In the 2024 edition of the Baseball Prospectus annual, Francisco Lindor was referred to as “the steady centerpiece of a historically chaotic franchise.” As the calendar inches closer to Opening Day two years later, that is perhaps even more true now than it was then. This offseason saw the departure of Brandon Nimmo, Jeff McNeil, Pete Alonso, and Edwin Díaz. The longest-tenured Met is now David Peterson, who debuted in 2020, and next on the list is Francisco Lindor. Since the Mets traded for (and
then extended) Francisco Lindor in 2021 and made him the face of the franchise, we’ve been through the “thumbs down” era, the “from 0-5 to OMG” era, the signing of another mega star in Juan Soto, and then the bitter disappointment of last season, which has ushered in the next Mets era that has yet to be defined.
“When the year didn’t end the way we all wanted it, it’s a business and you have a feeling that every year is not going to look the same,” Lindor said to SNY regarding the roster turnover. “[The front office] did a really good job. I’m fully on board with how they did it, and I’m looking forward to this year.”
Provided Lindor takes the field on Opening Day as scheduled, which he is currently on track to do, he will do so with an entirely new set of infielders on the dirt around him. Even Luisangel Acuña, who started at second base on Opening Day last season, is no longer in the organization.
“It was cool to play ball with Marcus [Semien],” Lindor said after he played in his first Grapefruit League game earlier this week. “At one point I looked to my side and I was like, ‘Wow, I have got a shortstop next to me’ … it was a cool day.”
Lindor having a natural shortstop next to him on either side is probably a good thing for the 2026 Mets. Though defensive metrics disagree wildly about Lindor’s shortstop defense, they do agree that his defensive skills declined in 2025 compared to the year before. Another sign that the 32-year-old may be showing some signs of age-related decline is the roughly 1.5 mph drop in bat speed from 2024 to 2025.
Make no mistake: Francisco Lindor is still Francisco Lindor. Five-time All-Star. Routine receiver of MVP votes. Gold Glover. Silver Slugger. You know, that guy. He was the most valuable player by WAR on the Mets last year and the third-best hitter on the Mets behind Juan Soto and Pete Alonso. He put up a 30-30 season for the second time in three seasons (and if he had stolen one more base in 2024, he would have accomplished the feat three seasons in a row). He’s still Francisco Lindor, likely first-ballot Hall of Famer, but he’s older now. These age-related smoke signals should be something to monitor, but they are not yet a five-alarm fire.
And as Francisco Lindor goes, the Mets usually go. He bounced back from the growing pains of his first season in a Mets uniform to put up a stellar 2022, which saw the Mets make the postseason, albeit at a stagger with a very disappointing conclusion. In 2023, Lindor’s production took a step back—thumb pointed groundward—and the Mets were a spectacular failure. In 2024, after a putrid April, Lindor got hot in the second half and didn’t look back—much like the Grimace Mets as a whole. Last year, Lindor had a strong start and made his first All-Star Game as a Met, but faded during the doldrums of June and July as the Mets began to falter. You get the picture.
This year, there is a wild card in the mix: Lindor’s newly missing hamate bone, which was surgically removed on February 11 as pitchers and catchers reported to spring training. When the injury was reported, the Mets felt optimistic that Lindor would be ready for Opening Day, given the recovery timeline. Lindor remains on track to take the field for the Mets at Citi Field a week from today, likely as their leadoff hitter. He made his Grapefruit League debut on Sunday, in which he dove for a ball, hit a ball home run distance that went just foul, and ripped a single—all encouraging signs. “It was a really good experience,” Lindor said after the game. “I felt like I was pretty much like myself, and I finished the game healthy. Overall, it was a good day for me.” Carlos Mendoza also remarked that “he looked like Francisco Lindor.”
Still, hamates are tricky things. Lindor also admitted that he felt something in his left wrist doing all of these activities, even if that something wasn’t pain, and that the trainers warned him that could be the case for quite awhile. For some hitters, it takes some time for the power to return after a hamate injury. Especially for a switch-hitter like Lindor, who is going to have to get used to this new reality for both his left-handed and right-handed swing, it will be an adjustment. But we’ve seen Francisco Lindor slump in April before only to blink, open our eyes, and see another 5+ WAR season in the books when all is said and done. We’ve also seen Lindor accumulate the occasional knock and play through it, such as with the infamous “finger in a hotel door” incident, his back issues at the end of 2024, and a broken pinky toe last year. The Mets’ shortstop has missed just 15 games since 2022 and one could argue he should be getting more days off to help manage his load as he ages, but good luck to Carlos Mendoza or anybody else trying to tell the erstwhile competitor and self-declared team leader who likes to lead by example to take it easy.
Neither you nor I were inside the Mets’ locker room last year. There have been reports of strife, but its exact severity and nature are unclear. Also, falling short of expectations will cause tension more often than not. What is clear is that most of the other players named as characters in the story of the Mets’ supposed locker room drama are all now elsewhere. But Francisco Lindor is still here and will be the one to oversee this next era of Mets baseball, whatever it will bring. Juan Soto is the Mets’ brightest star, but Lindor is the club’s most constant presence and the strongest bellwether of how its season will go.
