Juan Soto Could Break Mets’ 63-Year MVP Drought In 2025
Image credit: Juan Soto (Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty)
Quick! Name the last Mets player to win National League MVP.
Trick question.
The Mets have never had an MVP in 63 seasons of play.
A handful of players have gotten close, including shortstop Francisco Lindor and his second-place finish last year, but none has actually won the award.
While one other team has a longer MVP drought—more on that team later—the Mets hold the distinction of being the oldest franchise to never have an MVP.
Only 1998 expansion teams in Arizona and Tampa Bay can also say they have never had an MVP. The Mets began play in 1962 and predate the Diamondbacks and Rays by 36 years.
The run of MVP-less baseball in Queens may come to an end soon.
With 31-year-old Lindor in his prime and $765 million man Juan Soto in tow, the Mets have decidedly better odds to end the franchise’s MVP drought.
Soto is coming off a third-place finish in American League MVP voting with the Yankees last year. He finished sixth in NL MVP voting for the Padres in 2023. He finished runner-up for the 2021 award while with the Nationals.
The point is: Soto is 26 years old, supremely talented, durable and a demonstrated favorite of voters. One of these days, he’s bound to actually win the MVP award.
He certainly has the credentials, including four straight all-star seasons, five straight Silver Sluggers and some historic age-related accomplishments.
No player in history has drawn more walks through his age-25 season than Soto. His 769 walks are 99 more than Mickey Mantle had at the same age.
Soto’s 201 home runs are the seventh-most in history through age 25. One caveat: He lost 20 to 25 home runs in 2020 when the season was shortened to 60 games by the pandemic. The leader in this category is Alex Rodriguez with 241 homers through his age-25 season.
Home Sweet Home?
It’s impossible to discuss the Mets players’ history in MVP voting without discussing their home park. Citi Field is a notorious pitcher’s park, as was Shea Stadium before it.
As a result, most players dislike hitting at Citi Field. The ball doesn’t carry well, and expected outcomes on balls in play are among the worst in MLB. Soto seems to be an exception.
In 35 career games at Cit Field, Soto has hit .333/.466/.709 with 12 home runs. Among parks at which he has batted at least 100 times, his 1.175 OPS at Citi stands as the highest.
It’s a small sample, to be sure, but if there is any signal in Soto’s Citi Field numbers, it could point to some attribute of the park that suits his batting style.
It could be as simple as a clean batting eye at Citi Field, which enables Soto to see the ball well, thus leading to a higher rate of advantage counts to inflict damage. After all, Citi has the highest three-year park factor for walk rate, according to MLB Statcast park factors data.
What a ballpark takes from hitters, it gives to pitchers. Through the years, Mets hurlers have certainly taken advantage of their home environs. Tom Seaver won NL Cy Young Awards in 1969, 1973 and 1975. Dwight Gooden won in 1985, followed by R.A. Dickey in 2012 and Jacob deGrom in 2018 and 2019.
Close But No Cigar
Lindor turned in one of the finest seasons by a position player in Mets franchise history in 2024. It was valued at about 7 WAR by advanced metrics, but because of Shohei Ohtani’s historic 50-50 season, it was worth zero first-place votes from MVP voters.
The Mets have three previous MVP runners-up prior to Lindor:
1988: Right fielder Darryl Strawberry led the NL with 39 home runs, a .545 slugging percentage and a .911 OPS. The Dodgers’ Kirk Gibson won the award instead.
1984: First baseman Keith Hernandez finished a distant second in one of his finest offensive seasons. He hit .311/.409/.449 with 15 homers and Gold Glove defense, spurring the Mets to their first winning season in nearly a decade. The voters justifiably chose Cubs second baseman Ryne Sandberg as MVP.
1969: Righthander Tom Seaver nearly bested Willie McCovey, though this race probably shouldn’t have been close. Seaver went 25-7 with a 2.21 ERA and 208 strikeouts in 273.1 innings in his first of three Cy Young seasons. But this was a low-scoring era, and McCovey led the NL with 45 homers and 126 RBIs while playing half his games in Candlestick Park. That degree of difficulty alone should have made “Stretch” the unanimous winner.
Most MVP-Less Seasons
As mentioned earlier, the Mets have an MVP drought that encompasses their entire franchise history of 63 seasons—but they don’t have the longest active MVP drought.
That belongs to the Guardians.
Their last MVP was third baseman Al Rosen in 1953.
That means that there have been 71 MVP-less seasons in Cleveland since a 29-year-old Rosen hit .336 with an AL-leading 43 homers, 145 RBIs and 1.034 OPS for a strong Indians team.
Here is the tally of active MVP-less seasons for all 30 franchises. For teams with no MVP winners—Mets, D-backs and Rays—the franchise’s first season is listed under Year.
| team | last MVP | Year | mvp-less seasons |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guardians | Al Rosen, 3B | 1953 | 71 |
| Mets | N/A | 1962 | 63 |
| Royals | George Brett, 3B | 1980 | 44 |
| Orioles | Cal Ripken Jr., SS | 1991 | 33 |
| Padres | Ken Caminiti, 3B | 1996 | 28 |
| Rockies | Larry Walker, OF | 1997 | 27 |
| Diamondbacks | N/A | 1998 | 27 |
| Rays | N/A | 1998 | 27 |
| Mariners | Ichiro Suzuki, OF | 2001 | 23 |
| Athletics | Miguel Tejada, SS | 2002 | 22 |
| Twins | Joe Mauer, C | 2009 | 15 |
| Reds | Joey Votto, 1B | 2010 | 14 |
| Rangers | Josh Hamilton, OF | 2010 | 14 |
| Giants | Buster Posey, C | 2012 | 12 |
| Tigers | Miguel Cabrera, 3B | 2013 | 11 |
| Pirates | Andrew McCutchen, OF | 2013 | 11 |
| Blue Jays | Josh Donaldson, 3B | 2015 | 9 |
| Nationals | Bryce Harper, OF | 2015 | 9 |
| Cubs | Kris Bryant, 3B | 2016 | 8 |
| Astros | Jose Altuve, 2B | 2017 | 7 |
| Marlins | Giancarlo Stanton, OF | 2017 | 7 |
| Red Sox | Mookie Betts, OF | 2018 | 6 |
| Brewers | Christian Yelich, OF | 2018 | 6 |
| White Sox | Jose Abreu, 1B | 2020 | 4 |
| Phillies | Bryce Harper, OF | 2021 | 3 |
| Cardinals | Paul Goldschmidt, 1B | 2022 | 2 |
| Braves | Ronald Acuña Jr., OF | 2023 | 1 |
| Angels | Shohei Ohtani, DH/RHP | 2023 | 1 |
| Dodgers | Shohei Ohtani, DH | 2024 | 0 |
| Yankees | Aaron Judge, OF | 2024 | 0 |
