NEW YORK — The Mets and Yankees enter the Subway Series in first place and as serious contenders to win their respective pennants. The teams appear as evenly matched as they have been in a long time.
So, what would the New York Dream Team look like? How would you best construct a lineup out of current Mets and Yankees players? I’ve taken my best shot, with a nine-man lineup, righty and lefty starters and the two most important arms out of the bullpen.
I of course expect complete agreement not just with my choices but with my rationale, and I also expect the comments section to reflect that overall sense of bonhomie between Mets and Yankees fans.
SS Francisco Lindor
Sunday marks one year since the Mets moved Lindor to the leadoff spot to help spark his season and theirs in 2024. In 151 games since, Lindor has hit .302 with a .371 on-base percentage, a .536 slugging percentage, a .902 OPS and 35 home runs. He has scored 110 runs. The Mets in that span have averaged a shade under five runs per game, and their record when Lindor leads off is 90-61.
RF Juan Soto
Soto in the two-hole worked for the 2024 Yankees, and it has worked so far for the 2025 Mets. No, he hasn’t gotten off to the swift start he did with the Yankees — his OPS was .938 this time last year, compared to .845 with the Mets. But he still controls a plate appearance like no one else in baseball.
Juan Soto will need no introduction when the Mets open a three-game series at Yankee Stadium starting Friday. (Brad Mills / Imagn Images)
CF Aaron Judge
Sure, Judge hasn’t played center at all this season, but he has proven capable of it in the past, and the best outfield alignment for this roster has him there again. What else can be said about Judge’s absurd start to this season? His Baseball-Reference stat line is all bold italics, representing league-leading totals. His 257 OPS+ would be the best for a qualified hitter not named Barry Bonds. (That’s right; Judge’s stats in comparison to the rest of his league are better than anything Babe Ruth put up, when Ruth was out-homering every other team in the league by himself.) This is sublime stuff.
DH Pete Alonso
The Mets have been coyly optimistic about what Alonso might do this season, after a couple of subpar years and a more prolonged time in free agency than expected, since before spring training. You’re seeing why. Alonso has vastly improved his decision-making at the plate, and he’s hitting for average and getting on base at rates he never has before, without sacrificing much in terms of power. It’s not just an excellent start to the season but an encouraging sign for how he can remain productive deeper into his 30s.
1B Paul Goldschmidt
Though the defensive metrics favor Alonso this season at first base, let’s go with Goldschmidt’s longer track record of slightly better glove work there. The one-time MVP has continued to build on the strong second half of an otherwise disappointing 2024. Neither the .398 BABIP nor the career-best 16.7 percent strikeout rate will likely stay where they are, but Goldschmidt’s production can withstand some regression.
LF Brandon Nimmo
Yes, it’s tempting to keep the focus on what has happened in 2025 and put Trent Grisham in this lineup; he’s been even better than Soto. But taking a broader view overall, and an optimistic one of Nimmo’s peripherals specifically, he looks like the better bet. Nimmo’s hard-hit and barrel rates are way up, and his strikeout rate is way down. He’ll probably never run an on-base percentage close to .400, as he did as a patience-first leadoff hitter for the Mets. But that OBP isn’t going to sit below .300 for much longer, and he’s on pace for 29 home runs.
3B Mark Vientos
Vientos has rebounded solidly from a rough start to the season, hitting .307 with a .349 on-base percentage and five homers in his last 27 games. That’s a touch better than he was throughout his breakout 2024 season, when he launched 27 homers in 111 games and remained a potent threat throughout the postseason.
2B Jazz Chisholm Jr.
Neither team has a runaway candidate at the keystone. The Mets have received solid play from the duo of Luisangel Acuña and Jeff McNeil, not to mention Brett Baty’s recent contributions, some of which have come at second base, and the Yankees are waiting on Chisholm to return sometime in June. Let’s go with the highest ceiling of those players for 2025, which is still Chisholm. When healthy, he can hit 25-plus homers and steal 40-plus bases.
C Austin Wells
This might have been the toughest call on the board, and Wells earns it with his defense. Francisco Alvarez has been better behind the plate than almost anyone expected and, small sample this year aside, has proved an adept framer. But Wells is an elite one, consistently among the best in the league at preserving and gaining strike calls.
LHP Max Fried
If you’re picking any starter in baseball, not just one who calls New York home, Fried might be the guy right now. He’s 6-0 with a 1.11 ERA, and the Yankees are 8-1 when he takes the mound. He has taken a step up from his time with the Atlanta Braves by embracing the possibilities of change with the Yankees, and his mix is better than ever.
RHP Kodai Senga
Senga has not been shy about his discomfort with how he has pitched, bluntly saying his pitches aren’t coming out quite the way he’d like most of the time. You’d almost think he wasn’t running a 1.22 ERA through eight starts. Good results with a bad process don’t usually last long, but Senga is close enough to his 2023 self to believe the regression, once he starts allowing the occasional hit with a runner in scoring position, won’t knock him too far down the hierarchy.
Setup Luke Weaver
At the same time, it’s worth noting this: Since the start of last season, Weaver has been the best reliever in New York. His versatility and ability to bridge innings lend themselves to a setup/fireman role better than anyone else here, and he’d be ready to step in (again) if the closer ahead of him starts to falter.
RP Edwin Díaz
Díaz has yet to recapture the form he displayed during his dominant 2022 season, and his saves sometimes involve walking a tightrope around a walk here and a stolen base there. But he’s still running a strikeout rate nearing 40 percent since the start of last season (with a walk rate below 10 percent) and, at his best, is as unhittable as any pitcher in the sport.
(Top photo of Aaron Judge and Pete Alonso: New York Yankees / Getty Images)