Top 10 most impactful NY baseball players for the 2024 MLB season

Opening Day is right around the corner, and the Mets and Yankees both enter the season with playoff aspirations.

Hoisting the Commissioner's Trophy is obviously the goal for every MLB team, but if the Mets or Yankees are to reach their ultimate goal, which players will need to make the biggest impact in order for their respective teams to be in the hunt for a World Series title?

We polled our panel of SNY experts and compiled the votes to come up with our list of the Top 10 most impactful New York baseball players for the 2024 season.

Here’s a look at our list, with two players revealed each weekday on Baseball Night in New York…

10. Starling Marte

In 2022, Marte was a catalyst for the Mets offense, as his All-Star production (.814 OPS, 16 home runs, 63 RBI, 76 runs scored) helped lead the team to 101 regular season wins. But his 2023 season was basically doomed from the start thanks to offseason double groin surgery. Marte was never truly healthy and was never able to play at full speed in 2023, and his lack of production (.625 OPS in just 86 games) was a big reason why the Mets took a step back as a team.

When Marte is right, he can do it all – hit for average and power, steal bases, and play Gold Glove caliber defense. And if he can stay on the field in 2024, the Mets are a much different team than the underachieving 2023 squad.

9. Carlos Rodon

When Rodon signed a massive six-year, $162 million deal with the Yankees last offseason, the hope was that the lefty would be a 1-B ace along with Gerrit Cole at the top of the rotation. But things quickly went wrong for Rodon in his first season in pinstripes. A forearm injury suffered in spring training, coupled with back issues, pushed Rodon’s regular season debut all the way back to July, and he missed some more time in August with a hamstring issue. When he was healthy enough to take the mound, the results weren’t very good, as the lefty posted a 6.85 ERA in 14 starts.

But the start of the 2024 season marks a clean slate for everyone, and with Cole beginning the season on the IL with elbow issues, the Yankees will need Rodon to step up and be the ace he was in 2021 and 2022, when he made the All-Star team and finished top six in Cy Young voting both seasons.

8. Kodai Senga

Senga was as good as advertised, and maybe even better, in his first major league season. 

After an illustrious career in Japan, Senga brought his patented “ghost fork” to Queens, and the results were downright spooky. 

Senga pitched to a 2.98 ERA, earning an All-Star nod, and finishing second in NL Rookie of the Year voting and seventh in Cy Young voting. With Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer now gone, Senga steps into the role of Mets ace for the first time. 

His season has gotten off to a delayed start due to a posterior capsule strain in his right shoulder, so the right-hander’s availability will have quite the impact on how far the Mets go in 2024.

7. Francisco Alvarez

It’s a bit shocking to recall that Alvarez wasn’t even on the Mets’ Opening Day roster in 2023, but a very early injury to Omar Narvaez saw the Mets’ top prospect get the call to the bigs in early April. 

Alvarez soon assumed the starting catcher role, and he ran with it, playing 123 games while blasting 25 home runs with 63 RBI. Alvarez has already shut down the notion that he might struggle behind the plate in the majors, so now the question becomes what’s next for the 22-year-old slugger. 

Perhaps if Alvarez can see his batting average improve (he hit .209 last season), the Mets' offense will be in a better place than it was last season.

6. Gerrit Cole

After previously finishing in the top five of Cy Young voting on five different occasions, Cole finally took home the hardware in 2023, and deservedly so, as he pitched to a 2.63 ERA and struck out 222 hitters in 209 innings. Featuring a high-octane fastball and some wipeout breaking stuff, Cole has proven himself to be one of, if not the best pitchers on the planet.

Cole has always been an innings-eater, throwing 200+ innings six times during his career, but his normally elite durability has already been tested this season. The righty has been seen by noted surgeon Neal ElAttrache, and the diagnosis of nerve inflammation, while certainly better news than a torn UCL, will set the Yankees ace back a bit to start the season. Cole’s health will play a huge factor in the Yankees’ championship hopes.

5. Edwin Diaz

When Diaz went down with a knee injury while celebrating with his Team Puerto Rico teammates in the World Baseball classic, it instantly cast a black cloud over the entire 2023 season. With Diaz’s season ending before Opening Day, the entire Mets’ bullpen had to take on different roles, and things just weren’t the same without having their electric closer to finish games.

Diaz certainly looked like his typical dominant self when he struck out the side on 14 pitches in his spring debut. If he can be anywhere close to what he was in 2022, when he pitched to a 1.31 ERA, the Mets will be in good shape.

4. Francisco Lindor

Lindor has been a constant presence for the Mets. As former skipper Buck Showalter liked to say, Lindor “posts up” just about every day, with the shortstop missing a combined three games over the past two seasons. Lindor has finished top 10 in NL MVP voting in each of the past two seasons.

Lindor posted his best power season as a Met last year, belting 31 home runs and earning the NL Silver Slugger award at shortstop, but even at 30 years old it feels like there could still be another level to his game. 

When healthy, Lindor will be out there every single day, meaning that a great season from the shortstop should translate to a great deal of team success for the Mets.

3. Pete Alonso

Will this be Alonso’s final season as a Met?

That question will linger over the entire 162-game campaign, barring the unexpected. Both Alonso and the Mets appear to be comfortable with the slugging first baseman playing out the season and hitting free agency. It worked for the Mets with Brandon Nimmo and Edwin Diaz, and it sounds like both sides believe it could work again.

Alonso enters his contract year as one of the best power hitters in Mets history, just 60 big flies behind Darryl Strawberry for the most in franchise history. Who knows, if Alonso has a monster season, he could be the Mets’ home run king before reaching free agency. But there’s no doubt that the Mets are relying on Alonso to drive in a lot of runs, and if he doesn’t, the team could have an issue.

2. Aaron Judge

He’s the Captain for a reason. 

Judge has been the heart and soul of the Yankees since bursting onto the season AL Rookie of the Year in 2017. He owns the American League single-season home run record with 62 dingers in 2022, and he’s one of the sport’s biggest names. 

But as always seems to be the case, staying healthy remains the biggest issue for the big man. Judge played in 106 games last season after suffering a toe injury while leaping into the wall at Dodger Stadium, and he’s already missed time this spring with what the Yankees are calling soreness in his ab area. 

Judge has had his share of injuries throughout his career, but when he’s healthy he’s as important a player as there is on any team. 

1. Juan Soto

The Yankees have been trying to land Soto for quite some time, with general manager Brian Cashman saying that he tried to bring the outfielder to the Bronx at last season’s trade deadline. It may have taken some time, but the Yankees finally have their left-handed hitting slugger, and another superstar that they can pair with Judge to give them perhaps the best position player duo in the majors.

Soto can do it all, but his lefty pop coupled with the short porch in Yankee Stadium could be a match made in baseball heaven. Having Soto in the lineup is a great insurance policy in case Judge gets hurt, but if the pair can stay healthy, they’ll drive opposing pitchers insane with their elite plate discipline. 

Soto is in a contract year, so this could be a one-and-done situation in the Bronx, though the team certainly hopes they can get something done given up the assets they dealt to San Diego in this offseason’s trade. But even if this is Soto’s only season with the Bombers, it could be a campaign to remember if he helps lead them over the hump to win their first World Series since 2009.