Dynamic Duo Dominates: Mets Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor Named MLB’s Best Hitting Tandem

Much of the MLB’s offseason discourse has focused on how the New York Mets‘ improved lineup stacks up against the league’s best.

It all started when catcher Francisco Alvarez told reporters that the Mets have the best lineup in baseball. He then doubled down on his statement a few days later when he told Jon Heyman of the New York Post “I think we are better than the [Los Angeles] Dodgers.”

CBS’s Matt Snyder reignited the flames from this new Mets/Dodgers feud with his article “MLB Power Rankings: The top 12 hitting duos for the 2025 season.”

In the article, Snyder had the Mets’ duo of Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor ranked first, with Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts of the Dodgers ranked second. Ohtani and Betts are a proven duo and two of the league’s best players; MLB.com’s Top 100 Players Right Now ranked Ohtani and Betts as the first and fifth best players in the league, respectively.

The pair is coming off a 2024 World Series title, with Ohtani having secured his third unanimous MVP. Betts, a former MVP himself (in 2018 with the Boston Red Sox), boasts a career .294 batting average and hit 19 home runs with an .863 OPS in 2024 despite missing nearly two months with a hand injury.

This is to say that Snyder’s ranking of Soto and Lindor above the Dodgers duo is high praise and is especially notable for Mets fans.

Soto ranked second in on-base percentage in 2024, only behind his former New York Yankees teammate and AL MVP Aaron Judge. On top of this, Soto was fourth in home runs with 41. His rare combination of power and ability to get on base helped him ink a 15-year, $765 million deal with the Mets, becoming the highest-paid player in not only MLB history, but professional sports history.

When the Mets landed Soto, it wasn’t clear if first baseman Pete Alonso would be back in Queens for 2025. The team wanted to add a big bat to pair with their lead-off man, Francisco Lindor.

As Snyder outlined, Lindor finished 2024 on fire. In his last 107 games, the shortstop hit .308/.376/.560 with 26 homers and 23 stolen bases. He also came up in big spots during the Mets’ postseason run, including his go-ahead grand slam to clinch the National League Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Snyder’s ranking also included the Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvador Perez at No. 5, the Orioles’ Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman at No. 4, and the Yankees’ Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger at No. 3.

This ranking is telling of the expectations surrounding the Mets for 2025. If this duo can deliver, Alvarez’s comments may age well: a lineup that starts with Lindor and Soto, then followed by Alonso, breakout candidate Mark Vientos, and Brandon Nimmo certainly has the potential to supplant the Dodgers’ roster as the best in baseball.