Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor exited Wednesday’s win over the Minnesota Twins with left calf tightness.
In the fourth inning, Francisco Alvarez lined a double that split the center and right fielders while Lindor was on first base. Lindor rounded third base and seemed to grimace before sliding safely feet first into home plate. Lindor went into the tunnel, but did not come out for the top of the fifth.
Advertisement
Bo Bichette moved to shortstop and Brett Baty came in to play third.
“We announced the calf. He’s going to get an MRI tomorrow, and we’ll see what we’re dealing with,” manager Carlos Mendoza said after the game. “It sucks. When you see a guy as tough as Lindor… I knew right away when he was rounding third base that something wasn’t right there. We’ll see what we got.”
Mendoza confirmed Lindor will receive an MRI.
When asked if he expects it to be the same situation as when Juan Soto went down with a similar injury, the Mets skipper said he does.
“Yeah, but we gotta wait,” he said. “We’re talking about a calf. We got relatively good news with Soto and still [he was out] three weeks. We’ll see what we’re dealing with.”
Advertisement
Lindor left after going 2-for-2 with an RBI infield single in the first inning, and is one of the Mets’ hottest hitters. Over his last seven games, including Wednesday, Lindor is 9-for-25 with two home runs and five RBI. That production allowed Mets manager Carlos Mendoza to move Lindor to the cleanup spot in Wednesday’s game.
The injury also comes as the Mets welcomed back Soto to the lineup after their slugger missed 15 games with a calf strain. And now, the Mets, who just broke their 12-game losing streak, will have to continue without one of their best hitters.
“It’s what we’re dealing with right now. We can’t sit here and make excuses. It’s all part of it,” Mendoza said. “We lost Soto and we had a hard time. Now we’re potentially going to be dealing with losing another really good player, and we got to figure it out. We got to find a way. But, again, we got to wait and see.”
Mendoza added that Bichette would be an option at shortstop, but if Lindor lands on IL, the manager indicated the club is likely to bring up somebody with the ability to play short.
Advertisement
“Just finished the game, I gotta talk to David [Stearns] and see what we got with Lindor and go from there,” he said. “I wouldn’t hesitate if we need to play Bo there, but I am pretty sure we’ll bring someone in here that is capable of playing the position as well.”
Read the full article here
