What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️
The Mets won their series opener against the Brewers in thrilling fashion with another walk-off, winning 3-2 in 10 innings (box)
SS Francisco Lindor had a two-hit day with a homer and made a game-saving play in the ninth to keep things all knotted up
CF Luis Robert Jr. continued his recent hot streak with another homer, his 10th of the season and fourth in a week, while RF Carson Benge notched his 11th three-hit performance of the season (no other rookie has more); Benge and 3B Bo Bichette are tied for ninth-most three-hit games in all of MLB this year
LHP Zac Thornton delivered another solid start, allowing a single run over six innings on seven scattered hits; he tallied four strikeouts and issued no walks
RHP Austin Warren struggled in his brief outing, but the rest of the Mets’ bullpen stayed steady, as LHP Nate Lavender, LHP Jefry Yan, and RHP Jonathan Pintaro combined for 3.2 scoreless innings of relief
PH Christopher Morel drove in the winning run on a dribbler hit to Milwaukee 3B David Hamilton, who threw the ball away, allowing Lindor to cross the plate safely
Injury Report 🩺
OF Juan Soto (left calf strain) restarted a running program this month; he’s on a ‘deliberate progression,’ but still plans to return this season
RHP Devin Williams (right shoulder strain) expects to return at ‘some point in September,’ but a late August update suggests he’s not close
Play of the Game 💪
As electric as walk-offs are, last night’s couldn’t have happened without the help of some once-gilded leather.
In the top of the ninth, with two outs and the bases loaded, Jefry Yan faced Milwaukee 3B David Hamilton. After getting ahead on Yan 2-1, Hamilton ripped a 96 mph sinker back over the mound towards the gap…
…and into the glove of a leaping Francisco Lindor.
Lindor would later score the game-winning run on Hamilton’s errant throw home.
Who’s Hot? 🥵
Carson Benge is hitting .393/.452/.589 with three homers, nine RBI, five walks against nine strikeouts, and two stolen bases over his last 15 games
Luis Robert Jr. is hitting .318/.385/.750 with six homers, 11 RBI, six walks and 11 strikeouts over his last 15 games
Who’s Cold? 🥶
A.J. Ewing is hitting .195/.271/.246 over his last 30 games
Eric Wagaman is hitting .191/.269/.319 over his last 47 AB
The Just Mets Podcast 🎙️
ICYMI: In the latest edition of The Just Mets Podcast, Andrew and Rich recap a .500 week for the Mets as they came back down to reality this past weekend in Chicago, and talk about how things look for the club moving forward.
SUBSCRIBE: YouTube | Apple Podcasts | Spotify
Down on the Farm 🌾
LHP Jonathan Santucci (No. 2 prospect, Triple-A): 5.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, BB, 7 K, HR
DH Jefferson Rojas (No. 1 prospect, Double-A): 1-for-4, HR, R, RBI
RHP Gary Gill Hill (No. 17 prospect, Double-A): 5.1 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 0 BB, 7 K
DH Yonatan Henriquez (High-A): 3-for-4, HR, 2 2B, R, RBI
C Yovanny Rodriguez (No. 26 prospect, Single-A): 3-for-5, 2 HR, 2 R, 3 RBI, K
BOX SCORES
Single-A SLU | High-A BRK | Double-A BNG | Triple-A SYR
Today’s Game 🗓
Match-up: Mets (60-72) vs Brewers (81-51)
Where: Citi Field – Flushing, NY
Starters: RHP Robert Stock (0-2, 5.40 ERA) vs. RHP Dustin May (6-8, 4.57 ERA)
When: 7:10 PM EDT
Where to Watch: SNY
Francisco. Miguel. Lindor. ✍️
And to think people wanted (still want??) to trade this guy.
It may have taken a while to get here, but Francisco Lindor has arrived, as he always does.
This is, without question, Lindor’s worst season as a Met since he got to Queens. Obviously, only so much of his statistical underperformance in 2026 is his fault, given the time he lost to injury — but he certainly didn’t do himself any favors with all the mental lapses and errors he put on display upon his return.
In a sense, Lindor has had some cards stacked against him since he arrived in Queens. After signing the biggest contract in Mets history, an at the time unheard-of $341 million contract to play for this franchise for the next decade, he immediately underperformed relative to his pre-established baseline. Lindor’s 3.0 bWAR (3.9 fWAR) in 2021 was the worst performance of his career to that point (excluding the shortened 2020 season), until his current campaign. Add to that a less-than-stellar impression with fans amid events like the ‘rat-raccoon’ incident and the infamous ‘thumbs down’ celebration, and it’s safe to assume Lindor’s inaugural year is one that everybody would like to have back.
