The New York Mets are the clear-cut winners of the MLB offseason. Why? Their 2022 starting rotation includes Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer. This is baseball’s best one-two pitching punch, and it could become one of the elite duos in the history of the sport. That said, New York’s prolific rotation duo isn’t the key to them being a National League contender; their success comes down to Francisco Lindor.
New manager Buck Showalter has a deep roster in talent and one with playoff expectations attached to it. The new arrivals, which also include Starling Marte, Mark Canha and Eduardo Escobar, are vital, but without the presumed fixtures of this ballclub being bedrocks, the Mets won’t be the juggernaut that they’re designed to be.
Here’s why Lindor is pivotal to the New York Mets’ playoff aspirations.
Francisco Lindor had a rough debut season with the New York Mets
The first splash of the Steve Cohen era was acquiring Lindor from Cleveland and later giving him a $341 million contract before opening day. Playing under the final year of his preexisting contract, Lindor had quite possibly the worst season of his MLB career.
Lindor struggled mightily at the plate across the first three months of the season. Then he had flashes of the Lindor the Mets signed up for after the MLB All-Star Game, launching home runs and hitting at a plausible level. All in all, though, he had an abysmal year.
Opposing pitchers induced a great deal of weak contact from Lindor, and the only threat he posed was that he has been an impact player in the past. To boot, he hit a career-low .230.
- Francisco Lindor stats (2021): .230/.322/.412, 20 home runs and 63 RBIs across 452 at-bats
It also didn’t help that his struggles came during a season where the Mets were unable to capitalize on the feeble nature of their division, the National League East. Lindor was one of a handful of position players who disappointed but the only one whose arrival was met with a historic contract.
No matter the way you slice it, the Mets didn’t get Lindor’s best in 2021.
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New York Mets need firing offense to complement elite starting rotation
The Mets are going to have an elite rotation, as deGrom and Scherzer are arguably the two best starting pitchers on the diamond. A healthy Carlos Carrasco is a force to be reckoned with. While inconsistent, Taijuan Walker flaunted upside last season. David Peterson and Tylor Megill have had their moments.
An MLB team can make the playoffs with great starting pitching and a middle-of-the-pack offense. The Mets’ issue? Most of their starters have a shaky injury history of late and their bullpen is a loose cannon. Furthermore, the Mets shockingly had one of the worst offenses in baseball last season.
A year ago, an offense that featured Lindor, Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil, James McCann, Dominic Smith and Michael Conforto figured to do damage. It did the opposite. New York’s offense finished last season 29th in MLB in hits (1,243), 27th in runs (636), 24th in OPS (.705) and 20th in batting average (.239).
- Francisco Lindor contract per Spotrac: Entering the first season of a 10-year, $341 million deal
McNeil and Smith could be on the move due to the team’s free agent additions and Robinson Cano returning to the field next season (Cano was suspended for 2021 due to PED use). This group has the talent and individual resumes to be a top-tier offense. Lindor setting the table for those behind him makes this unit a collective force.
New York’s rotation being accompanied by a high-octane offense makes them a 90-win team and helps alleviate their potential bullpen shortcomings.
Francisco Lindor has to be the New York Mets’ $341 million star
This is an expensive ballclub. In fact, the Mets now have, far and away, MLB’s highest payroll at roughly $236 million per Spotrac. Lindor began the team’s meteoric rise to that spending echelon. Alonso and deGrom are the faces of the franchise, but Lindor is paid to perform up to such a categorization.
Lindor’s career has been a mixed bag. While he has traditionally been a considerable threat from both sides of the plate, he’s also just a career .278 hitter, which is inflated by his early MLB success. That’s not what you expect from someone hitting near the top of the order. The idea for someone hitting in the top-third of the lineup is for them to either get on base or slug at a high level. Lindor does both inconsistently and can be difficult to get a gauge on. He hasn’t actually had a great season since 2019.
The Mets’ presumed offensive improvement can be misleading. These moves make them a much better defensive team, which has recently been a weakness. Offensively, though, the moves bring minimal change. For instance, while Marte is an All-Star-caliber player and Canha is versatile, the two players are essentially replacing Conforto, who has been a sturdy right fielder. Meanwhile, Escobar is replacing midseason pickup Javier Baez and one, if not both of McNeil and Smith on the infield depth chart.
The Mets are better than three of their divisional rivals, that being the Philadelphia Phillies, Miami Marlins and Washington Nationals. It’s a matter of getting through the NL Wild Card cluster and potentially challenging the World Series-champion Atlanta Braves. Concerning the latter, there’s zero margin for error.
Francisco Lindor is a two-way player, but he has to hit up to his billing. Him being the star that the Mets backed up the truck for makes them a safe bet to make the playoffs. With more of last season from him and others, the Mets’ five-year playoff drought will extend another year.