Who is 2014 Mets MVP? Not Easy Question to Answer
With the season winding down, now might be a good time to name the Mets MVP for 2014. There are several candidates and really, no clear-cut winner.
Jacob deGrom is obviously in the conversation. He has had a great rookie year, pitching to a sub-3.00 ERA and averaging a strikeout per inning. But his won-loss record is not overwhelming, currently at 8-6. Now, some of the losses and no-decisions were not his fault and he definitely pitched better than his record. Still though, can a guy with so few wins be the team’s MVP?
On the other hand, Bartolo Colon leads the Mets in wins, be he certainly ain’t no MVP, so maybe wins do not matter at all.
What about Lucas Duda, who finally decided it was time to hit home runs and drive in some runs — 27/83 as of this writing, by far tops on the team? But he’s batting .252, far too low to attach MVP to his season.
So then there’s Daniel Murphy. He was the Mets lone All-Star and will probably finish the year near .300 and in the top 10 in hits. He could have led the league in hits had he not recently missed a couple of weeks. But his fielding has somehow gotten worse, and that hurts his MVP candidacy.
No, I think you have to go with Juan Lagares. He has quickly emerged as one of the best defensive center fielders, if not the best, in all of baseball. And his bat has been a surprise. Remember early in the season he was the only reliable bat in the lineup? A stay on the disabled list did not slow him down and he will likely hit around .280 for the season. That is second best on the club. Now he’s even stealing bases.
So I say the 2014 Mets MVP is Juan Lagares… Or maybe Jacob deGrom. I can go either way.
i agree with the conclusion, i’d stick with lagares but wouldn’t argue with degrom. however a couple complaints:
1. i know how much you value wins in the normal cy young conversation, but i wouldn’t think it matters for mets mvp considering they’re under .500, and not winning a lot. not to mention, degrom only pitched 4 months, which would put him on pace for about 12-13 wins over a full season. And he definitely got better along the way so maybe more.
2. on hitting in general, i’ve learned from fantasy baseball that hitting .280 today is like hitting .300 ten years ago. hitting is down so much across the league other than a select few guys that murph’s .300 season is even better than it looks (and same for lagares). As for duda, i think that means you take the 27 homers a little more seriously, although duda definitely has to continue to improve next year (especially vs lefties).
Lagares’s defense is too good to ignore though, and 2nd best hitter on the team is great for his first full season