However, since that first season in the blue-and-orange, Lindor has only thrived. From 2022-2025, he averaged 158 games a season, batting .260 with an .812 OPS, 121 homers, and 107 stolen bases, good for a 128 OPS+ and 6.0 bWAR per season. In those four seasons, he never posted less than 5.4 bWAR (5.5 fWAR), and received MVP votes each year — including runner-up honors in 2024.
Nearly six years into the deal, it’s safe to say that Lindor will likely end up the best shortstop in franchise history, if he isn’t considered so already. But beyond the Mets, he’s also established himself as one of the best offensive shortstops in baseball history. Lindor currently ranks 19th all-time in bWAR (56.6), and 16th in WAR7 (42.3); he’s also 16th in Wins Above Average (33.9), and 17th in oWAR (51.9). He has the fifth-most homers ever hit by a shortstop; he ranks top 30 in RBI at the position…the list of accomplishments is long.
Now, as alluded to a moment ago, it hasn’t been all sunshine and roses with Lindor, certainly not recently. Unquestionably, the tool in his bag that’s shown the most rust in recent seasons is his defense. Lindor hasn’t taken home a Gold Glove since 2019, but his defense remained steady from 2020-2023 — he averaged a +3 DRS over that span. From 2015-2020, Lindor never posted less than +3 DRS, which occurred in the shortened season.
However, since joining the Mets, he’s had as many statistically positive defensive seasons as negative ones; even less reassuring, he’s been on a steady downward trend since 2023. His error rate has also steadily ticked up, with a whopping nine errors already committed this season in just 73 games; that’s an error every eight contests, a far cry from his career average of one every 13 or so. Surely Mets fans are forgiven for being wary about the defensive state of their star shortstop as he approaches his age-33 season with so much time and money left on his deal.
And beyond some declining performance in the field, much has also been made over the years about Lindor’s presence in and out of the clubhouse — some of which is admittedly his own doing. (Rat? Raccoon? We’ll never really know...)
Perhaps no other Met not named Juan Soto has received so much scrutiny since suiting up for the Queens faithful. (We don’t have close to enough character space to give the coverage of their relationship the deep dive it deserves.) Some of the extra attention comes with the mega-dollars, to be sure, but with Lindor and Soto alike, a lot of the anti-player discourse seems uniquely personal, spiteful, and removed from baseball logic. In just a year, discussions swung from ‘Lindor was robbed of a deserved captaincy’ to ‘trade him no matter how heavy the impact,’ while he was in the midst of the most injury-plagued season of his career.
Yet through it all, here he is: (finally) posting the numbers he usually does.
“They’ve picked me up more than I’ve picked them up this year, so to be there for the guys, it meant a lot. I’ve been wanting to do that.”
From 2022-2025, Lindor’s per-162 average was .266 with an .812 OPS. Though his overall season line in 2026 doesn’t look remotely close to that standard, over his last 15 games, Lindor is hitting .268 with an .833 OPS. It took a while, but he got there.
The 2026 season may be functionally over, and sights may be pretty squarely set on 2027, but there are still games left to be played on this year’s schedule. Francisco Lindor’s ready to play them, and play well in them.
That’s his plan, anyway.
When asked in postgame commentary about how he plans to approach the final weeks of the season, Lindor said, “I’m going to be myself.”
If anyone on this roster has earned some extra faith in those words by now, it’s him.
Around the League 🚩
Pete Alonso racked up four hits in just five innings en route to a 13-1 Orioles win in St. Louis
Paul Skenes delivered six scoreless innings to lead the Pirates to a 1-0 win over the Padres
Seth Lugo’s five innings of one-run ball and go-ahead heroics from Salvy Perez steered the Royals towards their ninth win in a row as they beat the Blue Jays in Toronto, 5-3
Jarren Duran sealed a Red Sox victory in Miami with an 11th-inning grand slam; Boston won 7-3
Ryan Waldschmidt put the cap on Arizona’s five-run comeback over the Cubs with a two-run walk-off homer; the Dbacks won 5-4
Taj Bradley threw what is believed to be the first immaculate inning in Twins history
RESPECT THIS MAN 🗣️
Well done and good timing! I wrote compared Lindor to HOFer Barry Larkin in my post today and wish I'd read your post first! https://almostcooperstown.substack.com/p/francisco-lindor-is-the-modern-barry?r=6m2o9