Does `mup deploy`require to run `meteor npm install` before (locally)?

I have an app I like to deploy with meteor-up / mup.

In my packages.json I have babel-runtime listed:

{
  // .....
  "dependencies": {
    "babel-core": "^6.26.0",
    "babel-loader": "^7.1.2",
    "babel-runtime": "^6.23.0",
    "bcrypt": "^1.0.2"
  },
  "engines": {
    "node": "4.8"
  }
}

However, when I do mup setup && mup deploy I get this error:

Error: The babel-runtime npm package could not be found in your node_modules
directory. Please run the following command to install it:

  meteor npm install --save babel-runtime

    at meteorInstall.node_modules.meteor.babel-runtime.babel-runtime.js (packages/babel-runtime.js:36:9)
    at fileEvaluate (packages/modules-runtime.js:197:9)
    at require (packages/modules-runtime.js:120:16)
    at packages/babel-runtime.js:138:15
    at packages/babel-runtime.js:149:3
    at /built_app/programs/server/boot.js:303:34
    at Array.forEach (native)
    at Function._.each._.forEach (/built_app/programs/server/node_modules/underscore/underscore.js:79:11)
    at /built_app/programs/server/boot.js:128:5
    at /built_app/programs/server/boot.js:352:5
=> Starting meteor app on port:80
/built_app/programs/server/boot.js:356
}).run();
   ^

What I don't understand:

Do I have to run meteor npm install locally before I do mup setup?

Actually, I would expect that mup does this automatically while building and deploying the app.

I'm glad for any help to understand how this works!

You need to run meteor npm install before deploying because MeteorUp needs all npm dependencies to build the bundle on your computer.