Mets vs. Dodgers: NLCS storylines
The Mets' Francisco Lindor, left, and the Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani. Credit: Errol Anderson; AP / Mark J. Terrill
For the first time since 2015, the Mets are headed to the National League Championship Series.
For the first time since 1988, their opponent in this penultimate round of the postseason is the Dodgers.
The Mets and Dodgers will open their best-of-seven series — a battle between the lowest-seeded, season-saving upstarts versus the top-seeded perennial power — at 8:15 p.m. ET Sunday in Los Angeles. At the outset, here are five storylines that will dominate conversation and perhaps the games.
THIS IS THE SHOHEI OHTANI SHOW
After spending his first six seasons stateside with the Angels, the best baseball player in the world joined the Dodgers on a 10-year, $700 million deal — the largest in the history of North American professional sports — last offseason.
Through one season, he has been worth every penny. Ohtani hit 54 home runs and stole 59 bases during the regular season, becoming the first player to go 50-50 in the same year. And that is in addition to the rest of his gaudy numbers: .310 batting average, .390 OBP, .646 slugging percentage, 130 RBIs, 134 runs. Oh, and he bats leadoff for the Dodgers, so the Mets will have to deal with him more than with any other hitter.
Although Ohtani made his name and earned his fortune as a two-way star, providing high-end pitching in addition to elite hitting, he is doing only the latter in 2024. He had Tommy John surgery about a year ago and is limited to designated hitter duties but is expected to return to the mound in 2025.
This is Ohtani’s first go-round in the postseason, and in the Dodgers’ Division Series against the Padres, he was not great: 4-for-20 (.200) with one home run and 10 strikeouts. Maybe he was pressing.
Mets versus Dodgers also means Francisco Lindor versus Ohtani. Through part of September, that represented a fun philosophical question about the rightful NL MVP: offensive-and-defensive greatness versus historically excellent offense without defense. Ohtani looked like the favorite all along, and Lindor’s back injury pretty much ended any debate. But these still are two premier players.
By the way, let’s be honest: MLB’s dream World Series is Ohtani’s Dodgers against Aaron Judge’s Yankees. That would be two marquee franchises, featuring the likely MVPs, from the sport’s biggest markets. The Mets will try to ruin that possibility.
THE METS GET ANOTHER SHOT AGAINST THE CLUB THAT SENT THEM TO ROCK BOTTOM
Remember when Jorge Lopez threw his glove into the Citi Field stands, mouthed off in a postgame interview and got himself cut from the roster? Triggering the Mets’ much-cited players-only meeting? Which they in the months since have credited for their season turnaround and run to baseball’s final four?
The Dodgers helped set all that in motion. Their 10-3 win on May 29 completed a three-game sweep and put the Mets a season-worst 11 games under .500 — yes, the now-famous figure that represents their low-water mark. That was the Lopez game.
“It was one of the better meetings I’ve had in terms of positivity and us leaving a meeting actually confident after a meeting that I’ve had in my career,” J.D. Martinez said that weekend.
It is poetic, then, that in order for the Mets to continue this improbable climb, they will have to beat the beast that partially created the mess. They went 2-4 against the Dodgers this year, but that was all in April and May. The Mets are a different team now.
YOSHINOBU YAMAMOTO WILL FACE A TEAM HE SPURNED LAST WINTER
Before the Mets fully enacted their Plan B agenda last winter — lots of short-term, small- or medium-money deals, almost all of which they hit on — they were hot after Japanese righthander Yamamoto.
Owner Steve Cohen and president of baseball operations David Stearns headed a Mets contingent that went to Japan to meet with Yamamoto and his representatives. Later in December, Cohen hosted Yamamoto at his Connecticut home for a second dinner.
The Mets offered Yamamoto a whopping $325 million over 12 years, a record contract for a pitcher. Then . . . so did the Dodgers. So he joined Los Angeles and his countryman Ohtani as part of a Dodgers spending spree that went well past $1 billion.
Yamamoto, 26, went on to have a strong rookie season: 3.00 ERA, 1.11 WHIP and 105 strikeouts in 90 innings. But he made only 18 starts because of a shoulder injury that sidelined him for nearly three months. Since returning in September, he has made six starts, all five innings or shorter.
INCREDIBLY, THE METS HAVE A CLEAR ADVANTAGE IN STARTING PITCHING
They are six deep in rotation options: Kodai Senga (maximum of about three innings his next time out), Sean Manaea, Luis Severino, Jose Quintana, David Peterson and Tylor Megill. The last two have been used out of the bullpen in the playoffs.
The Dodgers have three healthy starting pitchers: Yamamoto, trade-deadline acquisition Jack Flaherty and Walker Buehler. There also is rookie Landon Knack, who made a one-inning cameo against San Diego.
How the Dodgers navigate potentially seven games will be fascinating. They rolled with a bullpen game — to great effect — in Game 4 of the NLDS against the Padres, so it’s a safe bet they will have to do that again at least once against the Mets.
The Mets have pitched well for several months, but they don’t have any true front-line, brand-name starters (aside from maybe Senga, who spent virtually the entire season injured). The Dodgers do — but they’re hurt. They have more than a full rotation on the injured list: Clayton Kershaw, Tyler Glasnow, Dustin May, Gavin Stone, Tony Gonsolin, River Ryan, Emmet Sheehan. That’s wild. Still, they went 98-64 and won the NL West title.
Los Angeles does, however, have a loaded bullpen headlined by Michael Kopech, who has been a monster since coming over in a deadline deal, and Blake Treinen.
HOW IS COHEN’S EAST COAST DODGERS VISION COMING ALONG?
In November 2020, in his first public comments after buying the Mets, Cohen was asked which organization he sees as the model franchise in baseball or another sport.
“I like what the Dodgers are doing,” he said. “They have a really strong farm system, they take advantage of opportunities in the marketplace for free agents and trades. I think they run a pretty good business operation too. So I think that’s one team that easily seems to make the mark in the type of places that I want to do the same.”
Ever since, the idea that Cohen wants to make the Mets the so-called East Coast Dodgers has followed his franchise. He has done so in some respects (the Mets have become a financial/payroll behemoth alongside the Dodgers) but not so much in others (the Mets have not achieved sustained on-field success; the Dodgers have won the division title 11 of the past 12 years).
It will take more time — probably much more — to determine whether Cohen is successful. But this matchup, with a trip to the World Series on the line, will be a fun little check-in.
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.
