Mets Fans SPLIT... Francisco Lindor Deal Incoming?

Mets fans split, Francisco Lindor deal incoming, a big name in the media industry discuss the near certainty in trading the Amazons almost captain, leading some fans to side with him and others to greatly depict his claims. We'll dive into the stats and career of New York's longest tenured player in order to get to the truth only here on Mets Digest. I'm here with Sane Mike Duda, stoked to do so, but first I want to thank each and every single one of the over seven and a half thousand subscribers that we have on the channel. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to hit that free subscribe button and if you're part of the 68% of viewers who have not yet done so, please consider on the road to 8000 subscribers. It's free and it's worth the while. We got videos coming out each and every single day between myself and Josh Byrne, sometimes two, three, and even four videos in a given day. Thank you so much in advance. And let's dive in with who sparked this entire controversy. And it was Mike Francesa, a huge media slash radio name saying the following regarding the amazing shortstop quote, the Mets are going to try very, very hard to trade Francisco Lindoor. End quote. Now, do I believe this? No. I think that if you're not familiar, Francesa was a big name in the Yankees industry. So I think this is a Yankees fan slash media member trying to stir up drama about the Mets. That is not true simply because they hate the Mets and whatever their little bro syndrome is. But regardless, Francesa didn't back down. In fact, he doubled down saying that Juan Soto and Lindoor's relationship is quote still not good. End quote. Despite the owner, Steve Cohen's recent claims that the drama is now resolved. And as we just heard, Francesa also claims that the Mets are trying to trade Lindoor ahead of this trade deadline on August 3rd. Now, like I said, I don't believe it for two main reasons. First and foremost, a huge media name in the MLB, Ken Rosenthal, simply said it's not true. Quote, with all due respect to Mike, he is not a beat reporter and I haven't seen this from any of the beat reporters. End quote. Meaning Francesa is the only one that's saying that the Mets are looking to trade Lindoor. Nobody is saying that with certainty. Nobody is factually saying that. In fact, the owner himself, Steve Cohen, went on a podcast and said, quote, I don't see them, that being Soto and Lindoor, going anywhere. Listen, I'm lucky enough to have two high quality players like that. With the elimination of whatever issues there were last year, I'm thrilled that they're on the team. Now, whether you're like me and don't believe that there are resolved issues and you think that there are still issues between the two, or if you don't believe that, it doesn't matter. The owner himself said that nobody is going anywhere. Lindoor nor Soto are leaving, they're not being traded, so both of them are going to stay. However, this stirred up a frenzy on Twitter as basically everything does. Opinion, Francisco Lindoor shouldn't be traded. This is somebody that is in the plus saying that Lindoor needs to remain a Met. And I would say that that is the majority as we turn it over to giraffe neck, Mark, a huge Met fan and is known for being a big Met fan and talks a lot on YouTube and Twitter and all of these platforms saying, I really wish people who know zero about baseball would stop talking about baseball. The Mets are not, should not, and will not be trading Francisco Lindoor. He further backs that up with some statistics saying Lindoor had a 6.3 at four last season in 2025, the ninth highest among qualified hitters in all of professional baseball. He went 30, 30 with 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases, 85 RBIs and 117 runs scored. He's 32 years old and still plays fantastic defense at shortstop. Now I personally disagree with the fantastic defense and we'll dive into that a little bit later when we look at the stats. However, there are a lot more fans just like giraffe neck, Mark, such as locked on Mets who says Lindoor could be the fourth player to enter the hall of fame with a Mets cap on. He in all likelihood is a future hall of famer and with this being his sixth season in New York, he is surpassing the amount that he played in Cleveland, his previous team, meaning in all likelihood, if they don't trade him, he will go into the hall of fame as a Met, but that is if they don't trade him. There isn't a world where the Mets actually move Lindoor yet. Some fans are convinced that shipping him out is the best way to ensure future success. Now, if you're asking about my opinion, I'm pretty 50 50 we'll hear this later from a fellow tweeter. I personally believe if the package is right and you can't deny it, you shouldn't deny it. I don't think he is an untouchable, but I wouldn't necessarily say he's somebody that you should go out and ship. I think you should hear offers from him, not necessarily seek them. So let's dive in a little bit more. How about the rankings? This just proves how valuable he is because in the last five years among shortstops with Lindoor ranks 14th in batting average, 10th in OVP, 5th in slug, 5th in OPS, and has the most dingers. So it's Francisco Lindoor, a top five shortstop in all of the MLB. I mean, when you're asking that, it's pretty obvious that he is a really talented ball player. And why would you want to move on from somebody that's that talented? Well, the answer is his clubhouse antics and his struggling season here in 2026. But again, we'll dive into that later because right now, another person who believes that Lindoor should stay compared him to arguably the best shortstop in the Mets history, that being Jose Reyes. In far less played appearances, he has a better OPS 799 compared to 768, more home runs, just about the same RBIs. He will surpass that RBI amount sooner rather than later, a better WRC+, a 122 compared to 104, and a better war. But there are still some people who point out his flaws wanting to sell high on the such as UnbiasedMetsFan, who says not to be the dead horse here, but for those that think Francisco Lindoor is immune to father time, that being a regression in statistics with an increase in age, just open your eyes. The Ironman shortstop who plays every single game just came off his first substantial injury at age 32, that being the recent IL stint he had, and has a now 648 OPS in 36 games. We are literally witnessing that father time right now. Moreover, Scott Coleman puts it very simply, only 7 and a half years and $200 million more dollars to go on that lucrative Lindoor contract. And Vintage77 brings up the point that I've been trying to say, if there is a deal that makes sense, the