Francisco Lindor wins Silver Slugger, helps recruit Juan Soto

The Mets shortstop wins his second consecutive Silver Slugger award and is now helping the team recruit free agent superstar Juan Soto. Plus, the latest hot stove rumors.

Rich MacLeod

Nov 13, 2024

What’s Up with the Mets? 🍎

SS Francisco Lindor has taken a role in the club’s pursuit of free agent superstar Juan Soto (Passan)
The Mets, one of the favorites to land Soto, will meet with the free agent and agent Scott Boras in California later this week
Lindor was officially named a Silver Slugger award winner for the second consecutive year at the shortstop position

Rumor Mill 💨

The Blue Jays will be the first team to meet with free agent Juan Soto this week, followed by the Red Sox, Mets and Yankees (Passan)
Boston is believed to be a “new” suitor for Soto, and reportedly has him at the top of their list this winter
The Dbacks “want to move” LHP Jordan Montgomery and are willing to eat a portion of his $22.5 million salary to do so (Passan)
Red Sox RHP Nick Pivetta is unlikely to accept the qualifying offer and is seeking “at least” a three-year contract (Passan)

Can the Mets MVP candidate help recruit another? ✍️

Earlier this week, Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor received significant recognition for his exceptional performance. On Monday, he was named a finalist for the National League MVP before officially winning a Silver Slugger award for the second consecutive season last night. However, amidst these personal accolades, there’s another noteworthy development that has emerged.

In addition to a week of award wins and nominations for Lindor, the franchise shortstop has also entered to ring to help the club recruit free agent Juan Soto, according to reports from ESPN’s Jeff Passan.

This certainly came as welcome news for the club, though it does not feel particularly surprising. If people didn’t think this way about him already – and if that was the case, shame on them – Lindor announced himself to the rest of the baseball world this past season that he is a bonafide superstar player capable of putting his team on his back.

After a slow start Lindor carried the Mets through the course of the 2024 season, hitting .273/.344/.500 with 33 home runs, 39 doubles, 91 RBI, 107 runs scored, 29 stolen bases, an .844 OPS, 138 OPS+ and a 7.8 fWAR (the 2nd highest in the National League and 6th highest in MLB). He was buy and large the biggest reason why this club not only made it to the postseason this year, but defeated the Brewers and Phillies on their way to an unlikely NLCS appearance.

In addition to his remarkable play on the field, Lindor’s leadership was also on full display throughout the year as his closed door meeting at the end of May was a line of demarcation for this club who wound up racking up the best record in all of baseball from June 1st through the remainder of the regular season. You could see that drive and leadership from him in every at-bat, every postgame interview and every on-field celebration late in the year – he was the spiritual and emotional leader of this club, and he set the tone for what this season was going to be.

Having that type of player being involved in a free agency recruitment isn’t nothing, and is likely something that Soto will have to factor into his decision whenever he chooses to make it.

Of course, the Lindor of it all is not going to make or break the decision here for Soto. At the end of the day, this is going to come down to what team can offer him the most years and money, in addition to an opportunity to win baseball games. The Mets will not be alone in offering those things and they can look no further to the Yankees, who Soto played for this year, as an example of that. The Yankees have the money (assuming Hal Steinbrenner doesn’t get scared off), the winning culture (they’re coming off their first pennant in 15 years) and a superstar of their own in (hello, Aaron Judge) to help with their recruitment process.

It’s going to be an all-out brawl between the Mets and Yankees (and whoever else attempts to throw their hat in the ring) to land Soto this winter and ultimately one superstar player vs the other in a recruitment process is not going to be the deciding factor.

But at the end of the day, these free agency sweepstakes are all about wooing a player and giving them a good showing to sell you and your franchise to them. That’s clearly what the Mets are doing here with Lindor, and that will show itself in their initial pitch to the superstar free agent when they meet with him later this week.

They’re doing what they’re supposed to do here and while Lindor’s presence won’t be the reason Soto makes his decision, it certainly can’t hurt.

Around the League 🚩

The Angels announced that they officially signed C Travis d’Arnaud to a two-year, $12 million contract
Tropicana Field could have their roof fixed in time for the 2026 season following the damages received from Hurricane Milton last month (Tampa Bay Times)