The Mets ended their losing streak at 12 games Wednesday night, but Francisco Lindor suffered an injury to his left calf in the win that will sideline him for “quite a while.” The club did not give a timeline for a return, but typically, a moderate-grade calf strain requires 6-8 weeks of rehab before a minor league assignment. Lindor is making no guarantees, but he’s hoping to be back before the All-Star break.
“I’ve got to go through the process on a daily basis, but hopefully, sooner rather than later,” Lindor said Thursday at Citi Field. “I don’t really have a timetable.”
Nor does he want one. The shortstop doesn’t know the grade of the strain, or any sort of target date, even tentatively, because he says he doesn’t want to.
“It just plays with my head,” he said. “I trust the trainers here. We have really good trainers and really good people at the house as well that will help me get back on the field.”
The injury occurred while he was running the bases on a play where he scored from first on a double by Francisco Alvarez. He felt it when he stepped on third base, but still kept going down the line, sliding into home plate feet-first. He was safe, but it was obvious he was in some pain.
His calf injury came the same day Juan Soto returned to play after dealing with a mild calf strain of his own.
This isn’t the first strained calf Lindor has dealt with, suffering one during the offseason in 2019 while with Cleveland. This situation isn’t exactly comparable though, since it was a right calf strain and a left ankle sprain that landed him on the injured list to start the season.
This is Lindor’s first trip to the injured list since 2021, his first season in New York, and only the third of his career. However, the 32-year-old has been banged up over the last few years.
In 2024, Lindor played the last two months of the season and the entire postseason with a lower back injury. Last year, after the season ended, he underwent a right elbow debridement procedure, then broke the hamate bone in his left hand shortly before spring training started, which required another surgery.
Lindor had recently been showing signs that his slow start was dissipating. He hit safely in four straight games during the last homestand, hit his first home run on the road at Dodger Stadium last week, and drove in four runs in the last two games. However, he’s made some uncharacteristic mental mistakes in the field recently. The Mets don’t exactly know why.
A key team leader in the clubhouse, Lindor doesn’t want to make any excuses for the way he’s played, and seems to know that in his position, he can’t.
“We’re athletes, we depend on our bodies,” he said. “Stuff like this happens. It’s part of the game. It comes with territory, and you’ve got to toughen up and try to find a way to get healthy to be on the field. Yeah, even though the last two weeks weren’t the best for us, we were still going through the process and just loving each other and being there for each other.”
Ronny Mauricio was called up from Triple-A Syracuse to take Lindor’s spot on the roster and in the middle infield. Bo Bichette, a career shortstop, will remain at third base, but could see some time at shortstop before Lindor returns.
Now 25, Mauricio is no longer a prospect. The switch-hitting infielder wasn’t afforded consistent playing time in the big leagues last season, and the Mets started him in Triple-A this season because they couldn’t guarantee it to him this year either. He’s been hitting the cover off the ball in Syracuse, with six home runs and an OPS of .987 in Triple-A.
He’s struggled to hit breaking balls in the big leagues, but getting regular at-bats could help him improve his pitch selection.
“The tools are right there, right? We’ve seen when he gets everyday at-bats what he’s capable of doing,” said manager Carlos Mendoza. “So here he is, he’s going to get an opportunity to get playing time. We need him to step up, obviously, but just to continue to playing his game.”
Mark Vientos said he ignored third base coach Tim Leiper’s signal to hold up at third base Wednesday night, choosing to try to score from first base “on instinct.” He saw the coach try to get him to stop, but threw off his helmet and rounded third base anyway on a double by Marcus Semien in the bottom of the sixth inning against the Minnesota Twins.
He was thrown out at the plate easily, but still defended his actions, saying he would rather make aggressive plays that don’t work out, than be passive.
However, the Mets disagreed with the 26-year-old first baseman.
“It was addressed,” Mendoza said. “We handled it. I talked to him. We can’t have that.”