Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor is being evaluated for a hamate bone injury, per president of baseball operations David Stearns. The five-time All-Star would face a six-week absence if the injury requires surgery. Steans told reporters, including Jorge Castillo of ESPN, that he’s confident Lindor would be back for the beginning of the season even if he has surgery.
Lindor underwent a debridement procedure on his right elbow early in the offseason. Insurance coverage issues related to the injury kept the Team Puerto Rico captain out of the 2026 World Baseball Classic. The announcement from Stearns is the first mention of the hamate injury. Lindor is set to be examined to determine the next steps. The Mets open the season against the Pirates on March 26.
The 32-year-old Lindor missed a month with an oblique strain in the middle of his first season with the Mets in 2021. Since then, he’s been the picture of health. Lindor has played in at least 152 games in four straight seasons. He’s piled up 680+ plate appearances each year in that stretch, including a league-leading 732 this past year. Lindor hasn’t been on the IL since the 2021 oblique issue.
The six-week timeframe would leave little breathing room for Lindor to recover in time for Opening Day, if he were to undergo surgery. The shortstop has been dealing with the stress reaction in his hamate bone over the past few days, Stearns said (relayed by Anthony Dicomo of MLB.com). Hamate bone issues have a history of sapping power from hitters. Lindor has been a 30-homer hitter for three straight years.
The Mets have a handful of in-house options available to replace Lindor if he misses any time. Free agent acquisition Bo Bichette was ticketed for third base, but could move back to his natural position of shortstop. Bichette’s declining skills at the position narrowed his list of suitors and led to him landing with a team that didn’t need him up the middle, but he could survive at short until Lindor ramped back up.
Ronny Mauricio spent the majority of his minor league career at shortstop. He’s been mostly a third baseman in the big leagues, though that’s mostly due to Lindor’s stranglehold on shortstop. Vidal Bruján is the only other player with recent shortstop experience on the 40-man roster.
Losing Lindor’s bat for any amount of time would be significant for an offense that will look quite different in 2026. Mainstays Brandon Nimmo and Pete Alonso have departed, along with midseason acquisition Cedric Mullins. Marcus Semien, Jorge Polanco, and Luis Robert Jr. are now in the mix, along with Bichette.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images
Ouch.
lol mets
Cool to laughing at team signing high priced players to play the wrong positions defensively.
Not cool to laugh at injuries.
Pretty disgusting to joke about a player’s injury. (a very overplayed and unoriginal joke at that)
Lulz Daniella, lulz 🙄
Bo goes to short, Baty to 3rd. Not a huge problem.
Yes, that’s what they will likely do Machine but six weeks? This injury can be tricky. I recall Papi being out a lot longer than that.
Bo was a horrific fielding SS.
Huge as Bo sucks at short and Baty can’t hit
Injuries suck. Sorry Mets fans. Looks like Bo not starting out at third just yet…and lessens the chance of a Pirates/Mets trade.
Uh oh.
Middle infielder market just picked up.
Who’s left?
I mean they have Bo for SS and they keep Baty at 3rd. Maybe they grab an extra IF like Rengifo to help out but they have the personnel there.
Either way that sucks for them after a successful offseason, and hamate bone injuries can sap some power for a bit.
The Mets don’t need anybody else they’re fine. Players are going to be injured. That’s just the name of the game. They don’t need to grab an extra IF don’t be chicken little I promise you the sky is not falling.
Don’t like that for the Mets. Wishing Lindor the best.
What an odd time to discover the need for a surgery.
Doesn’t seem odd to me. He got to camp 3 days ago.
Not really, GMs are giving their end of offseason/pre-ST pressers and they often include out of the blue injury announcements for stuff that happened over the winter, i.e. O’s GM Mike Elias randomly announcing Kyle Bradish had suffered an elbow sprain during an offseason workout at the start of ST in 2024.
Hamate injuries are fairly common among golfers, so it’s not shocking at all somebody could show up to spring training needing some work done on his wrist.
And he wanted to play in the WBC!
This is likely why he wasn’t getting insurance.
Where did he hurt himself???
Why are so many players suddenly dealing with major injury 1 wk before ST!!! 6 months after end of season
He hurt himself in the hand.
Because they’re starting to do baseball activities again
It’s a stress reaction in the hand & wrist, common among golf and baseball players. I’ve had one myself before from golfing – they don’t feel good. Played the worst round of my life trying to play through it with a compression wristband on, which was not worth it. It mostly affects your ability to grip, but if you cease activity and let it rest for several weeks they can recover on their own. The surgery basically guarantees it will not be an issue again because they remove the broken portion of the bone.
Who did he punch?
this is what alvarez had and sapped all his power, makes me nervous!
Alvarez also can’t stop chasing sliders
Hamate injury is know to sap power. No spring training. Might be inclined to rush him back if they get off to a slow start. Not great, Bob!
He slept on his hand and twerked it getting out of bed.
He should take his time, like 6 months, to return.
Cohen “Stearns, take a billion down to the robotics comment and get Lindy a new arm. We need him catching those relay throws from Soto in short right field”!!
considering this team intends to make it deep into the post season with Bichette and Polanco having virtually no experience on the corners, wouldn’t it be a better strategy to let those two guys spend the entire spring and season at their new positions and let a guy like Mauricio take the reps at SS until Lindor is back?
Yes, that makes more sense to me. Spring Training will be the best lowest risk way to break each player into their brand new positions.
Mauricio plays short, Bichette can be an emergency backup SS if Mauricio has to miss any games between now and Londor’s return.
*Lindor’s return
Mauricio can’t hit and I doubt he can’t play short effectively either.
Ouch, those can be rough. Some players can take a lot longer to recover than others. For his and the Mets sake, I hope he doesn’t rush it.
That’s a huge bummer. He’s a really fun player and the key to that team.
He can make it back in several weeks but it can take up to a year to get the power back. Fortunately he brings value from other parts of his game so they need him out there as soon as possible.