PHILADELPHIA — Francisco Lindor has grown accustomed to slow starts, but he’s never been engrossed in the struggles that have engulfed his 2026 season.
The usually dependable Lindor, who has logged at least 152 games in every season since 2021, began spring training with a fractured hamate bone. Three weeks into the season, it was a strained left calf.
Now, after two months on the shelf, Lindor is searching painstaking for the usual crisp play that has defined his career.
Lindor, who was supposed to help spark a turnaround, has flailed in his return. The Mets shortstop committed his third error in three games and finished 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in the team’s 6-1 loss to the Phillies in front of 41,133 fans at Citizens Bank Park.
“I usually say it’s an uphill fight — probably every year I’ve said that — but it’s been a real challenge, for sure,” Lindor said. “I’m looking forward to continuing this journey. It’s been a high mountain that’s in front of me, but at the end of the say, I will climb it. I will get better and I will be to the standard that I expect myself and the one that everyone has for me, as well.”
Francisco Lindor’s overall struggles
After Lindor opened the season with a .226/.314/.355 slash line before his calf injury on April 22, the bat has been slow to get fired up again since he returned on June 24.
With Saturday’s empty day at the plate, Lindor is now 12-for-74 (.162) with three home runs, seven RBI, eight runs and 11 strikeouts in 18 games since he reentered the lineup.
But Lindor’s usually commendable defense has been jarringly out of line. He now has six errors in 41 games, or one miscue every 6.8 games. Last season, he made 13 errors in 158 games , or one every 12.2 games, and that was far from his best defensive season.
“I never really thought about it, but there has been some plays that it got a little fast,” Lindor said. “I don’t know if it’s missing time or I just gotta get better. The way I view, bottom line, I just got to get better. I don’t know if it’s a time thing. To me, that’s not an excuse.”
Before the break, Lindor botched a ground ball on a potential game-ending double play in the ninth inning against the Red Sox. He threw low on a rundown on Thursday against the Phillies and then made a wayward relay throw in the fifht inning on Saturday.
“Overall, I just gotta get better,” Lindor said. “When it comes to mental mistakes, yeah, that was a mental mistake. I got a little fast. I tried to make something happen and I wasn’t fully aligned to the base.”
Errors across the board
Lindor’s miscue was not the only error that muddied the Mets’ loss on Sunday.
It began in the early going as Carson Benge misplayed a bouncing ball that was headed toward the right-center field wall. Sean Manaea was able to keep J.T. Realmuto stranded on third base.
Then, in the fifth inning, Francisco Alvarez threw wide of first base as he tried to catch Kyle Schwarber leaning and the ball into the outfield allowed the Phillies designated hitter to advance two bases. Schwarber scored two batters later.
“I think we got to get on the field and got to get to work,” Andy Green said. “Obviously, these two days have been very unique days coming off the All-Star break, where haven’t had a lot of opportunity to get out there. Guys we believe in, guys we know can make baseball plays, have made plays their entire career, are really good defender. Just got to pull that out of them and go play with a ton of confidence.”
With three more errors on Saturday, the Mets have committed 69 this season – second-most in MLB behind the Nationals.
“Just want guys on the attack,” Green said. “I think when you think about defending the field, you have to almost have a mentality where you’re scoring on defense, where you’re attacking, making plays.”
Is help on the way with Clay Holmes, Luis Robert Jr.?
The Mets could have more reinforcements on the way to try and help pull them out of their season-long rut.
Clay Holmes, who is working back from a fractured fibula, threw around 45 pitches in a live batting practice on Saturday after his scheduled rehab start for High-A Brooklyn was postponed. Green said the hope is that he’ll build up to five innings before making a return to the big league mound.
“We’ll look at today as an outing, one way or another, probably in the three-inning range and the next one probably bump up another inning and after that, just determine on how he feels, how he’s throwing, what kind of rhythm he’s in,” Green said. “Honestly, he’d have a lot of say in that process. He’s earned that right.”
Meanwhile, Luis Robert Jr. is nearing a return, as well, with Green hopeful that the outfielder might be able to get back during the team’s upcoming series in Milwaukee next week. Robert played his seventh rehab game on Friday for Triple-A Syracuse and was anticipating another on Saturday night but weather interrupted that opportunity.
When he returns, Green anticipates that he will split time with upstart rookies Benge and A.J. Ewing.
“Taking a day off a week as we get into the dog days of July, August and September, isn’t going to hurt (the rookies).” Green said. “It will help them. We welcome really good baseball players back to the team and we’ll be excited to get his bat in the lineup and he’ll get some days off, as well.”
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Francisco Lindor’s hellish 2026 reaches new low in loss to Phillies
