PHILADELPHIA - Francisco Lindor has been living through the kind of season that can grind a player down in public.
The Mets shortstop entered Saturday already carrying the weight of last year’s collapse, then had to deal with questions about his relationship with Juan Soto, a hamate surgery that wiped out most of spring training and, after that, a calf strain that sidelined him for more than two months. Since coming back, he has played 17 games and committed five errors, including a costly one in the Mets’ 6-1 loss to the Phillies.
Lindor’s latest miscue came in the sixth inning, when Alec Bohm lifted a ball to deep center with two on and one out. Kyle Schwarber, the slow runner at second, tagged and looked vulnerable, but Lindor fired the throw far to Bo Bichette’s right and both runners moved up safely. Lindor reacted immediately, barking into the air in a display of frustration that has been building for weeks.
“It was a mental mistake today,” Lindor said. “For me, defense is the most important thing and it’s not been good - not been good at all.”
The error was part of a rough afternoon all around. Lindor went 0-for-4, dropping his average to a career-low .205, and also struck out twice in the second inning before heading back to the dugout muttering. His struggles have fueled talk around the club, and with the Aug. 3 trade deadline approaching, some have even wondered whether the Mets could move him despite his big contract and no-trade clause.
That kind of reaction, though, is coming from a bad season, not from the full picture of who Lindor has been. At 32, there’s little reason to view this as the start of a physical collapse. Andy Green pointed instead to the mental side of the game and to a defense that has been shaky across the board.
“If you start to think about mistakes, they tend to happen more frequently,” Green said. “He’s a guy that we believe in and we will continue to believe in. He’s got a long track record of being one of the absolute best shortstops in baseball and (we) have confidence that he will be that before the season is out.”
Lindor said he hadn’t really considered whether the time on the injured list affected his defensive rhythm, though he acknowledged some plays have sped up on him.
“I never really thought about it but there have been some plays that got a little fast,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s missing time or if it’s just that I’ve got to be better.”
Even with the rough stretch, Lindor still entered Saturday as one of only three Mets to grade out as above-average defensively, along with Carson Benge and Jared Young. He led the team with one out above average, but that is a long way from the standard he set in 2024, when he had 15 outs above average, and last year, when he had five.
Green said the answer starts with how the team thinks about the game.
“You have to take the mentality that you’re going to score, that you’re going to make plays, that you’re going to defend the field,” Green said. “I think a little bit of a mentality shift is a positive thing in that setting.”
Lindor has been through enough, and done enough, to deserve the chance to work his way out of this. He’s the same player who hit the NLCS-clinching grand slam against the Phillies, played through a broken toe and a balky back, and skipped paternity leave so he could get back to his team sooner.
One bad season does not erase all of that. And it is still far too early to write him off.
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