Mets should consider it. Lindoor is on the back side of his career, production wasn't great last year, now I disagree with that when you look at the overall numbers, when you look at the early months, yes the production was low, and again we'll dive into that later, talking all of Lindoor's career. This year, it was injuries. Yes it was, he's only played 36 games right now, and the Mets have played nearly 100. Not sure why everyone thinks he's an untouchable. I don't think he is. I've said my 5 untouchables multiple times before. It's Nolan McLean, Christian Scott, and the outfield Juan Soto, AJ Ewing, and Carson Bench. I do not include Lindoor on there. Now does it have to take a ransom to trade Lindoor in my opinion? Yes, but I don't think he is an untouchable personally, additionally Coleman brought up some of these advanced metrics, which we'll dive into later, but first I want to talk about people like Doug, who simply are just trying to fathom what is happening. Never thought that less than 2 years after the Mets spent a fortune, the largest contract in baseball history, to get Juan Soto in free agency, that it would be suggested that they trade away Lindoor. Yet here we are, and with the Mets in last place too. Pretty crazy. I agree with you Doug. So let's take the most objective look that we can, taking it over to the statistics. First and foremost, there are overwhelmingly clear positives about Francisco Lindoor. Look at all those stats. Those are great. His career is fantastic, 813 OPS, 119 OPS+, 29 dingers a year, 89 RBIs, the war is super high at 5.7, great career batting average, he plays almost every game every season with averaging 149 out of the 162 game season. His defense is fabulous, he's won a ton of awards, multiple-time all-star, so that is all great. However, when you look at this, I have the gold on top for if Lindoor's Cleveland tenure leads in that particular category, and it does, for games played per season, war, batting average, OBP, slugging, OPS, and total accolades and awards, he was better in Cleveland than he was with the Mets, statistically speaking, and that leads into some of the negatives, specifically that worse tenure with the Mets compared to the then Indians, now Guardians. So I normally had this as an entire graph, a big graph, but I ended up splitting it up into a couple of things because I want to hone in on a few things. First and foremost, the fact that Lindoor, as a Met, on average, according to the advance metrics, is pretty much worse than in Cleveland. Yes, he has a better batting run value and a better base running value, but he is a substantially worse fielder as a Met compared to as a Guardian, and this doesn't even include the 2026 season, this is before the injury ridicule 26, if you're going to say that the injuries are an excuse for him not doing well this year. Yes, the chase rate is better, but he's whiffing more, he's striking out more, his outs above average, a defensive metric, is worse, and he is running slower, his sprint speed is also worse. And I think this is best exemplified by the following stat, which shows a lot of career worst and on pace for career lows in certain advance metrics. Like batting run value this year, base running value, additionally, whiff percentage, outs above average, arm strength, sprint speed, they are all on pace for the worst of Lindoor's career. Moreover, there is a big difference when you compare the Cleveland averages overall to the Met averages, he's worse as a hitter, he's worse as a fielder, and stats like whiff percentage and K rate, OAA, sprint speed, he's slower, and that means when you look at it from a career standpoint going into this year, compared to now, only factoring in 36 extra games, you still have a way worse hitter, you have a way worse base runner, a worse fielder, someone that whiffs more, strikes out more, has a worse arm strength wise and fielding range, and is a slower player with worse sprint speed. And that's not even to mention the obvious flaw that we see every single year, and that is that Lindoor really, really struggles to start out every single season. Throughout March to June, the first really three months of the season, because you only play about a week's game in March, he is not a good hitter, .236, .312, .418 slash for a .730 OPS. That's not great, I'd say the average MLB hitter has around a .750 OPS, if anything Lindoor is hovering around an average MLB ballplayer for the first three months of every season as a New York Met. Compare that to July and September, and the slash looks incredibly better, a .287, .368, .506 for an .874 OPS, more home runs in far less games, and just about the same RBIs in the back end three months of a given season compared to the first three, and this is a trend from 2021 up until this season for Lindoor. Now when you compare that to his time with the Guardians, it's clear that he wasn't that kind of hitter with Cleveland. Yes, these stats are worse in March to June compared to July to September, but it's not significant. It's only a 10 point drop in batting average, four on OBP, slugging is only eight for only a 12 difference in OPS, and the homers and RBIs, if you were to factor them out for 162, are pretty similar. I don't think that's necessarily anything crazy, meaning Lindoor was a more consistent player across every single month back with Cleveland, and overall, I'm still going to say I think he was a better player with Cleveland. Look at the differences per month, and then look at it overall. He's a substantially worse player in March to June with the Mets than he was with the Guardians. There is a difference in nearly .50 batting average points, .3 on the OBP, nearly .67 for the slug, and just about a one full 100 OPS minus when you look at his Mets tenure compared to his Guardians tenure in these given months, and in fact, yeah, he's hit more home runs and more RBIs, but it's in significantly more games played, and you can follow that up with this year. As we know, the advance metrics are not there. There's a lot of blue on here. His defense has gone down, and right now, he's not hitting well at all with an OPS at 648, just four homers and 10 RBIs in 36 games played, so one very simple question to wrap things up. Should the Mets trade Francisco Lindor? One, yes. Two, no. Or three, my opinion, which is listen to offers and take it as you want. If you get a package that you simply cannot deny, go ahead, trade Lindor, but if you don't get that, it's fine. He's going to be your shortstop for a very long time moving forward, but go down in the comment section and let me know if you agree or disagree. Unfortunately, that's all the time I have for you in today's video. Thank you so much, as always, for watching, and let's go Mets!