PHILADELPHIA — The Mets may not be without Francisco Lindor for much longer. The star shortstop and key team leader will begin a minor league rehab assignment Friday with Double-A Binghamton, along with injured outfielder Tyrone Taylor.

Lindor has been out since April 23 with a strained left calf, but has been taking at-bats at Citi Field against minor leaguers from High-A Brooklyn in an attempt to rehab the injury and shorten the duration of a rehab assignment. If all goes well, the Mets could have him back by Monday, when they start a series at home against the Chicago Cubs, though the Mets are still unsure of how many games he’ll need.

“It’s good that we now can say, ‘OK, he’s playing tomorrow,’” manager Carlos Mendoza said Thursday at Citizens Bank Park.

Lindor will play 5-6 innings, then take off Saturday. Whether he plays Sunday with either Binghamton or Triple-A Syracuse will be determined by the weather. What they’re looking for is to see how he recovers while on his feet for a long period of time — a long inning with a good amount of ground balls he has to field, a long inning where he’s running the bases, or how he handles an infield single late in the game after being on his feet.

While the Mets know they often have to rein Lindor in when he’s battling through injuries, they still trust that he’ll alert the training staff when something is wrong, and that he’ll be honest throughout what they hope is the home stretch of the rehab process.

“This is a guy that knows himself better than anybody,” Mendoza said. “He’ll let us know whether he needs more at-bats, or physically how he’s feeling, and we’ll go from there.”

When Lindor does return to Major League action, he could find himself in the lineup as a DH more often than he would prefer, at least in the first few weeks. The Mets are discussing the possibility of using him at DH to limit the stress on his calf.

Lindor has somewhat infamously refused to take days off unless an injury requires him to, and doesn’t typically like to DH. The Mets might even make him take scheduled off days.

“Knowing him, he’s a guy that wants to be in the lineup every day, he’ll take that [instead of] an off day as opposed to be completely out of the lineup,” Mendoza said. “But I’m pretty sure there’s also going to be days where we’re going to have to be firm and probably keep his name out of the lineup.

This would also allow Brett Baty to play third base and Bo Bichette to play shortstop, the current defensive alignment. When Lindor is activated, the Mets plan to move Baty around again, as they did before his injury, but he’s been excellent at third base this season, with 2 Outs Above Average and 2 Defensive Runs Saved.

Bichette has also been good at third base, but the Mets have played defensively with Baty at third, and Carson Benge in right field instead of Baty. Jared Young has been better defensively at first base than Mark Vientos, but the Mets prefer to platoon them, given Young’s left-handed bat, and Vientos’s right-handed bat. Baty also bats left-handed.

“He’s going to be a very important player for us,” Mendoza said of Baty. “The versatility is what’s going to continue to give these guys chances to be in the lineup. Whether it’s at third, Lindor is going to need days, or in the outfield, second base, first base, so there’s a lot of ways that he could get at-bats.”

Lindor was hitting .226 with a .669 OPS, two home runs, five RBI, two stolen bases and 11 walks at the time of the injury.