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Matt Katz: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Welcome back, everybody. I'm Matt Katz, reporter in the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom and lifelong Mets fan, sitting in for Brian today. Now, let's talk New York baseball. We're in the final month of the regular season, and both the Mets and Yankees are contending to play in October. If they both make it, it would be, by my calculations, only the sixth time in history that's happens. Both teams also have players in contention for MVP. Listeners, will both teams make the playoffs? Can either team win the World Series? Will we see a Subway Series for the first time in 24 years?

What's your prediction? What's it based on? What storylines this year in baseball are you most intrigued by? Give us a call or send us a text, 212-433-WNYC, that's 212-433-9692. To talk about all of this, we're going to hear from someone who's paid to follow baseball. Amazing job. I'm joined by Brendan Kuty, MLB Staff Writer for The Athletic, the sports unit of The New York Times. Welcome to WNYC, Brendan. Thanks for being on.

Brendan Kuty: Thank you for having me. You're right, it is an amazing job. I'm lucky to do what I do.

Matt Katz: That's so great. I checked the standings before I went to bed last night, and it looks like if the season ends today, both teams would make the playoffs, but it looks like Yankees are in a stronger position. What's the status of both clubs chances at the moment? What storylines should we be following into October?

Brendan Kuty: Look, right now the Yankees are jockeying for first place in the American League East with the Baltimore Orioles. Both teams haven't been playing well of late, but no other teams in the AL East have really tried to catch up with them. Right now, there's a decent chance the Yankees win the division and end up having home field advantage early into the playoffs, or where they are right now is the top-seeded spot in the wild card, which would still give them playoff entry, but not a presumed easy path or easier path to the World Series. Meanwhile, the Mets are on an absolute heater, as you would know, being a Met fan.

8 of the last 10, they've won seven in a row. Francisco Lindor has inserted himself into the potential MVP conversation with Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Just the sampling of Lindor of late over his last five games, two home runs, five RBIs, two doubles, the guy's hitting 400 over his last five games. The guy is going off. Both teams are really talented. I probably give the overall talent edge in the city right now to the Yankees and just considering where they're at in the playoff picture to the New York Yankees. You never know. No one really saw the Mets going off on this kind of tear late in the season, and no one really saw the Yankees starting to stumble toward the finish line.

Matt Katz: This was also supposed to be a bit of a transition year for the Mets. It was not a certainty at all that they'd be playing for the playoffs in September. Mets fans feel like we're living on borrowed time here. It feels great. You mentioned Lindor, who also plays stellar defense in the MVP conversation with Shohei Ohtani, who does not play defense. Should a guy who doesn't play defense at the moment, he can't pitch right now because he had surgery, should Shohei Otani, this phenom, have the edge over Lindor? Tell us a little bit about Ohtani for more casual sports fans out there and what kind of unicorn he is.

Brendan Kuty: Everyone, Shohei Ohtani is probably the most talented baseball player in the history of the game. He is someone who is a high level pitcher and a high level hitter at the exact same time in the major leagues. No one, I repeat, no one has ever done what he's done before on a low level, let alone a high level. He competes when he's pitching for the Cy Young Award, that's the best pitcher in the game. When he's hitting, which he's doing right now, he competes for some of the top statistical rounds and for the MVP Award. Right now, he's only hitting because he had some kind of elbow surgery last year, and that's kept him off the mound.

The question is, should he be allowed to win National League MVP? Because he's strictly a designated hitter, he doesn't play defense, he only hits. There's only one of those positions throughout the whole lineup, designated hitter. He hits for the pitcher, like he hits in place of the pitcher. If I'm being honest, in my heart, I don't feel like a DH should win the MVP. I don't like it. Francisco Lindor will tell you how hard it is to play a defensive position every day in the major leagues and then have to go hit at the same time. We reward Shohei Ohtani for his two-way mastery in that he can pitch at a high level and hit at a high level, and then we don't give him the MVP.

When he only hits, now we're going to give him the MVP. I don't like it. The flip side of that coin is I would have voted for David Ortiz to be in the Hall of Fame, and he was almost exclusively a DH for his entire career. I wonder if I feel a little bit hypocritical for that. I think, on the whole, David Ortiz had a Hall of Fame career, but I still would have had an issue with him being named MVP of any particular season. To wrap it up, I would give the award to someone who plays defense every day and plays it at a level of the best in the game, at the most important position in the game, defensively, at shortstop, over the DH no matter how well Shohei Ohtani is hitting this year.

Matt Katz: Do you have baseball predictions or questions? Give us a call, 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Brendan, we talked about National League MVP. What about American League MVP? Is the Yankees monster home run hitter, Aaron Judge, in contention for that?

