Reese Kaplan -- Besides Lindor Who Are the Other Mets MVPs?

Being in a time zone 12 hours different than what those of you in the USA’s east coast enjoy as part of the Mets chase for the pennant opportunity, I sometimes find myself using numbers that are just slightly off as I’m routinely a game behind when these pieces are written.  

However, for today at this moment the Mets have reeled off 5 wins in a row and stand just a half game behind the Atlanta Braves for the wild card spot in the playoffs.  It’s not a done deal, of course.  

The San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks are still in that race, too, and jointly ahead of the Mets (as are the Braves for now, anyway). 

What I got to thinking about was not the who’s coming back from injury, who needs to heat up and who needs to reside on the bench for the remainder of the October baseball race.  No, it was quite a bit different.  If the season ended today and you had to name a Mets MVP, who would it be? 

I’m going to go right out and take Francisco Lindor off the ballot.  He’s operating at a level that would have him in mind for the league wide award if it was not for the otherworldly stats being posted by Shohei Ohtani.  It’s an easy and highly expected answer to this Mets question.

Of the others, however, not only is it a question of most valuable but perhaps baked into it is most surprising.  So here we go:

Mark Vientos stands pretty much alone here in that he earns next to nothing, had no expectation even to be playing this season and was on the roster but not regarded as a starter.  All he’s done is lead the team in OPS, SLG and is on his way towards a possible 30-HR/80 RBI season if he has a strong September.  (And those totals don’t even factor into the greatly reduced number of ABs he has received). 

David Peterson was behind Tylor Megill on most folks’ depth charts given his very ordinary looking numbers over his entire Mets career.  Then when Megill started off with a very loud bang in pre-season and Peterson was on the IL still recovering from injury, well, if someone had bet you then he’s have an ERA well under 3.00 ahead of everyone else in the rotation, you’d have taken that easy money bet as there was no way that was going to be happening.  And you would have lost.

Sean Manaea is a great example of the flaws of the Internet age when evaluating ballplayers from the American League.  Just as no one was entirely sure what to make of the Chris Bassit acquisition from Oakland a few years back, again no one was doing carthwheels over Manaea becoming a Met.  Right now he’s the number one starter, has stayed healthy, and is making that modest payroll hit seem like money very well spent indeed.  As September 3rd begins he is holding a record of 11-5 over 27 starts with a 3.35 ERA.  His player option for year end is going to be costly to keep him from bolting from the Mets.

Another starting pitcher who surprised a great many is Luis Severino.  Coming off his 7 innings of one-run ball against the Red Sox, he’s not missed time due to injury which is a major achievement and his thrown to a top three level ERA of 3.84 to go with his 10-6 record over 27 starts.  As a pending free agent the Mets need to decide how much they need him in 2025 and how much he will cost. 

There have been other very solid performers who have not had the good health nor season-long regular playing time to warrant consideration, but Jose Butto, Dedniel Nunez, Jose Iglesias and Luis Torrens have all been great members of this 2024 team.  

Then there are others whose numbers are not quite where you’d expect them to be like Brandon Nimmo, Jeff McNeil, Pete Alonso, Starling Marte and Francisco Alvarez.  Still, somehow manager Carlos Mendoza has worked around these limitations to field a team that likely can’t win it all but could still make it into October.