2023 has been a tumultuous year for the Mets‘ star shortstop, but it looks like Francisco Lindor is turning around his third season in Queens.
After a slow start to the season that saw him hit just .218 through March and April with a .762 OPS, Lindor picked it up a bit offensively, hitting six home runs in May, but still hadn’t quite hit his stride.
However, in his last 28 games, Lindor has turned back into the player the blue and orange faithful witnessed in 2022.
Lindor has slashed .302/.407/.677 with an OPS of 1.084, along with nine home runs and 20 RBIs. He also cut down the strikeouts that plagued him early on, having the same number of strikeouts as walks during this 28-game stretch.
The-29-year-old even made some history recently as, according to OptaStats, Lindor is the first player in the modern MLB era to record eight-plus hits, multiple steals, multiple triples and multiple home runs across a two-game span.
Lindor’s fundamentals have improved
In addition to his bat waking up, Lindor has improved on the fundamentals of the game: baserunning and defense after some early season hiccups.
Lindor leads the team with seven defensive runs saved above average and is second on the team with 13 stolen bases.
“I love my defense,” Lindor said after Friday’s game. “Defense and running the bases. I was out [trying to steal second] but I was able to move my hand and beat [the tag] out. Running the bases, making something happen and then defense, just being able to take hits away and close out the plays, it’s fun.”
Lindor continues to be a team-first guy for the Mets
Despite an overall solid first half, Lindor was not included on the National League’s All-Star team roster and was asked about it in the postgame Friday following the announcement that Geraldo Perdomo would be replacing Dansby Swanson after the latter pulled out of the game due to injury.
“The guys that are in deserve it,” Lindor said. “They deserve it, and on this team, Nimmo deserves it a lot more for me. So let’s get him there first, and then we’ll worry about me.”
Saying the right things to the media and leading a surge back that has brought the blue and orange back into playoff contention should have the Mets happy that they decided to commit a 10-year $341 million to Lindor back before the 2021 season.