"Reminds me of Dalai Lama" - Mets HOFer weighs in on Francisco Lindor’s chances to win 2024 NL MVP over Shohei Ohtani, Ketel Marte

New York Mets star Francisco Lindor has been nominated for this year's National League Most Valuable Player award. After a disastrous start to the year, Lindor turned his season around in mid-May after transitioning to the leadoff spot. The star shortstop carried much of the load for the team and successfully led the Mets to the NLCS.

Lindor has been nominated for the award alongside Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani and Arizona Diamondbacks' Ketel Marte. There has been a lot of talk regarding which superstar deserves to be crowned as the MVP. But nothing comes close to what MLB Network analyst and New York Mets Hall of Famer Ron Darling compared Lindor's magical season to.

In the network's program featuring Tom Verducci and Greg Amsinger, Darling compared Francisco Lindor to the leader of Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama.

"Reminds me of Dalai Lama," Ron Darling stated (via MLB Network).

"It wasn't an MVP season, it was a spiritual journey," he added.

The Mets Hall of Famer further elaborated on his point by stating that in contrast to all the noise and hype the team built up during their unprecedented run, Lindor looked calm and composed, signalling that he had finally made his name as a New York Met. Darling also shared that the result of the MVP race might not matter as long as Lindor established himself as the new face of the Mets.

Francisco Lindor faces uphill battle for MVP

Much like his counterpart shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. in the American League, the odds are stacked against Francisco Lindor to win MVP for the National League.

Witt Jr. recorded perhaps the best statistical year by a shortstop in American League history. However, New York Yankees captain Aaron Judge dampened those aspirations as he recorded one of the most impressive statistical seasons by a major league player ever.

Francisco Lindor now finds himself in the same predicament as Witt Jr. as even though he delivered on both sides of the ball to merit himself a Silver Slugger Award, the stellar season Shohei Ohtani embarked on might put his individual statistics to naught.

At the time of writing, Ohtani is the odds-on favorite to win the NL MVP award at -2,500 in DraftKings. This is due to the unicorn's sensational year that had him lead almost all offensive stats in the National League. Lindor, meanwhile, is far back at +900.

In addition, Ohtani's two previous MVP awards were uninanimously voted for by the committee. The Japanese superstar is also aiming to be the only other player after Hall of Famer Frank Robinson to win both an AL and NL MVP award.