Francisco Lindor and 2 former Mets players destined to be runner-ups for major awards

Finalists for the major MLB awards are out and we’ll find out soon who needs to clear a spot on the shelf for a new trophy. In what is a mostly dead period of the MLB offseason at the moment, fans can celebrate seeing their players get the acknowledgement they deserve. Unsurprisingly, two members of the New York Mets were finalists.

Francisco Lindor is pretty much guaranteed to finish behind Shohei Ohtani for the National League MVP. A widely discussed topic by Mets fans this season, it has long been accepted that he’ll finish second. Ketel Marte will need to settle for third-place. Less known is where Mets Manager Carlos Mendoza will finish in the Manager of the Year category. Up against Milwaukee Brewers skipper Pat Murphy and Mike Schildt of the San Diego Padres, will the same anti-Mets sentiment that kept Lindor from being a Gold Glove finalist be in play here?

A second-place finish for Mendoza would follow an all-too-familiar theme in these awards. That’s because two former Mets appear to be locks to be the first place loser in their category, too.

Former Mets Zack Wheeler and Seth Lugo are probably going to finish second in their respective Cy Young races

Imagine a team with Zack Wheeler and Seth Lugo on the same pitching staff. We saw this for a brief period of time. Wheeler wasn’t Wheeler. Lugo was pitching mostly in relief. Wheeler is a far more distant memory from the home team clubhouse at Citi Field, having last pitched for the Mets in 2019. Lugo is a bit fresher. He didn’t leave until after the 2022 season.

In many other years, these two could have had a chance to win the Cy Young. The existence of Chris Sale and Tarik Skubal puts an end there. Both pitchers won their respective league’s Triple Crown with the most wins, lowest ERA, and highest strikeout total. Joining them in the fight for Cy Young supremacy are Emmanuel Clase in the AL and Paul Skenes in the NL. Perhaps one of them does sneak into second place. Clase as a closer and not a starter might hurt his case. Skenes didn’t pitch nearly as much as Wheeler did.

There was a lot of finishing second for the Mets this year. Only the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL made it further. They were the NL runner-ups.

Thus far, only Gold Gloves have been handed out with the Mets getting shut out yet again. Lugo did pick up one as did Andres Gimenez, one of the youngsters traded for Lindor. Silver Sluggers should be a little different. Along with Lindor, Pete Alonso is a finalist. Alonso is unlikely to win over Freddie Freeman or Bryce Harper. Lindor better get his over Willy Adames and Elly De La Cruz. If not, they need to make a Netflix documentary about this conspiracy against the Mets.