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MILWAUKEE — Two weeks ago there was still a drumbeat, and perhaps a legitimate one, for Francisco Lindor to win the National League’s Most Valuable Player award.
In the days that have since passed, Shohei Ohtani completed what appeared inevitable, becoming the first player in major league history to reach 50 homers and 50 stolen bases in the same season.
Lindor, meanwhile, stopped playing. Literally.
There isn’t any doubt who will claim the MVP, but Lindor’s lower back has at least returned to the point he was ready to test it Wednesday, as the Mets shortstop and leadoff hitter. But the rain never stopped in Atlanta, and the Mets skipped town ahead of Hurricane Helene.
Here in America’s dairyland, they were smart enough to build a ballpark with a retractable roof, so weather — and the forecast is fine anyway — won’t be a factor this weekend, when the Mets resume their pursuit of a wild-card berth with three games against a team with nothing to gain.
The Brewers are locked into the NL’s No. 3 seed, meaning it’s already known they will be playing in the wild-card round beginning Tuesday. For the Brewers, this weekend is about getting the pitching staff in order and ensuring players are receiving the right combination of work and rest.
But the Mets, under manager Carlos Mendoza, are smart enough to realize these games won’t be layups. And the return of their best player can only help.
Lindor can’t win the MVP, but maybe he can carry the Mets into the playoffs just by showing up and resuming as the player who has meant so much to this lineup. Win three games — or maybe only two — against the Brewers, and there’s a chance the Mets won’t need a return to Atlanta on Monday to play a makeup doubleheader.
Lindor’s season has been one of the best in Mets history, but legacies are built on performances in big games. These next three or four or five — whatever the Mets end up playing — certainly fall into that category, and then comes the postseason.
Over the past two seasons for sure, Lindor has erased any questions about the mammoth contract he received. As much as any person who wears a baseball uniform for a living, Lindor is worth the $341 million. If he’s not the game’s best shortstop, he is there in the conversation.
But where is the Lindor moment that should be splashed on the giant screen at Citi Field with Gary Cohen’s enthusiastic voice as the soundtrack? Don’t think too hard, because it hasn’t occurred yet.
The Mets won 101 games two years ago, but to many Mets fans that season is recalled more for getting swept three games in Atlanta to lose the NL East crown before falling to the Padres in the NL wild-card round. Lindor wasn’t much of a factor in either series.
Last season was a disaster for the Mets, but Lindor kept playing until the end — even with a bone spur in his elbow — and was the team’s best player. But this might as well have been David Wright carrying the Mets during some of the organization’s lean years.
The last time Lindor played a full game, he broke up Bowden Francis’ no-hitter with a homer leading off the ninth inning in Toronto. The Mets rallied to win the game and have been on a terrific roll since, even with Lindor as a spectator.
But you can’t help but wonder how much better it might have been with Lindor on the field — especially in Philadelphia, where the Mets lost the series with Lindor sidelined for most of the final two games. There was a flat performance by the Mets in the one game they managed to play in Atlanta this week. That game ended with Lindor in the on-deck circle waiting to pinch hit in the ninth inning.
Only Lindor really knows how much his lower back has improved and if he’s capable of again becoming the MVP candidate he was until about two weeks ago.
If the Mets are lucky, Lindor is healed enough to make this weekend in Milwaukee — and whatever might follow — his signature games with the team.
