The New York Mets won for the sixth consecutive game on Tuesday against the Boston Red Sox. They are peaking at the right time, and remain one game behind the Atlanta Braves for the third and last Wild Card spot in the National League.
As it has happened plenty of times this season, star shortstop Francisco Lindor was all over the Mets’ victory. He went 2-for-4 as the leadoff hitter, setting the tone for the offense, scoring twice and driving in three runs.
His two hits went for extra bases: he hit his 37th double and his 30th home run in a season in which he seems poised to challenge Shohei Ohtani for the NL MVP award.
The season he is currently having puts him right up there in the Mets’ modern history and is one of the finest of his career. In fact, few shortstops have done what he is doing in 2024 and in his career as a whole. This piece of data brought to us by SNY Mets says it all:
The Mets are enjoying a brilliant all-around season from Lindor
In the history of the game, only three shortstops have accumulated five or more seasons of 30+ home runs: Alex Rodriguez has seven, Chicago Cubs legend Ernie Banks has five, and now Lindor has joined that club after reaching the mark on Tuesday against Boston.
That club is as exclusive as it gets, and the Mets star is now a proud member of it. He cleared the 30-homer mark in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2023 and 2024.
Historically, shortstop wasn’t viewed as a big source of power hitters (Banks was a notable exception), but that changed in the 1990s and 2000s with Alex Rodriguez, Nomar Garciaparra, and other relevant, talented performers.
Lindor’s main skill isn’t power: it’s doing everything well on a baseball field. He leads, he can hit for average, he has power, he has speed, he fields his position like few others, and he has that big smile that gives away how much he enjoys the game of baseball.
This year, he is hitting a robust .273/.343/.500 with 30 homers, 26 stolen bases, 97 runs scored, and 84 RBIs. In a year and a league without Ohtani, he would be the prime candidate to win his first NL MVP award.
