All-star robberies happen every MLB season. Even with at least 34 players making the All-Star game, and players dropping out with others taking their place, plenty of deserving players have been left out over the years. The New York Mets have seen many of their players snubbed from the midseason classic on multiple occasions. But over the last twenty years, these three standout as potentially the biggest All-Star robberies the franchise has seen.
1) 2024 Francisco Lindor
2024 was one of the best seasons of Francisco Lindor’s career. It was also one of the closest times the Mets got to winning an MVP, finishing 2nd in voting. The last time a Met had a player finish top three in NL MVP voting was Mike Piazza in 2000. Lindor set career-bests in multiple stats, including wRC+ at 138, and tied a career-high in fWAR.
While Lindor took off in the second half, he definitely hit well enough in the first half to get an All-Star nod. He was slashing .253/.329/.454 with 17 home runs in his first 431 plate appearances of the year. Lindor also swiped 18 bases, had an 8.4% walk rate, and a K% of 16.9%. Overall, he went into the break with a .340 wOBA and 122 wRC+.
Lindor was tied with Elly De La Cruz for home runs at shortstop this season. Mookie Betts, C.J. Abrams, De La Cruz, and Lindor were the only players at the same position with a wRC+ of at least 120. All but Lindor made the All-Star game. But Lindor had +4.0 fWAR. Only De La Cruz was more valuable in this metric. Lindor wasn’t just one of the most valuable shortstops in the league at this point of the season, but the third most valuable, with De La Cruz and Shohei Ohtani racking up more fWAR heading into the break.
In some updates, Lindor didn’t even rank in the top five among shortstops in All-Star voting. In one update, Orlando Arcia, who had a negative fWAR and had the lowest wRC+ across all of MLB when the break hit, ranked ahead of Lindor in votes. If one of the worst players in baseball at the time is outpacing Lindor in votes, then you know he got snubbed.