The sun hasn’t even had a chance to bake the Port St. Lucie dirt yet, and already the New York Mets are staring down a crisis that feels all too familiar. Francisco Lindor, the man who practically holds the keys to the franchise’s postseason hopes, is headed for an exam that could possibly derail the start of his 2026 campaign.
David Stearns dropped the news Tuesday like a lead balloon, revealing that his star shortstop might be dealing with a stress reaction in his left hamate bone. If that sounds like a minor annoyance, you clearly haven’t followed the history of hitters who have had their seasons torpedoed by that tiny, hooked bone in the palm.
Surgery is firmly on the table, and while a six-week recovery timeline technically keeps Opening Day against the Pirates in play, that is a massive “if” to hang a season on. Lindor is the heartbeat of this roster, a guy who somehow played 160 games last year despite a fractured pinky toe and had off-season elbow surgery. He’s the iron man of Queens, but even the toughest nails eventually find a hammer they can’t beat. This isn’t just about whether he’s standing at shortstop on March 26; it’s about what kind of hitter he’ll be when he actually returns.
The Power Problem and the Hamate Curse
History tells us that hamate injuries are absolute thieves when it comes to power. We’ve seen it time and again where a slugger returns to the lineup only to realize their grip strength and “oomph” stayed behind on the operating table. It took Giancarlo Stanton a full year to look like himself again after his hamate fracture, and even Mike Trout struggled with the lingering effects during his recent bouts with hand issues. Lindor just turned in a spectacular 2025 where he joined the 30-30 club for the second time, posting 31 homers, 31 steals, and a 6.3 fWAR that ranked him among the game’s elite.
The Mets cannot afford a version of Lindor that is merely slapping singles through the hole because he can’t turn on a fastball. He carried a 129 wRC+ last season, proving that his 2024 MVP runner-up finish wasn’t some fluke of nature.
This team has already undergone a seismic shift this winter with the departure of Pete Alonso to Baltimore and the arrival of Bo Bichette and Jorge Polanco. The margin for error in the NL East is thinner than a piece of deli meat, and losing your defensive anchor and offensive catalyst to a “stress reaction” is a nightmare scenario for a front office trying to prove they’ve built a sustainable winner.
No Time for Early Season Slumps
Stearns has been busy reshaping this lineup to be more flexible, but there is no substituting what Lindor provides in terms of stability. The guy has averaged 158 games over the last four seasons, a level of durability that is almost extinct in the modern game.
Forcing him back for an arbitrary date in late March seems like a recipe for a lingering disaster that could haunt the Mets into the summer. If he needs the surgery, the team should probably prepare for the reality that April might be a month of survival rather than dominance.
The statistics from similar hand procedures suggest a median return-to-play time of about 45 days, but that rarely accounts for the “feel” of the bat in a player’s hands. We are talking about a guy who hit 31 home runs and drove in 86 runs while essentially playing on one healthy foot for half of last year. He’s a gamer, sure, but the Mets need him at peak performance for a September push, not dragging a compromised hand through a cold series in Pittsburgh. It’s a gut punch for a fan base that was finally starting to feel some optimism after a busy January.
More about:New York Mets
