After a long day at work on Thursday, and a drubbing to my Seton Hall Pirates brought on by a lowly DePaul squad, I needed something to take my mind off of the day. I turned to my biggest vice, the thing that is always able to pull me away from it all better than anything else. That’s right, I’m talking about pulling up New York Mets highlights on Youtube. As sick a vice as anyone can have, I know. Yet, despite that sour ending to the 2021 season, I keep coming back for more in a pursuit of optimism for 2022. After gorging myself with watching all of Pete Alonso’s 37 home runs from last season, I decided to watch Francisco Lindor’s highlights from last season. And yes, outside of that game against the Yankees in which he single-handedly defeated them, there were plenty of highlights.
Yes, last year was a disappointing result for Lindor. Whether it be dugout fights, rat-coons, or thumbs-downing the fans, 2021 was nothing less than a rollercoaster of emotions. But, one of my 2022 New Year’s Resolutions was to live with more optimism, so I’m taking that approach to the franchise shortstop. This year, with a year of Queens under his belt and more capable hitters in the lineup to help protect him, will be the year that Lindor endears himself to the New York crowd. I’m going to be daring enough to say that this year, Lindor is going to put himself into the MVP conversation, much like his days in Cleveland.
The signs were present towards the end of the season in 2021. His second half, in which he was limited to 38 games, showed clear signs of progression from what he was doing in the first half. Despite playing in less than half the amount of games, Lindor almost matched his home run total, and increased his batting average, slugging percentage, and OPS. Maybe he felt more comfortable playing alongside his friend Javier Baez. Maybe, it was also him becoming more comfortable at hitting at Citi Field. Despite consistent jeering at home, he actually performed better across the board statistically while playing at home last season. He even slugged the same amount of home runs at Citi Field as Alonso with 12.
If you need evidence that a low-performing first year is not necessarily a forecast of what’s to come, just look at Curtis Granderson’s Mets career. After coming to the Mets from the Yankees, Granderson’s first year with the team was not ideal. In fact, it was eerily similar to what Lindor did in 2021. 20 home runs, 66 RBI, and a .227 batting average. From a traditional statistic standpoint, that’s essentially identical. Beyond that slow start to his Mets career, Granderson would go on to define himself as one of the essential Mets of the 2010’s, helping to slug the Mets to the World Series in the next season. The record of the Mets in 2014 was 79-83, and 2021 77-85. While there were many other factors in 2015 that helped the Mets turn around into a National League Pennant winner, having Curtis Granderson perform better across the board certainly helped.
Much like how a Lindor improvement won’t single-handedly solve the issues from the 2021 Mets, it will certainly help them compete in 2022. Much like prior results were there for Granderson, there are prior results that exist for Lindor as well. Lindor was signed to the Mets for what he did from 2016-2019 with Cleveland. For those seasons, Lindor was the elite shortstop of the MLB, garnering Silver Sluggers and Golden Gloves like he was a fine jewelry collector.
So far, the projections that Lindor has out for him have been kind to him. Steamer has him putting up a .792 OPS with 30 home runs and 90 RBI, while ZIPS has him slugging 25 home runs. While it is certainly encouraging that baseball minds outside of the New York and New Jersey area think that Lindor is going to bounce back, he still needs to follow up on those projections. When he does follow up, the new Steve Cohen era Mets will be officially ushered in. New York has shown to pull for the guy who rebounds from his struggles, and Mets fans certainly have many reasons to pull for Lindor. With a new coach and a revamped roster to work with in 2022, Lindor should be on bounce-back watch everywhere. Now, if only he could lace up for my Pirates.
Lindor and Granderson both hit 20 home runs in their first Mets season
Lindor’s second half OPS was .813
Lindor slugged 12 Citi Field home runs last season, the same as Alons0
Everyone seems to be treating Lindor with kid gloves. The man demanded and received 34M a year for 10 years. Now he needs to pay like it. Sorry, but Granderson was never expected to play the role that Lindor is expected to fulfill.
Besides his absolutely terrible no good start, Lindor might have been better served to be removed for the pivotal #3 position in the batting order. His failures tanked the team in general. So many times he stranded the few baserunners the Mets had managed, and the team was forced to follow suit. I’m not sure if that boneheaded stubbornness belongs to Rojas or the FO, but I suspect the latter. (The one area I actually approved of Rojas was willingness to adjust the batting order.)
I would love to see Lindor raise the bar and surpass expectations, but I’m afraid that Cleveland knew something about his abilities and dumped him before it became obvious.
That said, I hope he finds himself, commits really hard to improved play, and becomes a force. Certainly he will have a better lineup surrounding him this year, but still I’d hate to see him the undisputed #3 hitter… let’s let things play out and let Buck decide what’s best. Maybe he hits 5th or 6th, until he earns a higher spot.
Lindor had some sour moments, but overall appeared to be getting comfortable in NYC. He never played with Baez before, so I don’t know how much that helped him be more comfortable, but I got the feeling the whole year that there was animosity because of the contract and the Mets free agents – Conforto especially, but Stroman too – not getting lucrative offers from an owner they felt had lucrative abilities. Everyone will be passed that now and hopefully there will be more cohesion.