QUEENS, NY — Francisco Lindor’s final two months of this 2026 season are one of the most important things for these Mets, as they play out the remainder of a dismal campaign.
It finally appears as though the star shortstop is coming around.
After his customary slow start to the year was exacerbated by a calf injury that limited him to just 40 games in the first half, Lindor has found his swing. In his last 15 games, he is batting .291 with a .971 OPS, four home runs, and 13 RBI. He had his biggest night of the season in Monday’s 14-3 beatdown of the Atlanta Braves, in which he went 3-for-5 with a triple, a pair of home runs, and six RBI.
He accounted for the Mets’ first three runs of the night against Braves southpaw Martin Perez with an RBI triple in the first inning and a 386-foot two-run home run in the third that just snuck over the left-field wall. In the eighth, he launched a no-doubter into the left-field seats.
Even more promising was that he did all of this from the right side of the plate — a split in which he had only hit one home run with four RBI this entire season entering Monday’s action.
“He’s one of the best players in baseball, and it’s a matter of time before the best players in baseball get hot,” interim manager Andy Green said. “Obviously, he would have loved to have been healthier in the first half of the season, but he can only take care of today.”
He’s been especially hot over his last eight games, which began with a 3-for-3 day with a home run and three RBI on July 19 against the Phillies in Philadelphia. Since then, he has a 1.255 OPS with three round-trippers and 11 RBI.
“The beginning of the year sucked, but I gotta get better, and I gotta continue to push myself day in and day out and try to find ways to be the best version of myself to help this team win,” Lindor said. “We’re humans. We all try to make stuff happen when things aren’t happening. When things are happening, it’s like a weight is off your shoulders and you just play free.
“It sucks the position that we’re in, but we enjoyed today. We really play for each other, have fun, enjoy it, and then come back tomorrow and try to build again.”
While the results have continuously not been there for the Mets this season, a 22-run outburst in two games against the two-time defending-champion Los Angeles Dodgers and the NL East-leading Braves at least provides some hope that something positive can be built, both for the collective and for Lindor, who is trying to salvage perhaps the most disappointing individual showing of his career.
“He stayed through a couple of balls,” veteran second baseman Marcus Semien said. “It was good to see him from the right side and show that power. Everybody’s starting to get healthy. It’s a good sign.”
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