Mets, Phillies to play two games in London in June 2024
Francisco Lindor #12 of the New York Mets celebrates his fourth inning home run against the Philadelphia Phillies in the dugout with his teammates at Citi Field on May 30, 2023. Credit: Jim McIsaac
PHILADELPHIA — It’s official: The Mets are going across the pond next year.
Major League Baseball announced on Friday that the Mets and Phillies will play a two-game series in London on June 8-9, 2024.
It is part of what the league and players’ union have branded the “MLB World Tour,” their largest-ever commitment to international play, including 24 regular-season games in Asia, Mexico, Latin America and Europe through 2026.
“It’s a great opportunity to grow the game and expose the great talent that we have to the world,” Pete Alonso said. “You look at other sports — basketball wasn’t necessarily a world sport and they went over to Asia and did all these exhibition games like in different parts of the world and it grew basketball into what it is now. If we can do that, we can grow the game.”
Francisco Lindor said: “I’m excited for it. I think it’ll be very, very cool for us to be at that event. It’s always cool to play internationally, take the game somewhere else.”
The games will be at London Stadium, which was built for the 2012 Olympics and typically is the home of the West Ham United soccer team.
A tricky variable: travel. The Cubs and Cardinals, who are playing in London on Saturday and Sunday, had two days off before and will have one day off after.
“We’ll see how traveling is,” Lindor said. “If they treat us the way they treat us here, it should work out well.”
Manager Buck Showalter said: “It’s a challenge [to] travel, but they do a lot of things on the front and back to try to make it easier.”
Mets-Phillies will be MLB’s third series in England, following Red Sox-Yankees in 2019 and now Cubs-Cardinals.
This also will be the Mets’ third special international trip. They played in Mexico in 1996 and Japan in 2000 (as well as Puerto Rico in 2010). They were due to go to Puerto Rico in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic caused the cancellationof that event. With a star Puerto Rican shortstop (Lindor), a star Puerto Rican closer (Edwin Diaz) and a Puerto Rican minority owner (Alex Cohen), they seemed ripe for a makeup date there.
“I still got eight more years here,” Lindor said with a smile. “Hopefully it happens.”
For now, London is calling.
“Alex and I are thrilled the Mets will play in the MLB 2024 London Series,” Mets owner Steve Cohen said in a statement released by the league. “Interest in baseball is growing all over the world and to bring the Mets’ ‘never-say-die’ attitude to sports fans in London is a tremendous honor. Our Queens family is ready to show London a great time with exciting baseball and amazing experiences that create new fans and build the Mets community throughout the United Kingdom.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
