A lot has changed for the Mets, who now take their show on the road for the first time in a young season. Everybody knows about the guys like Pete Alonso and Edwin Díaz and Brandon Nimmo who left, and new guys like Bo Bichette and Freddy Peralta and Luis Robert Jr. -- and even a hot prospect like Carson Benge -- who said hello this week after so many goodbyes during the winter.
But one thing has not changed from last year to this, and that is the top of the Carlos Mendoza’s batting order, which means Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto -- still the team’s stars -- batting 1 and 2, and as dynamic a 1-2 punch as the Mets have ever had. In a year when the Mets want to make themselves a team to watch, it starts with two players you want to watch as much as ever.
Even in Sunday’s 4-3 loss to the Pirates, it was a Lindor triple followed by a Soto single in the fifth inning that allowed the Mets to even the game at 2-2. And then in the tenth it was Soto who nearly tied the game with a double of his own, but Lindor — who walked a batter earlier — was barely thrown out at the plate on a perfect relay throw. Lindor has a .400 OBP through three games while Soto is hitting .357.
There have been some other combinations to watch across Mets history. There was that time, in the first decade of this century, when the Mets didn’t just have David Wright and José Reyes when they were young, but also had Carlos Beltrán, who had at least one season at the plate -- 2006 -- when he had 41 home runs and 117 RBIs, similar to what Soto did for the Mets last year.
And further back, remember even though Dwight Gooden was a pitcher and not a position player, they had Doc and Darryl Strawberry when they were young. They had Gary Carter, who’s in the Hall of Fame, and Keith Hernandez, who should be, together on that same 1986 team, the most recent Mets team to win the World Series.
There have been other talented combinations, but I believe Lindor is as gifted an all-around player -- as a switch-hitting shortstop -- as the Mets have ever had. And as good as Beltran was in his time at old Shea Stadium, I believe that Soto, as complete a hitter as there is in the game and still just 27, will eventually distance himself from the field and become far and away the greatest hitter the Mets have ever had.
Soto came to the Yankees and he and Aaron Judge were an amazing 1-2 punch, evoking memories of Ruth and Gehrig. Then he came over to play with Lindor, as much the captain of the Mets -- even without that title -- as Judge is with the Yankees.
Lindor last season hit more than 30 homers (31) for the sixth time in his career, had 86 RBIs and scored 117 runs. He played in 160 games. So, too, did Soto, who hit 43 homers and knocked in 106 runs. The two of them combined along the way to steal 69 bases, 38 of those coming from Soto.
There was talk of friction between the two men reported when the season was over, addressing a season that was even a more massive period of adjustment for Soto, going from one New York team and stage to another, than there had been for Lindor when he first came over from Cleveland and signed his own long-term contract with the Mets. Both men addressed the subject a month ago in Spring Training.
“We’ve always pulled for each other,” Lindor said. “We’ve always wanted what’s best for each other. Are we all best friends? That’s not how it works in the clubhouse. But we are friends. We’re good teammates. We care for each other. We love each other, and we want the best for each other."
“I think it’s a great relationship," Soto said. "We talk all the time in the game and everything, and we help each other.”
Now, it is Season 2 for them at Citi Field. In the Mets' opener against the Pirates on Thursday afternoon, Soto went 2-for-4 and knocked in a run, and Lindor -- batting ahead of him as he might for all 162 considering the durability of both men -- scored three runs and the Mets won. Soto added two more RBIs and Lindor scored a run in New York's 4-3, 10-inning finale loss to Pittsburgh on Sunday.
They are, in vastly different ways, something to see on a daily basis. Lindor, of course, is more outgoing, always has been. He's been the smiling face and voice of the team even with someone as talented as Soto behind him in the batting order and in the outfield (now that he has moved over from right field to left).
Soto is the same quiet man in Queens that he was in the Bronx, and with the Nationals and Padres before that. But when he steps into the batter’s box and begins working the count the way he does before spraying balls that don’t go over the wall all over the park, there is no tougher at-bat in baseball.
And maybe no tougher guy. He came to the Yankees, took on the pressure there, delivered the way he did playing with Judge. Then he signed his $765 million contract and put even more pressure on himself and proceeded to produce pretty much the same numbers he had in the Bronx.
Now, Soto’s in Queens, hitting behind Lindor. Mets fans will once again watch both of them go, knowing their team is going nowhere without them. Again: There have been other combinations for the Mets, some you might think were better. I don’t think there’s ever been one better -- or more fun to watch -- than these two guys.