{"id":568558,"date":"2026-02-12T17:37:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T17:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/568558\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T17:37:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T17:37:26","slug":"francisco-lindor-opts-for-hand-surgery-in-crushing-early-mets-blow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/568558\/","title":{"rendered":"Francisco Lindor opts for hand surgery in crushing early Mets blow"},"content":{"rendered":"

PORT ST. LUCIE \u2014 Francisco Lindor\u2019s spring will consist mainly of rehab from surgery.<\/p>\n

The veteran shortstop was scheduled to undergo that procedure Wednesday, after an evaluation confirmed a stress reaction to the hamate bone<\/a> in his left hand. Lindor\u2019s expected recovery time from the surgery is six weeks, putting in question his availability for Opening Day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to bet against him,\u201d manager Carlos Mendoza said on the official report day for pitchers and catchers. \u201cThis is a guy who has played through broken toes and lower back [discomfort]. Two years ago he barely walked and he continued to play through it, so we\u2019re optimistic he\u2019s going to be available for us on Opening Day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The stress reaction and surgery is just the latest offseason setback for Lindor, who previously withdrew from the World Baseball Classic \u2014 he was set to serve as Team Puerto Rico\u2019s captain \u2014 after the event\u2019s insurer denied him coverage. Lindor underwent a second elbow surgery in three years this offseason.<\/p>\n

The Mets will head into full-squad workouts next week with a shortstop cast minus Lindor that consists mostly of Ronny Mauricio, Vidal Bruj\u00e1n, Grae Kessinger and Jackson Cluff.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guys that we have in camp are the ones who are going to get the reps early on,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cAnd then as we continue to get information we\u2019ll make some adjustments if we need to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FranciscoFrancisco Lindor during the 2025 season. Charles Wenzelberg\/New York Post<\/p>\n

Bo Bichette, who was signed this offseason to play third base<\/a> \u2014 after playing shortstop his entire career \u2014 likely won\u2019t move from his new position this spring.<\/p>\n

Lindor\u2019s absence from the Grapefruit League will prevent him from building an early rapport defensively with double-play partner Marcus Semien, who arrived from Texas in a trade for Brandon Nimmo.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the one thing Lindor will try to do is be out there for team defense as much as possible,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cHe will have conversations with Marcus after games, so that way we can create that type of relationship there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mendoza said he just learned in recent days that Lindor might need surgery. Team officials were aware in past seasons that Lindor was playing through discomfort in the hand.<\/p>\n

Lindor last season appeared in 160 games \u2014 marking the third time in four seasons he reached that plateau. Overall, he produced a .267\/.346\/.466 slash line with 31 homers and 31 stolen bases.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the only time he feels 100 percent is Day 1 of spring training since I have been here,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cSo he\u2019s mentioned it the past couple of years, but it came and went. But we found out a couple of days ago and for him to say something like that was concerning to the point we took the step that we did.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Lindor is hardly alone \u2014 Jackson Holliday and Corbin Carroll, according to reports \u2014 will both undergo hamate bone surgery this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a pretty common [injury],\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cIt\u2019s just rare that in the span of 24 hours we had three really good players going down with the same injury.\u201d<\/p>\n

Francisco Alvarez underwent hamate bone surgery last March and was in the Mets starting lineup by late April. But Alvarez\u2019s early lack of power was an issue \u2014 he hit just three homers over two months before he was demoted to Triple-A Syracuse. Alvarez showed greater power late in the season, hitting seven homers over the final two months.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re optimistic that Lindor is going to be the same player [as always],\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cThere\u2019s been cases where power has been a topic, but there\u2019s also been cases where guys have that type of surgery and it doesn\u2019t affect them at all.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORT ST. LUCIE \u2014 Francisco Lindor\u2019s spring will consist mainly of rehab from surgery. The veteran shortstop was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,227,4,61,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-568558","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","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-new-york-mets","12":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116058880161110682","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568558","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=568558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}