When Steve Cohen bought the Mets this winter, turning a penny-pinching laughingstock into baseballs richest club, he reached into his deep pockets to change the teams reputation with a single splashy move. The Mets didnt just trade for Francisco Lindor. They also signed him to a $341-million contract tying him to the team for another decade.Â
So far, the shortstop has been Cohens worst bet since landing on the wrong side of the GameStop short squeeze.
Lindors start in Queens happens to have coincided with the worst stretch of his entire career. Entering Fridays action, hes batting .163, the fourth lowest among qualified hitters in all of baseball. He batted .189 in April, the lowest of any month in his career, and his paltry .542 on-base plus slugging in that month reflected a grand total of two extra base hits. Then he began May by going hitless in his first 17Â at-bats of the month.Â
I dont feel like Im in a slump, Lindor said on April 28. A slump, for me, is when Im 0-for-35, 0-for-30. That came near the start of an 0-for-26 stretch that dragged into Thursday. Now he admits hes in a slump.
The idea behind the Mets sending a raft of players to the Cleveland Indians for Lindor wasnt just fixing a position that had become a bigger headache than the Long Island Expressway at rush hour. They were securing a face of the franchise known throughout baseball as Mr. Smile. He was 27 years old, had the charisma to play in New York, and produced the highest Wins Above Replacement of any starting shortstop over the previous five seasons. Until this season, he was a career .285 hitter with three seasons of at least 30 home runs, plus electric speed and defensive prowess.
