Yankees’ Aaron Judge, Mets’ Francisco Lindor Win MLB Awards

The New York Yankees and New York Mets have their sights squarely focused on a postseason race. With more than a month still to play in the regular season, any individual awards are a nice bonus.

In the cases of Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge and Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor, each of whom leads his league in FanGraphs’ version of Wins Above Replacement, the awards they win in 2024 might well be big ones.

For now, the two stars will have to settle for American and National League Player of the Week, respectively. The weekly awards were announced Monday, and it was a New York sweep.

More importantly, the awards for Judge and Lindor could be a harbinger of awards to come.

Judge hit .381 (8-for-21) with seven homers, 11 RBIs, a double, four walks, eight runs scored, a 1.429 slugging percentage, and a .519 on-base percentage in six games last week for the Yankees.

The 32-year-old led the Majors in homers, RBI, slugging, OPS (1.948), extra-base hits (8), and total bases (30); tied for the Major League lead in runs; ranked third in on-base percentage; and ranked eighth in batting average.

For now, Judge leads Kansas City Royals shortstop in fWAR, 9.6 to 9.0. The margin is close enough that the two players could easily swap spots over the course of a week. It’s also within the margin of error for a stat that often predicts who will win his league’s MVP honor.

It helps Judge’s case that he also leads Witt in Baseball Reference’s version of WAR (9.4 to 8.4) and is running away with the lead in Baseball Prospectus’ equivalent stat, WARP.

Lindor hit .345 (10-for-29) with three homers, six RBI, four doubles, two walks, six runs scored, a stolen base, a .793 slugging percentage, and a .387 on-base percentage in seven games last week.

The 30-year-old tied for the Major League lead in hits (10) and doubles (4); ranked second in extra-base hits (7) and total bases (23); led NL hitters in slugging and ranked fourth in the NL in OPS (1.180).

Lindor’s lead in FanGraphs’ version of WAR is much slimmer, currently leading Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani 6.5 to 6.3. Ohtani leads the NL in Baseball Reference’s version with 6.6 WAR; Lindor is third on that list. Ohtani also leads Lindor, 6.2 to 5.2, in Baseball Prospectus’ WARP.

If last week was any indication, however, the two stars are heating up at the right time. A solid September could help push the Yankees and Mets into the postseason and clinch the MVP awards for Judge and Lindor.

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