BRONX, NY — Not only has Francisco Lindor been one of the best players in baseball since May 18 when he was moved full-time into the lead-off spot, but he has helped lead the New York Mets from the brink of ruin in 2024 to the cusp of the top Wild Card spot in the National League.
The superstar shortstop continued his remarkable two-month run on Wednesday night to smack down the New York Yankees 12-3 and complete the Mets’ second-ever Subway Series sweep of their crosstown rivals. He hit his 20th and 21st home runs of the season — the first of the night searing into the second deck in right field off Yankees ace Gerrit Cole in the fifth inning to open up some breathing room and make it a 5-2 game — while driving in five runs.
“I love winning,” Lindor said. “This is more for the fans to talk, for bragging rights. For us, we just have to go out there and take care of business no matter who is on the other side.”
The Mets have been taking business better than anyone else in the majors since June 7. Their 26-13 record over the last 39 games is the very best in Major League Baseball, catapulting them from an 11-game hole under .500 to sitting just 1.5 games behind the Atlanta Braves for second place in the NL East and the top Wild Card spot entering Thursday night’s pivotal series opener.
“The vibes are completely different than when we were losing,” Lindor said. “Right now, we understand that we have a good team and we have great players and great people in this clubhouse… We better continue to play the game the right way and win games because, at the end of the day, we’re trying to be in the postseason, and give ourselves a chance.”
This run would not be possible without Lindor, who is slashing is slashing .308/.390/.568 (.958 OPS) with 14 home runs and 39 RBI since assuming the lead-off role. His 4.1 WAR during that span is third in the majors behind Kansas City Royals star Bobby Witt Jr. and Yankees slugger and AL MVP favorite, Aaron Judge.
It has completely wiped away a miserable start of the 2024 campaign for the 30-year-old, who was batting a paltry .190 in his first 45 games of the season.
“Eventually, I was going to start giving better at-bats, putting together better at-bats,” Lindor said. “Leading off, I have a lot more protection because I have eight guys behind me instead of seven… I’m trying to ride this hot streak as long as I can, stay within myself, and just be able to execute. At the beginning of the year, I felt like I was missing a lot of pitches. I couldn’t get the barrel to the baseball. Now, I’m not missing them when I swing… I just have to continue to climb and stay within myself.”
Lindor admitted that he has not done much to change his approach, nor are opposing pitchers attacking him any different: “I am who I am. My approach is the same whether I’m leading off, second, third.”
What he is, additionally, is a generational player for a Mets organization that has lacked non-pitching superstars for the majority of its existence. Lindor has quickly developed into one of the finest shortstops in the club’s history while re-writing the record books in the process.
Before he arrived in 2021, there was only one instance in Mets history in which a shortstop hit 20 or more home runs in a season (Asdrubal Cabrera hit 23 in 2016). With Lindor’s big night on Wednesday, he clinched his fourth 20-plus home-run season with the Mets.
It also gave him a second-consecutive 20-20 season (20 home runs and 20 stolen bases), making him just the fifth Met ever to have multiple such years (Darryl Strawberry, Howard Johnson, Carlos Beltran, David Wright).
“He’s a great player. I feel like I sit here every day and talk about how good of a player he is,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Everything that he does on the field, this is a guy that wants to be here, he wants to play… You can’t take that away from a guy like that. A great player who is having a really good [run]. I’m not surprised by it because I’ve seen it.”
