Congratulations to Francisco Lindor, who won his second consecutive Silver Slugger award at shortstop!
Lindor was very deserving of the award, as he had a fantastic season, both offensively and defensively. Unfortunately this was the only award taken home by the Mets this year, and last year was just as lean.
Lindor was in the conversation for MVP, but finished second to Shohei Ohtani as most of us expected. Ohtani re-wrote the record books this year so despite “only” being a DH he was favored to win it. I don’t think Francisco was slighted as he was a strong finisher in second place with 23 votes. However, I do think he was slighted by not being in the finalists for the Gold Glove this year which was won by a flashy rookie that had too many errors in my book.
Pete Alonso was a finalist for a Silver Slugger at first base, but finished behind Bryce Harper in the voting. Luis Severino was a Gold Glove finalist as a pitcher, but also fell short in the final tally.
First year manager Carlos Mendoza finished third in Manager of the Year voting behind Pat Murphy of the Brewers and Mike Shildt of the Padres.
You can see the theme developing for this past year – “Close, but no cigar”. As a team the Mets came in third in the NL East, won a wild card and NLDS series, but had no pennant to hang for 2024. As individuals, the Mets players showed well, but other than Lindor’s SS Trophy they have no other hardware to display. [Unless Jose Iglesias wins a grammy]
One could say that the individual awards don’t really matter, that the team plays for the World Series Championship, and that would not be wrong. But sometimes it takes some individual excellence as well as a well-integrated, high performing team to win a championship. In the 64 years since 1960, more than half (33 years) of the MVPs came from either the World Series winning or losing team.
Where will that excellence come from next year? Will Lindor top his 2024 effort? Will Pete Alonso come back and have the year that he should have put up in 2024? Or will the Mets acquire a Soto, a Fried, a Burnes, or someone else that will demonstrate the on-field brilliance that carries the team to the next level?
It is actually quite difficult to look through a roster of “very good” players and pick out the one that will step up with an MVP-type season. Other than Francisco, Pete, and maybe Kodai Senga there does not appear to be someone wearing orange and blue today that would get favorable odds to win an award next year.
This might be worthy of consideration by the front office when they are deliberating whether to pay above market value for the few players out there that possess MVP-caliber skills.
6 comments:
Soto Mets 2025 MVP? Only if they sign him.
It is EMBARRASSING that the Mets in 63 years have never had an MVP. Most seasons, they have been nowhere in the conversation due to lack of an electric hitter. Lindor was great, and had Shohei signed with an AL team, he would have won it. Not easy to win it.
There is so much talent in MLB that it takes something very exceptional to with a World Series. Often that is a player performing far above their peers in an MVP season. Rarely a team like the OMG Mets will outperform their capabilities and make a run. When building the team, "often" beats "rarely" every time.
True. It would be an interesting analysis, though, to see for the 120 NL and AL MVPs since the Mets came into the MLB, how many of those MVPs were on teams that won the World Series. The answer in 2024 in "one".
Tom, I did that analysis. The answer is 33 world series
teams since 1960 have had an MVP on their roster.
31 did not
That is a lot, but it does not count teams that made it to the WS and lost with that year's MVP, like Aaron Judge this year for the Shawshankees.
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