Francisco Lindor Is A MAJOR Question Mark For The Mets...

Francisco Lindor is a major question mark for the Mets. The longtime franchise shortstop was absolutely dependable in putting up over five wins above replacement per season and showcasing himself as one of the best shortstops in the league. But David Stearns might have to look at his star shortstop differently now as he's coming off the worst season of his career and raising serious questions about his feasibility as being that anchor in the middle of the lineup, being that superstar shortstop for years to come, because right now it is not entirely clear what we as fans and what the Mets as an organization should be expecting from Lindor moving forward. What's going on, guys? I'm Josh Byrne. You're tuned into Mets Digest. Guys, thank you so much for all the support. I'll say it again. You know, it really does mean a lot. So if you've been enjoying the daily updates, please do consider subscribing. If you've been watching the videos for a while now, I've made it no secret that Francisco Lindor is my favorite player on the New York Mets. Lindor, much like many stars of present and past for the New York Mets, is somewhat of a divisive figure. And you think back to the Carlos Beltran's, even David Wright's, they had some people who were highly critical of them. And I agree in the sense of if you're a high-paid player playing in a big market like New York, playing for the New York Mets, there is a high expectation. There is a high amount of accountability that must be taken. And there is reason and validity in people being very critical of players like Lindor and in the past Beltran and David Wright. In my opinion, some of the criticism is a bit unfair but one thing that I will say is fair is knocking him for his performance this past season which was simply put the worst of his career now let's let's rewind this a second and we go back to 2021 the winter of 2021 Steve Cohen's first offseason as Mets owner and not only did he really lead the charge in terms of the Mets as an organization trading for Lindor but he also wanted to make a statement and the statement was signing Lindor to a mega 10-year 341 million dollar extension at the time and we are just about halfway through that contract now and when you look at what Francisco Lindor did in his age 32 season he put up a 733 OPS 21 home runs and overall he put up 1.8 Baseball Reference wins above replacement these aren't horrible numbers if you're looking at the average shortstop I mean there's not a ton of shortstops that can hit 21 home runs and granted he also was injured for a good chunk of the season he only played in 100 some odd games 418 at bats but unfortunately when you're looking at a guy who's making over 30 million dollars which I understand over 30 million isn't the same eye-opening number that it used to be but when Lindor was given his contract he was the highest paid shortstop in Major League Baseball. And through the first number of years in his deal, he was living up to that. You look at, I mean, 21 was a down season, but he was playing elite defense. So he was far more valuable then despite putting up roughly the same OPS he had this season. 2022, very good. 23, really good again. 24, he was an MVP candidate. And 25, not quite as good as 24, but he was still really good in 26 I showed you the numbers there a second ago not populating in this graphic but we saw them so then it makes you think so to what extent is Lindor declining is it just the offense is it just the defense how worried should we be well let's look at what baseball savant is illustrating for us and what baseball savant is illustrating is that when you look at his offensive peripherals there are some things to like here he is clearly not washed up as a hitter i would say these are most definitely above average numbers yeah the expected batting average is low but he wasn't striking out an overwhelming amount of times he actually had one of the higher walk percentages of his career the launch angle was oddly low this season but he was still hitting the ball very hard he didn't have a problem driving balls over the fence the real issue with Lindor in my view is not as much the offense I expect his offensive numbers to be better from an OPS and OPS plus standpoint than they were this season next year and for the years ahead but what I can't quite answer for or defend or however you want to you know illustrate what I'm doing right now what I cannot do is rationalize where the defense is at because again this is what he did in 2026 look at 2025 and the offensive metrics are not that far off but look at the fielding above the 90th percentile and outs above average and it just completely fell off a cliff in 2026 and so much of Lindor's value is his defense is his gold glove caliber glove 2024 was maybe the best season of Lindor's career his offensive metrics were a lot better that season but again not worried as much about the offense it's the defense that alarms me and so the question becomes if you're David Stearns and you have this plethora of talent in the upper minor league specifically at the infield positions at what point do you begin to consider moving Lindor off of shortstop and I know it sounds crazy and and Stearns has already come out and said that there's no question that Lindor is his everyday shortstop next season but actions speak louder than words and if Lindor goes out next year and starts committing the errors at the same rate that he was this year then despite me and my love of Lindor I will be a proponent of moving him off shortstop because his defense this past season was not only unacceptable for a guy getting paid that much money it was unacceptable for really any shortstop it was bad and it hurt the team so I would like to believe that a lot of the errors you saw and some of them were completely just I mean shocking is the only thing that comes to my mind because some of the mistakes you saw Francisco Lindor make this past season it came across as he was not paying attention he was not focused and obviously this is a guy who cares about his craft this is a guy who's trying his hard out there but when you forget how many outs there are when you're booting routine ground balls and you have no prior history of doing so this goes beyond uh you know a guy who's just aging and losing range a lot of the mistakes you saw this season from Lindor were head scratching and mental errors so I would like to think that those will be cleaned up next year but then again the range also didn't grade out as well and while I think he hit into some tough luck the fact is his offensive numbers were down and when you look at how this team is constructed there's two superstars quote-unquote superstars that this lineup is built around and that's Lindor and that's Juan Soto and we've spoken at nauseam about the rumors and the speculation and the rift or lack thereof between them. I think that is in the past, but what they need to see, what the Mets need to see is both of those guys healthy next year and performing to their career norms, neither of which happened this season. People talk all the time about the injuries. I don't think it's getting enough attention, the fact that both of them were just at the worst levels we've ever seen them. It's tough for me to really get on Soto he still put up a 900 OPS but look at his look at his baseball reference page there's a real shot that this year was the worst season of Soto's career and it certainly was the worst season of Lindor's career and unlike Soto Lindor is already in his 30s and he has taken a huge step back in one of if not the most valuable aspect of his game which is his defense so he's a major question mark and I think it it highlights the importance of adding more thunder into this lineup around him because it is not acceptable for a team trying to compete next year to just outright expect Lindor to go back to being the player that we don't know if he is anymore so comment below let me know what you guys think of Lindor and what you expect to see from him moving forward comment below let me know and as always guys let's go Mets