4 former Mets players making a case to be an All-Star in 2024

Who’ll represent the New York Mets at this year’s All-Star Game? Some lonely soul will be out there wearing the orange and blue at the midsummer classic. He might be standing alongside or at least competing against far more former Mets than current ones.

Not many former Mets are having a huge season. However, these four have made a strong case to be All-Stars in 2024.

1) Seth Lugo

A former Mets player everyone is still rooting for, Seth Lugo has reached a whole new level of excellence this season. And to think past regimes didn’t think he could start. Through the first two months of the MLB season he is an innings-eating, game-winning machine.

Despite getting beaten up by the Cleveland Guardians on Tuesday, Lugo continues to lead the league with 9 wins and is tops with 84.1 innings. How ironic. A pitcher the Mets refused to put back in the rotation is now throwing more innings than anyone else. There definitely seems to be some sort of chip on his shoulder.

The ERA went up to 2.13 following his most recent outing. While still good and not about to erase him from All-Star contention, an ERA in the 1.00s was a good builder on a potential Cy Young case. Lugo doesn’t strike out a whole lot of batters so he’ll have to lean heavily into wins, innings pitched, and maybe even becoming a big reason why the Royals win the American League Central to overtake the competition.

A selection for Lugo as an All-Star would be the first of his career.

2) Marcus Stroman

Much less a fan-favorite than Lugo, Marcus Stroman is still bound for the All-Star Game—unless he bows out which seems like something he’d do. Stroman was a very good Mets pitcher with a complicated relationship with the fans. His return home to New York, now as a member of the Yankees, has gone very well. In the absence of Gerrit Cole, Stroman has stepped up and been one of the team’s best pitchers although they have quite a few to choose from.

Stroman has managed to dodge controversy in the Bronx. Outside of his reluctance to pitch on Opening Day for the Yankees, things have gone swimmingly for the righty in his tenth MLB season.

Through 12 starts, Stroman is 5-2 with a 2.73 ERA. His walks are up to 3.8 per 9 with his strikeouts down to 7.1 per 9. Soft contact and a 19.2% of line drives against him is what has made Stroman so successful in a hitter’s ballpark. 

Of note, Stroman was selected to last year’s All-Star team but chose not to attend. Instead, he favored the extra rest. With quite a few other Yankees players to choose from, could this former Mets pitcher get overlooked because of the expected “hard pass” from him yet again?

3) Trevor Williams

Maybe the most surprising player on this list, Trevor Williams has catapulted his way up from whatever he used to be and into a legitimate All-Star candidate. Playing for the Washington Nationals in his second year since leaving the Mets, the one-time swingman is having the best year of his career. We almost got to see him pitch against the Mets on Tuesday, but a late scratch and a trip to the IL ended that.

As long as Williams is able to come back before the All-Star break, he should have a chance to build on his 2024 numbers. At 5-0 with a 2.22 ERA, Williams is off to a terrific start. He has allowed just 2 home runs which is astonishing after leading the league with 34 of them in 2023.

It’s a delightful turnaround for one of the more popular yet unexpected Mets in recent memory. Although he can’t remove himself from the infamous 2021 trade deadline deal made by the Mets with the Chicago Cubs which cost them Pete Crow-Armstrong, that’s a deal far more associated with Javier Baez anyway.

As it turns out, Williams isn’t the only one in the National League East who once pitched for the Mets who looks bound for the All-Star Game. You can probably guess the other.