Francisco Lindor didn’t sound like a player soaking in a feel-good September moment after the Mets completed their three-game sweep of the Marlins on Wednesday.
For a franchise that has watched too many seasons wobble late against Miami, this one landed with some real significance. The Mets took all three games in the Marlins’ ballpark, while Miami slipped to 6.5 games out of a Wild Card spot. If the results had gone the other way, the Marlins would have walked away with momentum for the final two and a half weeks.
Lindor was asked how satisfying the sweep felt, and his answer was as restrained as it gets.
"It's in the past. We're focused on this year.
Last year it sucked. This year, we're trying to make the most out of it"
That response did not exactly match the mood of the fan base, and it stood out even more because of what happened in game 162 last season in Miami, when the Marlins knocked the Mets out of the playoffs. Miami celebrated like it had conquered something enormous. Lindor, by contrast, took the quieter road this time too.
What makes it feel different is the tone. Lindor didn’t come off like the usual rally-the-troops presence.
He looked and sounded worn down, almost as if the sweep didn’t register the way it might have in another season. In the past, he’s often been the Mets’ loudest believer.
Here, he sounded far more measured.
That same vibe has shown up before. After Freddy Peralta beat the Mets, Lindor was asked whether the former teammate looked different on that night.
"No, not really. Very similar to how he was in Milwaukee as well. Freddy's a tough pitcher, he's a really good pitcher"
There’s a case that the more muted version of Lindor has something to do with the questions he keeps getting about Juan Soto and whether he’ll waive his no-trade clause this winter. At some point, it can feel like he’s trying not to hand the media a quote it can stretch into a bigger story.
If he had sounded overly fired up about sweeping the Marlins, the conversation probably would have turned into another round of “what does it matter?” debates.
There’s also the larger backdrop. Lindor has missed a big chunk of the season and has gone through stretches where he hasn’t looked like himself.
Maybe that changes the way these games land. Maybe it makes the emotional temperature a little harder to read.
The last time he sounded especially bullish on the Mets, at least on the SNY Mets X timeline, came around July 31, when he talked about the clubhouse entering the trade deadline with a win-every-game mindset.
"Marcus said it best earlier. He said that we've got to win every game.
You never know what can happen. That's the mentality here, everybody's trying to focus on winning.
It's…"
That was a different tone, and the Mets were playing better in August anyway. But even that run didn’t end up changing the bigger picture.
Still, Lindor may be underselling the moment a little. Sweeping the Marlins should matter.
Maybe he wasn’t going to say it outright, but it’s hard to imagine he didn’t feel a little extra satisfaction getting a bit of payback. Competitive players don’t always advertise that part.
They just carry it quietly.
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