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.
Mauricio is listed as a switch hitter but last season he had an .800 OPS vRHP and .250 OPS vLHP. He’s probably more of a strict platoon lefty bat than the actual LH bats in the lineup
Semien is old. He’s has perhaps a few years of second base left. Then will be out of the league. Offense is bad and Father Time will take the infield away soon
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.
Bichette has been a better defender at 3B than he ever was as a SS.
Defensively, the better team is with Mauricio at SS.
Offensively it doesn’t make that much difference
I love when people who don’t actually watch games pontificate about what needs to happen. Bichette has been fine at 3B and wasn’t a great SS to begin with. Bo at 3B and Mauricio at SS is the way to go.
And moving Baty to 3B would mean having to put Soto in the OF, which shouldn’t happen until they’re sure he’s 100% healthy.
Also, pining for the days of Alonso at 1B is crazy when he was a terrible defensive first baseman by nearly every metric.
That’s right. Bichette’s issue was his range and ability to go right. 3B should be better glove wise, but his arm is just enough.
Except he was the best in the league at digging throws which makes every other infielder better on paper than they actually are without him defensively. So while his defensive metrics may not look great the rest of the infield is worse defensively without him.
You are right. THe Mets are DOOMED this yr. Bichette sucks at third BTW. If he has a decent yr, he is walking to the highest bidder.
He’s actually been really solid at 3B. He’s already worth 1 OAA and holding steady at 0 DRS with only seven 3B ahead of him.
@rob Bichette has not sucked at 3B. I 💯 expected he’d be horrible at 3B which simply has not been the case.
Pete not proving Mets wrong letting him go. Looking like Chris Davis 2.0 so far.
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.
You’re right on the money, Hank. It’s such a bizarre thing.
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.
Yep
Wonder if Lindor keeps in contact with his teammates while he’s out.
Brian Kenny and Jared Carrabis were discussing Juan Soto telling reporters that asked if he kept in contact with his teammates when he was on the IL he said “no” and then said “they were on the road”. This and the stories from Yankees players saying Soto changed his number right after the season ended says Soto is very much an island unto himself
All in family guy. They’re on the island. Having a great time I imagine.
Rsox: this stuff is for people who are fond of gossip, not baseball.
This is Mauricio’s chance to prove himself otherwise he will be done in orange and blue.
Mendoza needs to go , they should promote him out of the manager position.
Trade Mendoza to the Red Sox, even it it’s just for a box of balls.
What will Mets do when/if their record without Lindor is better than with Lindor after 6 weeks ?
They will start him as they should. 7 others players contributed to the Mets offensive woes. Once Soto was injured that # became 8.
Lindor has often got off to slow starts. Once he comes around the Mets are absolutely better when he is playing.
The losing streak they had can be attributed to most of the players on the team. You are trying to correlate them losing with solely Lindor which is by no means true.
Bichette and Baty are finally coming around, Alvarez has shown some good patience as of late and Benge is starting to get back to spraying line drives. They’re pitching staff while it may look like a mess have 3 good starters in McClean, Peralta and Holmes. If one of Peterson or Senga can perform on an every other start basis then it’s a good staff. The bullpen shouldn’t be taxed as much and there are the makings of a decent team. Whether they can make up for this putrid start is another story. Alas it’s only April and it’s more about how you finish than how you start.
Well Senga is done as a starter and Peterson is in the bullpen and Manaea has done nothing. So there are still 2 starting pitchers spots open and we’re going into May.