NEW YORK — Francisco Lindor has been no stranger to slow starts in his six seasons with the New York Mets, but his early struggles in previous years were largely limited to offensive production. This season, in addition to his .167 batting average in 15 games, the five-time All-Star shortstop has added a layer of unusual errors.
Lindor's last error came in the second inning of the Mets' 11-6 loss to the A's on Saturday, when Lawrence Butler hit a grounder to second baseman Marcus Semien that should have been the start of a 4-6-3 double play that ended the inning. But Lindor, a two-time Gold Glove winner, made a play for the ball instead of going to second base to make it two. As a result, Semien was forced to run to second base to get an out as a run scored for the A's.
“It's strange because that's not him,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said after his club suffered its fourth straight loss. “It's hard to explain. And he'll be the first one. He'll tell you he's got to be better. But, yeah, I've never seen some of those plays where sometimes he's just out of position.”
It was Lindor's third error in two days. In the third inning on Friday, he was caught off guard by turning at second base on a potential double play that would end the inning. In the sixth inning, with runners on the corners and no one out with the Mets trailing 1-0, he was caught at third base on a grounder to first baseman Nick Kurtz.
This weekend's errors followed two unforced errors he committed against the St. Louis Cardinals on April 1 when he lost count of the number of outs while fielding what should have been an inning-ending double play in the first and was intercepted at first base while fiddling with his batting gloves in the sixth inning.
“I'm not sure,” Lindor, 32, said when asked if he could attribute the gaffes to anything. “I feel like I'm locked in. I feel like I'm in the game. It just happens. I have to be better.”
At the plate, Lindor is 10-for-60 with 10 walks, 13 strikeouts and a .546 OPS this season. He went 1 for 4 on Saturday, with a single and scoring on Bo Bichette's first home run with the Mets in the fifth inning. He struck out on three pitches in the first inning, prompting an early chorus of boos from the home crowd, and struck out in his final at-bat in the eighth inning before the Mets fell to 7-8 on the season.
“There's always been pressure,” said Lindor, who is in the fifth year of a 10-year, $341 million contract extension. “And I've always put a lot of pressure on myself because I expect a lot from myself.”
Lindor's offensive woes have been amplified by the absence of star left fielder Juan Soto. Soto had an excellent start to the season, going 11 for 34 with a .928 OPS in eight games before suffering a left calf strain while running the bases against the San Francisco Giants on April 3. The Mets are 3-4 in seven games without him in the lineup.
“He's the same guy,” Mendoza said of Lindor. “He shows up. He prepares. He works as hard as anyone. He wants to win. I don't think it has anything to do with who's in the lineup and who's not. It's weird.”
