him a 15-year, $440 million contract extension in 2022, but he turned it down before being traded to the Padres.

They have an emerging young core — including top prospect Dylan Crews, who makes his MLB debut on Monday — and appear to have plenty of cap space to spend if the owners so desire.

Soto is now back in the nation’s capital in the midst of a banner year.

Though somewhat overshadowed by another historic season from Aaron Judge, Soto has reaped the rewards of hitting for the likely AL MVP. He entered Monday batting .299 with a 1.034 OPS and a career-high 37 home runs.

Soto’s fWAR of 7.8 was the highest of any season in his career — his most dominant year came in the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign — and was surpassed only by Judge and Bobby Witt Jr.

“In a lot of ways, he’s probably just scratching the surface of who he’s going to be as a player, and that’s scary considering the success he’s had,” manager Aaron Boone said. “But I think what we’re seeing now is that he’s still a young man and he’s still in the physical prime of his career, but he’s also reaping the benefits of being a veteran player in the league for a while.”

What makes Soto’s season even more impressive is the fact that it comes in his contract year, the pressure of which has taken a toll on some players. But not Soto.

“Again, 25 years old and it’s not even a distraction for him,” Boone said. “You just get the sense that this guy, his priorities are where they need to be. They’re focused on being the best player he can be and he wants to win. He showed us that from jump street in spring training. He really connected with his teammates. For him, it’s about winning baseball games every day. He knows he’s an integral part of that and he has to be an integral part of that. He takes care of the things he has to do every day.”

Soto, who spent a lot of time with his former coaches, staffers and teammates before the game, is beloved here in part for helping the Nationals win the World Series in 2019.

The right fielder was asked about the similarities between that team and the one he plays for now as he chases another title.

“The good energy and the vibes that we have here — I would say it doesn’t compare to what we had at the Nationals in 2019, but it’s definitely close to what we had then,” Soto said. “We all get along really well, we play hard, we come here and that’s what everybody wants at the end of the day. That’s what matters. It doesn’t matter anything else. It’s not about the money or anything. We come here to play baseball and win games.”