Francisco Lindor Caps MVP-Caliber Season With Postseason-Clinching Homer

The 2024 season was a whirlwind. Not only for the Mets, but for their star shortstop Francisco Lindor.

Like his team, he struggled mightily at the beginning of the year. Lindor was slashing only .193/.268/.348 with seven homers on May 20, and the Mets were 21-26.

It wasn’t pretty. And there were, retrospectively, silly conversations from the fan base, like should the Mets sell? And should Lindor abandon his left-handed swing?

But Lindor turned it around. The switch hitter and the Mets from June 3 on won 65 games and cemented themselves in the playoffs. And Monday was the signature moment in the MVP-caliber season from the shortstop.

The dramatics started in the eighth as the Mets mounted a rally when down 3-0 to the Braves. After Francisco Alvarez had gotten the Mets on the board with an RBI double and Starling Marte singled, Lindor drove in a second run with a screaming line drive up the middle.

Lindor’s single was the fourth consecutive hit for the Mets in the inning and led to the eventual Brandon Nimmo homer that sprung the Mets ahead of the Braves 6-3.

The second moment was icing on top of Lindor’s amazing season. After Edwin Diaz and the Mets relinquished the lead in the bottom of the eighth, Lindor came up with a man on in the ninth. He smacked a first-pitch Pierce Johnsoncurveball high in the air, and it kept carrying to go over the wall and give the Mets a 8-7 lead.

It was majestic. It was emphatic. And as Lindor rounded the bases, it entered a Rolodex of moments the shortstop has had all season long.

The home run against the Dodgers in May, the go-ahead single off Aroldis Chapman and home run against Chris Sale in July, the dramatic ninth-inning homer in Toronto, the list goes on and on.

The season was spectacular. And if not for a historic season from Shohei Ohtani, Lindor would have taken home the first MVP in team history after slashing .273/.344/.500 with 33 homers, 39 doubles, 29 stolen bases, and 91 RBIs.

At the very least, Lindor was the Mets’ MVP this season. The team essentially lived and died on his shoulders, picking up momentum in June when Lindor went to the leadoff position, where he slashed .303/374/.552 with 26 of his 33 homers.

Lindor’s inauguration as the Mets’ MVP can also be justified by his fWAR. He finished with a 7.6 fWAR, which was second in the NL to Ohtani’s 9.1 and more than double than the Mets second place finisher, Mark Vientos (3.1 fWAR).

Another overlooked aspect of Lindor is his off-the-field presence. It hasn’t been easy since coming over to the Mets, but as time has passed and Lindor has gotten comfortable, he has embraced a leadership role in New York.

It was on full display this season. Earlier in the year, at the Mets’ lowest point of the season, Lindor called a players-only meeting that resulted in players having heart-to-heart about accountability. That meeting specifically is constantly referenced by the media and players as a turning point, which is unquantifiable by statistics.

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“You have to look in the mirror and say ‘Are you doing everything it takes to be in the position of winning baseball?,'” Lindor said on a meeting he called in Philadelphia earlier this season.

“You have guys like Ottavino, J.D. Martinez, Nimmo and you rely on the veteran players that have been around for a long time and you just tell yourself ‘Are we really doing everything it takes to win?’ And if you are you stay the course, and if we’re not, then we have to make sure we get in the right direction.”

Moments like that off the field are just as valuable as the base knocks and diving plays made on the field. They lead to continuity and accountability, two required attributes that the Mets and other winning baseballs carried this season.

And over the course of 162, it led to 89 wins and the 11th postseason birth in franchise history. Of course, the success is spread evenly amongst the 40-man roster and Carlos Mendoza. But a large part is thanks to Lindor.

It all circles back to his go-ahead home run in the ninth. Without his process mentally and physically, those moments don’t happen. He was laser-focused then, and after the game, was able to soak in the celebrations and chance at a championship.

“I have always believed when I was in the moment, I was still in the moment,” Lindor told Steve Gelbs. “I was laser-focused, I was in my own world, and now I’m in the world where there’s champagne everywhere and it feels pretty cool.

You grind 162 plus the month in spring training and now here we are.”

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