Mets' Francisco Lindor's surgery on left hamate bone impacts new-look infield attempting to jell
The Mets' Francisco Lindor walks back to the dugout at Citi Field on May 28, 2025. Credit: Jim McIsaac
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. – It was just a few weeks ago that president of baseball operations David Stearns noted that if everything went right, there would often be days the Mets had four shortstops playing around their infield.
When pitchers and catchers officially reported to spring training, the Mets pretty much had none.
Francisco Lindor underwent surgery to repair a stress reaction on his left hamate bone Wednesday, and though the shortstop should be ready for opening day, the expected six-week absence puts their infield further in flux.
At first look, this is less than ideal, but not a disaster. Stearns Tuesday said he was “confident and optimistic that [Lindor will] be our opening day shortstop.” But still, the injury could lead to aftershocks that go beyond Ronny Mauricio getting Grapefruit League starts at his old position.
While Marcus Semien, Jorge Polanco and Bo Bichette can certainly play shortstop – combined, they have over 2,000 games worth of experience there – the Mets’ roster reconstruction, and the intended repurposing of its infield corps means that those three aren’t really viable replacements.
Polanco, who’s expected to take over first base duties with Mark Vientos, has less than one inning of major-league experience at the position, and Bichette, the presumed opening day third baseman, has never played his new position professionally. This spring, then, is meant to get them acclimated to their intended roles, not settling back into their old ones.
To wit, manager Carlos Mendoza said the Mets don’t plan to have Bichette take reps at shortstop because “right now, we have to make sure we get him comfortable at third base and that’s where he’s going to be getting his work defensively.”
The same goes for Polanco, though he was a below-average defensive shortstop. Lindor’s absence also complicates things for Semien.
“The one thing we’ll miss early on is the combination of Marcus Semien as the new second baseman missing Lindor as the shortstop,” Mendoza said. Lindor will try to “be out there for team defense as much as possible, have conversations with Marcus after games, so that way we can create that type of relationship there.”
That, though, isn’t the same as building chemistry organically. The best-case scenario has Lindor getting his stiches removed after 10 days, before beginning his ramp up. But Mendoza noted that hitting would come before fielding, since the injury is on his glove hand, which has to be impacted by the ball.
And there, is, too, the hitting aspect. Mendoza intends to continue batting Lindor leadoff to set the table for Juan Soto, Bichette and then potentially Polanco in the cleanup spot. This injury, though, has a tendency to sap players of their power early on – certainly not good in a place like Citi Field, where cold April temperatures and dense air already knock down balls on their own.
If that happens, “we feel good about the guys on our roster,” Mendoza said. “But we’re also optimistic [that Lindor is] going to be that same player as well…There are cases where the power has been a topic but there have also been cases where guys have that type of surgery and it doesn’t affect them at all. Everyone is different.”
Stearns and Mendoza often used the word “optimistic” when they spoke about Lindor’s injury, and for good reason – it happened early enough that he might not have to miss time, and Stearns called it “generally a clean six-week recovery.”
But on the other side of that optimism is reality: This surgery will impact the Mets beyond their star shortstop - just another wrinkle in the gambit to quickly rebuild this team brick by unorthodox brick.
Senga feels back to form
At the end of last season, Kodai Senga vowed to rebuild himself from the ground up. On Wednesday, he was convinced that the (long, often frustrating) process was working.
“I feel really good and I feel really happy with where I’m at,” Senga said through an interpreter. “These past few years have been frustrating and tough mentally and at some points maybe I started to lose confidence, but in this world, you either do it or you don’t.”
A calf injury tanked his 2024 season and he never regained his form after sustaining a Grade 1 hamstring strain midway through 2025. After willingly taking an assignment with Triple-A Syracuse, the righthander acknowledged that there was something very wrong with his mechanics and began the troubleshooting process.
“There’s a clear goal to be back out there and play a full season without injuries,” he said, adding that he spent the offseason studying his body. “It became very clear why my performance wasn’t up to par.”
