{"id":566949,"date":"2026-02-11T21:51:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T21:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/566949\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T21:51:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T21:51:13","slug":"francisco-lindor-to-undergo-surgery-for-hamate-fracture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/566949\/","title":{"rendered":"Francisco Lindor To Undergo Surgery For Hamate Fracture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feb. 11:\u00a0Lindor will indeed undergo surgery to address the injury, manager Carlos Mendoza announced to reporters this morning (via Anthony DiComo of MLB.com<\/a>). The Mets haven\u2019t officially ruled him out for Opening Day, but there\u2019s obviously a decent chance he won\u2019t be ready to begin the season.<\/p>\n

Feb. 10: Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor<\/a> is being evaluated for a hamate bone injury, per president of baseball operations David Stearns. The five-time All-Star would face a six-week absence if the injury requires surgery. Steans told reporters, including Jorge Castillo of ESPN<\/a>, that he\u2019s confident Lindor would be back for the beginning of the season even if he has surgery.<\/p>\n

Lindor underwent<\/a> a debridement procedure on his right elbow early in the offseason. Insurance coverage issues<\/a> related to the injury kept the Team Puerto Rico captain out of the 2026 World Baseball Classic. The announcement from Stearns is the first mention of the hamate injury. Lindor is set to be examined to determine the next steps. The Mets open the season against the Pirates on March 26.<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old Lindor missed a month with an oblique strain in the middle of his first season with the Mets in 2021. Since then, he\u2019s been the picture of health. Lindor has played in at least 152 games in four straight seasons. He\u2019s piled up 680+ plate appearances each year in that stretch, including a league-leading 732 this past year. Lindor hasn\u2019t been on the IL since the 2021 oblique issue.<\/p>\n

The six-week timeframe would leave little breathing room for Lindor to recover in time for Opening Day, if he were to undergo surgery. The shortstop has been dealing with the stress reaction in his hamate bone over the past few days, Stearns said (relayed by Anthony Dicomo of MLB.com<\/a>). Hamate bone issues have a history of sapping power from hitters. Lindor has been a 30-homer hitter for three straight years.<\/p>\n

The Mets have a handful of in-house options available to replace Lindor if he misses any time. Free agent acquisition Bo Bichette<\/a> was ticketed for third base, but could move back to his natural position of shortstop. Bichette\u2019s declining skills at the position narrowed his list of suitors and led to him landing with a team that didn\u2019t need him up the middle, but he could survive at short until Lindor ramped back up.<\/p>\n

Ronny Mauricio<\/a> spent the majority of his minor league career at shortstop. He\u2019s been mostly a third baseman in the big leagues, though that\u2019s mostly due to Lindor\u2019s stranglehold on shortstop. Vidal Bruj\u00e1n<\/a> is the only other player with recent shortstop experience on the 40-man roster.<\/p>\n

Losing Lindor\u2019s bat for any amount of time would be significant for an offense that will look quite different in 2026. Mainstays Brandon Nimmo<\/a> and Pete Alonso<\/a> have departed, along with midseason acquisition Cedric Mullins<\/a>. Marcus Semien<\/a>, Jorge Polanco<\/a>, and Luis Robert Jr.<\/a> are now in the mix, along with Bichette.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 11:\u00a0Lindor will indeed undergo surgery to address the injury, manager Carlos Mendoza announced to reporters this morning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,227],"class_list":{"0":"post-566949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-francisco-lindor"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116054215366679779","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}