The New York Mets have lost a key playmaker for the foreseeable future. Shortstop Francisco Lindor has landed on the injury list.
Lindor, who exited Wednesday night’s game against the Minnesota Twins with calf tightness, will head to the 10-day injured list. However, manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters on Thursday that it’s hard to put a timeline on the calf strain after Lindor had an MRI.
“We still have multiple people looking at the imaging and the MRI and all that. We do know, obviously there’s the injury there, and he’s going to be down for quite a bit here,” Mendoza said.
“I don’t think we are anticipating something like…we knew right away with Juan (Soto) that it was kind of like the best-case scenario and it was going to be on the short side of things. I don’t think we’re dealing with the same thing here.”
The injury occurred during the fourth inning of Wednesday’s game. As Lindor ran past third base, he appeared to have some limitations. He scored after sliding across home plate, but he remained on the ground while grimacing.
The shortstop ultimately headed down the tunnel. He did not return to the game as the Mets shuffled the lineup. Bo Bichette moved to shortstop while Brett Baty moved to third base.
The Mets have since recalled Ronny Mauricio from Triple-A Syracuse to offset the loss of their star shortstop. The team’s current plan is to have Mauricio take over as the starting shortstop while Bichette moves back to third base.
According to the Mets, this is the first time that Lindor has landed on the injured list since the 2021 season. He dealt with an oblique strain that season that kept him out for more than five weeks.
Now, he will miss more time while watching the Mets try to build some momentum with some wins.
“Whenever I have to miss games, it’s super disappointing,” he said. “It sucks to be on the side, but I’ll be there with them, cheering them on and probably just as nervous as every fan out there as well.”
