NEW YORK — Francisco Lindor likes to lead through his actions. With experience, the New York Mets’ star shortstop has also realized the need to do more speaking up, leading him to call the players-only team meeting a few weeks ago. But while the Mets insist tangible benefits came out of that conversation, that the meeting helped air things out and establish better processes, Lindor, along with everyone else, knows what matters most is what comes next.
You have to back up the words with results.
Lately, Lindor, J.D. Martinez and the Mets (for the most part, at least) have backed it up. After beating the San Diego Padres, 5-1, Saturday to take the first two games of a three-game set, New York remains just 32-37. This, after the Mets won or split each of their past five series (they had lost or split their previous six series). They’ve made progress. They’re not quite there. Without Martinez and Lindor, they wouldn’t be anywhere.
With a runner on first base and two outs in the fourth inning and no score, Lindor made a dazzling defensive play. On a ball hit up the middle by Donovan Solano, Lindor scooped it up on the run, cleanly exchanged to his bare hand then made a backhand flip to get the force at second base. Afterward, still bouncing from the momentum of the play, he turned to face the crowd sitting beyond the outfield wall in right field and yelled over and over.
OH WOW, FRANCISCO LINDOR! pic.twitter.com/JHcuB39snh
— SNY (@SNYtv) June 15, 2024
Lindor, who typically shows emotion on the field, explained why he was even more demonstrative than usual: “I’m trying to get myself going. I’m trying to get the team going. I’m trying to get the fans going.”
With two outs in the bottom of the fourth, Lindor then stretched a single into a double. He hit the ball into left-center field, took a couple of steps beyond first base, and then noticed left fielder Jurickson Profar let the ball go, allowing center fielder Jackson Merrill — whose momentum was carrying him farther into left field — to pick it up. Once that happened, Mets first base coach Antoan Richardson yelled, “Yes, yes, yes,” providing all the reinforcement Lindor needed to keep going.
“That’s what good players do,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “You have to play the game hard.”
The next batter, Brandon Nimmo, followed with a double to score Lindor. Then Martinez hit a two-run home run to make it 3-0. Martinez added another home run in the seventh inning and went 3-for-3.
J.D. Martinez has his 23rd career multi-homer game! 💪 pic.twitter.com/P8xZta3nP2
— MLB (@MLB) June 15, 2024
For much of the season, the Mets have needed their best players to perform better. The entire lineup won’t click at once — and the Mets need more from Nimmo and Pete Alonso — but better production out of the top five spots gives the Mets a better chance of sustaining some success. It allows everyone else, Mets officials believe, to relax and pitch in. It’s tough for role players to pick up the load when the club’s best hitters aren’t producing. The Mets, with a handful of accomplished hitters, shouldn’t have to rely on that to bail them out.
Martinez is 17-for-54 (.314 batting average) with five home runs since the May 29 meeting, which the 14-year veteran called one of the best he’s ever been a part of. Martinez has since been instrumental, players said, in helping make more out of the daily pregame hitting meeting. Behind Martinez’s influence, they have been making it a ritual to have players discuss their process and line of thinking from the previous day.
Thursday, Lindor walked in the ninth inning and then Martinez hit a walk-off, two-run home run to beat the last-place Miami Marlins. Friday, Martinez supplied a two-run double in a 2-1 win over the Padres. Saturday, Lindor and Martinez were at it again, lifting the Mets over a mediocre team clinging to a playoff spot in a mediocre league (and the mediocre Mets are now just two games out of a wild-card spot).
After another terribly slow start to the season, Lindor has heated up, too. The day after the meeting, Lindor went 4-for-4. Lindor’s OPS sat at .616 on May 20. Now, it’s up to .713, still low compared to what he’s expected to do but considerably higher than where he was.
“His mind has been phenomenal,” Mets co-hitting coach Eric Chavez said in a recent interview. “I’ve looked at him and marveled at him like, ‘Man, how are you showing up every day in a good mood?’ There have been days that have bothered him more than others, but he’s been pretty consistent with his attitude and mood, routine.”
The Mets have won four straight and have played better over the last couple of weeks for a few reasons. They’re scoring more runs, playing better defense and getting more consistency from their bullpen. Is the meeting Lindor initiated a reason for the more respectable performance or does the improved run just happen to be coincidental? Even people within the Mets say it’s probably a combination of both, at best. But the group — especially veterans like Lindor — talked a lot about accountability after the meeting. At the very least, they’ve backed up their words — to this point.
“When you have that team meeting, what you’re doing is, you’re putting it on you,” Chavez said. “You’re saying, ‘I’m responsible for this.’ And then you have to lead by example.”
(Photo of J.D. Martinez and Francisco Lindor celebrating after Martinez’s walk-off two-run homer on June 13: Elsa / Getty Images)
