Chelsea Janes<\/a> reported earlier this week that only Juan Soto, Carson Benge, AJ Ewing, Nolan McLean, and Christian Scott are off limits, suggesting that Lindor is indeed up for grabs.\u00a0<\/p>\nIf there is one thing that Stearns has taught the baseball world over the last year, it is that sentimentality and standing will get a player nowhere, as evidenced by his shrewd dealings with Pete Alonso and Bradon Nimmo. While his candidates to replace both long-time fixtures bombed, Lindor dealt with a nightmare first half, playing just 40 games due to a calf injury. He\u2019s batting .210 with a .654 OPS and suspect defense, which only ramped up trade chatter while the Mets\u2019 season spiraled into the abyss.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Couple that with the fact that he is owed $160 million over the next five years, holds the power to veto any trade, and has a reported desire to stay in Queens, and there is a reason why multiple reports in recent days have tabbed a potential deal as \u201cvery unlikely.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whether a faction of Mets fans likes it or not, Lindor should still be a significant part of the club\u2019s future plans, even if a decline has arrived. The 32-year-old has been a top-10 finisher in the NL MVP voting in each of the last four seasons, and it is more likely that this start \u2014 fueled by that injury \u2014 was just an anomaly than the norm for the foreseeable future. