Mets' Francisco Lindor named MLBPA's 'Man of the Year'
New York Mets' Francisco Lindor talks to teammates during batting practice the day before a wild-card baseball playoff game against the San Diego Padres, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022. Credit: AP/Frank Franklin II
Francisco Lindor’s big year got better Friday.
The MLB Players Association named him the Marvin Miller Man of the Year, awarded after each season to the major-leaguer “whose leadership most inspires others to higher levels of achievement,” the union announced.
Voted on by Lindor’s peers across baseball, who choose from the 38 players on the executive board, the honor mostly is about a player’s contributions to the union (with charity/community work also considered). Lindor sits on the eight-man executive subcommittee and was a player leader in labor negotiations with MLB during the owners' lockout that delayed the start of the season.
The other finalists were the Rangers’ Marcus Semien, the 2021 winner who also is on the executive subcommittee, and the Brewers’ Brent Suter, his team’s player representative.
The PA created the Man of the Year award in 1997. It is named after Marvin Miller, who was the union’s first full-time executive director (1966-82).
Lindor is the third New York player to win the award. The Yankees’ Mariano Rivera did so in 2013, followed by Curtis Granderson in 2016 (one of four years in which Granderson was honored).
Lindor had a strong season on the field, too, a huge bounce back after his disappointing Mets debut in 2021. He had a .270/.339/.449 slash line with 26 homers and 107 RBIs, enough to make him a Silver Slugger finalist and likely the recipient of some down-ballot NL MVP votes.
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
