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Jorge Castillo, ESPN Staff WriterSep 3, 2024, 07:53 PM ET
- ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2018 for The Washington Post before covering the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB for the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2024.
NEW YORK — Francisco Lindor‘s propensity for the big moment, an unquantifiable yet undeniable plus for his 2024 NL MVP candidacy, surfaced twice in the Mets’ 7-2 over the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday.
First, there was the towering two-run home run in the third inning to open the scoring, which stood as the Mets’ only hit until the seventh inning. Later, with runners at first and second, there was the line drive over the left fielder’s head for a run-scoring double to ignite a four-run game-busting eighth inning.
“I want those moments,” Lindor said.
Each time Lindor was showered with MVP chants from the home crowd at Citi Field. Each time there was a sense of inevitability in the Mets’ dugout that he would come through.
“I think every time he’s at the plate,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said, “we feel good about our chances.”
Lindor’s home run off Red Sox right-hander Kutter Crawford on Tuesday gave him his fifth career 30 home run season, tying him for second all time with Ernie Banks for 30 home run seasons by a primary shortstop, according to ESPN Sports & Information research. Only Alex Rodríguez (seven) had more.
He also stole his 26th base Tuesday, leaving him four shy of his second straight 30/30 season. He is one of three players with multiple seasons of 30 home runs and 25 steals, joining Howard Johnson and Darryl Strawberry.
Lindor’s exploits Tuesday powered the Mets’ sixth straight win to remain a half-game behind the Atlanta Braves for the final NL wild-card spot. They are 11 games over .500 for the first time this season — a day after going 10 games over for the first time this season.
It’s a position that seemed unimaginable when Jorge Lopez threw his glove into the crowd as the team fell to 11 games under .500 before calling a players-only meeting on May 29.
Since then, the Mets are 53-31, good for the best record in baseball. It has been a remarkable turnaround filled with great vibes, an improved starting rotation and a deep lineup led Lindor, who has discarded a poor start to the season to become Shohei Ohtani‘s chief competition for NL MVP.
“It’s been an unbelievable season to watch,” Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said before the game. “We’re getting to the point, I think, where we’re talking about perhaps the greatest individual position player season in the history of this franchise. I’ve been around some really special seasons. Been around some MVP seasons. This is right up there with anything I’ve seen on a day-to-day basis.”
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Still, Ohtani remains the overwhelming favorite to win MVP as he is having an historic offensive campaign in his first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He leads the NL in home runs, slugging, OPS, OPS+, runs scored and total bases. He was already the first player in MLB history with 44 home runs and 46 stolen bases in a season entering Tuesday. At this point, it’s a matter of when, not if, he becomes the first player to ever post a 50/50 season.
This would be Ohtani’s third MVP, after winning the award in the AL twice with the Angels.
But Ohtani, rehabbing from elbow surgery, has been the Dodgers’ designated hitter all season and won’t pitch again until 2025. And therein lies the top argument in the case for the 30-year-old Lindor: He plays defense — at an elite level at a premium position, at that — and Ohtani hasn’t played it all.
Lindor’s contributions on both sides is why he holds the NL lead in fWAR over Ohtani (7.0 to 6.6 entering Tuesday). He is batting .273 with 30 home runs and an .843 OPS this season while playing all 139 of the Mets’ games at shortstop.
“I appreciate the love the fans are giving me and I just got to continue to put up a good show for them so they keep on getting louder and louder,” Lindor said after Tuesday’s 2-for-4 performance that sparked more MVP chants.
Lindor’s numbers are despite a horrendous start to the season that left him off the NL All-Star team. The results flipped when he was moved to the leadoff spot on May 18. Since then, he’s batting .307 with 23 home runs, 20 steals and a .937 OPS in 95 games.
Defensive metrics are far from exact, but Lindor’s 17 outs above average were second among major league shortstops behind Kansas City Royals star Bobby Witt Jr. Then there are his intangibles as a veteran universally regarded as a top-notch leader.
“I think that’s part of the entire package that he brings,” Stearns said. “And it’s easy to quantify what he does on the field and that’s really impressive. It’s much harder to quantify the impact he has both by what he says and also by how he acts. He works so hard. He takes so much pride in not only in his preparation, but also ensuring that his teammates prepare appropriately. And it’s the entire package that I think allows him to contribute so much to the organization.”
In the other dugout, Red Sox manager Alex Cora beamed talking about Lindor before Tuesday’s game. He recalled meeting Lindor in Puerto Rico as a minor league player when Lindor was a little leaguer. He knows the Lindor family, also from the city of Caguas, well.
Lindor’s reemergence as an MVP candidate in his fourth season in New York invokes pride, according to Cora.
“He’s just an impactful individual,” Cora said. “There’s a vibe about him that not too many guys have at the big-league level. From the walk-up song, [when] this place is going nuts, to his smile to the energy to the commitment to the structure to the discipline. This kid is on point with everything. Just to watch him play, it brings joy to us. We love watching him play.”
So, does he think Lindor is the NL MVP?
“I’m glad that I don’t have to vote,” Cora said. “But both of them [are] game changers. We saw Othani earlier in the season. There’s a lot of good players in the National League.
“Obviously, at the end of the day, playoff stuff is going to come into play. I don’t think that’s necessarily something that voters need to take into consideration because if you have a great season and you’re in the fight all the way to the end, hey, you did something great. But it’ll be interesting. But the kid is doing everything.”