Brendan Kuty: He seems like the far and away candidate to win it. He's got, I believe 51 home runs right now and it's just the first week of September. Sure, he's been on a little bit of a cold spell of late, but that's just because he's only hit. He hasn't had any home runs in his last nine games. If you take his season into a whole, there's still a chance that he breaks his single season home run record of 62 that he made in 2022. That's not outside of the question.

Matt Katz: Wow.

Brendan Kuty: The guy is a monster. The guy is the best hitter in the game, and he's doing it while playing a very capable center field. He's doing that after being a primarily right fielder for his whole career. Everyone playing center field is significantly more difficult than playing right field, especially for the New York Yankees because the way their stadium is set up, there's so much less ground to cover in right field compared to center field. I would say for sure he is the hands-down pick to be the American League MVP, barring some kind of crazy cold stretch here at the end of the year.

Matt Katz: Brendan, let's zoom out for a second and talk about the state of the game overall. Starting last year, games have gotten shorter, quicker, bases are bigger, so there's more stolen bases. What's happening with the game right now? How have the changes affected its popularity?

Brendan Kuty: I don't think the changes have necessarily affected its popularity one way or the other. People will tell you that baseball is a dying game compared to basketball, compared to football, compared to soccer, that's on the rise. Lacrosse BS, guys, no way. These guys are bringing in record totals in terms of money every year. Each franchise is valued over billions of dollars. Just no. Baseball is if anything, it's growing. What the changes have done is it's TikTokified the game. The social media these days and sports these days and the way sports relate to social media, it's so highlight driven.

If you're looking online, you see a video of a slam dunk, you see a touchdown, you see a sack, you see a goal scored. In baseball, it's more about taking your time. It's more about the game, it's more about the strategy, less about the highlight. What the changes in the game have done is they've tried to speed the game up, they've tried to create offense, and they try to give you more of those moments where you say, "Wow," or just something you either haven't seen before, or have more pivotal points in the game to just keep up with, "Listen, we've all got it." Everyone's lessening attention spans. Look, you could barely get me to concentrate for this entire interview, let alone for a three-hour baseball.

Matt Katz: You're doing a great job. [laughter]

Brendan Kuty: Thank you. That's what the changes have done. There'll probably be more as baseball looks to get ahead of the attention deficit curve and not lag behind it.

Matt Katz: I'm going to read a quick text and then go for a quick phone call. "For the last few weeks, every game for the Mets has been a must win game. As a fan who watches every game, I couldn't ask for more September excitement, considering what I was realistically expecting this season." That was from Upstate, Ari. Thank you, Ari. Let's go Mets. Let's go to one call before I let you go. Randy in Hastings-on-Hudson. Hi, Randy. You have a comment about the MVP?

Randy: I do, regarding the National League MVP race. I'm a longtime baseball fan and I've always considered part of the calculus to be how does that player help their individual team? How does he elevate his team? It's not just a stat chase, it's how does he fit in and elevate the team, bring it up into contention, whereas without that player, they would not be there. How does that fit into the MVP race this year?

Matt Katz: Thanks, Randy. What do you think, Brendan?

Brendan Kuty: Randy, it's a good question. You're not going to like my indecisiveness here, but I take it case by case. Look, if Shohei Ohtani was playing on a team of bums and he was still putting together this 45 home run, 45 deal season, whatever he's at right now, you can make the argument that teams aren't trying so hard and they're pitching to him because they're going to beat his team no matter what, he can't do it alone. I think if you take him off the Los Angeles Dodgers, they're not the Los Angeles Dodgers, they're not a juggernaut type first place team. If you take Francisco Lindor off the Mets, they are absolutely not contending for the wild card.

I guess to answer your question, Randy, when you're a player of the caliber of Ohtani or Lindor and you're playing well enough to be in the conversation for best player in your league, you can't understate the value that either guy brings. Even if one guy is on a slightly better team, that would have slightly better chances if he wasn't on it versus the guy who's carrying his team on his back, I don't think that factors into the consideration as much as you'd be led to believe by the term most valuable player. Because when you talk about valuable, it's the value to the team. That guy can't decide who's going to be his second baseman, pitcher, catcher, he's just doing the best he can. I tend to vote that way.

Matt Katz: Best part of baseball is these debates, but [laughs] we're going to have to leave it there today. Brendan Kuty, MLB Staff Writer for The Athletic, covers the Yankees. Brendan, thanks so much. Really appreciate you talking baseball with us today.

Brendan Kuty: Hey, thank you for having me on. Thanks for following along, everybody.

Matt Katz: Absolutely. Thanks to the team at The Brian Lehrer Show, Lisa Allison, Mary Croke, Amina Srna, Carl Boisrond, and Esperanza Rosenbaum. We say goodbye today to summer intern, Lucinda Empson-Speiden. Thank you so much for all of your good work. The team here appreciates you. Shayna Sengstock and Milton Ruiz are at the audio controls. I'm Matt Katz. This is The Brian Lehrer Show. Thanks for listening, everybody. Stay tuned for All Of It.

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