Francisco Lindor was placed on the Mets’ 10-day injured list on Thursday due to a left calf strain, and the team now has a loose idea about how long the All-Star shortstop may be out of action. Manager Carlos Mendoza and president of baseball operations David Stearns told reporters (including the New York Post’s Jake Nisse) yesterday that Lindor will be in a walking boot for the next week, and will be fully re-evaluated in three weeks’ time.
If all goes well, Lindor projects to be back in the Mets’ lineup before the end of May. Supposing that Lindor is given the green light in mid-May after his three-week shutdown, he’ll need at least a week of baseball activities and workouts to bring him back up to speed, plus at least a couple of rehab games.
This is just the best-case scenario, however. A more concrete timeline can’t be established until after Lindor is re-evaluated, and it is certainly possible that his calf might still be sore after three weeks’ time. Calf injuries have been known to linger or even to be season-threatening in more severe cases, though there isn’t any sign that Lindor’s issue is anything that serious.
It has already been an injury-marred season for Lindor, as he missed most of Spring Training due to hamate bone surgery. Lindor was able to make it back and play a few Grapefruit League games before the end of camp and avoided a season-opening stint on the injured list, yet it seems like the missed time had an impact. Lindor has a modest .226/.314/.355 slash line over his first 105 plate appearances, far below his usual standard.
Even if Lindor is able to return by late May, losing their star shortstop for “only” a month is still a major blow for the struggling Mets to try and overcome. New York has a dismal 9-17 record and is already 9.5 games behind the Braves for first place in the NL East. Virtually the entire Mets lineup is off to a collective slow start at the plate, and the loss of Juan Soto (to a calf strain of his own) for just shy of three weeks only worsened the offensive power outage.
Ronny Mauricio probably isn’t the answer to these batting woes, as Mauricio has hit only .236/.294/.357 over 303 career plate appearances in the majors. However, Mauricio is a former top prospect who has a history of crushing Triple-A pitching, so he’ll get another chance to break out as the expected regular shortstop in Lindor’s absence.
He will be back right around the time the Mets are mathematically eliminated.
The Mets would probably perform better if they let Bichette play shortstop , Baty at third base , but they won’t do this because of some self concocted theory that if Bichette plays shortstop for six weeks, he will not be able to adjust back to third base. Meanwhile, the first base play remains horrendous as they did not have a good plan to replace Alonso.
Self concocted theory is right. It apparently doesn’t apply to super utility guys: “Well, our regular CF/LF/2B (fill in the blank) just hit the IL, but we can’t plug Johnny into that spot for 2 months or else he’ll forget how to play the other positions.” If there’s a proof of concept for that theory I’d love to hear it.
The difference is
A Bichette is not a good SS to begin with (think he was graded as worst for qualified SS)
B does not have alot of experience at 3b with never playing there until he signed with the mets so the move could actually hurt him as he is getting regular placement there now.
C Baty was ok at 3B but seems like Bichette and him are about even maybe Bichette is better now (full confession i didnt think he would be good there)
Based on this theory though they should move Simein to short as he was a good SS back in the day if i recall and move baty to 2b with bichette staying on 3b. Simein was moved from short to accomodate bichette in toronto and Seager in Texas. So your defense stays in tact for the most part. You keep the same lineup no major changes and keep a somewhat balanced lineup of lefty righty with now mauricio is your supersub that is a switch hitter. Again all theoritical assuming that you never forget your position.
They need to let Mauricio handle it. He’s toiled down in the minors long enough. If Bichette was still a capable shortstop some team would have signed him to play that position. But no one wanted to.
I’m a Braves fan, but Lindor is my fav Met. Seems like a great guy. I hope he’s able to return soon.
Weird
You are
I like him too. Some Mets fans love to hate their best players. Just like with Soto.
Hammerin’ Hank,
While some Mets fans may not like Lindor (due in part to his notorious “thumbs down” gesture to the fans and the reported rift between him and departed fan favorites Alonso/Nimmo/McNeil), Soto is extremely popular among Mets fans.
Is a walking boot for a calf strain normal?
I know, Google is my friend, but in terms of baseball I don’t recall ever hearing that.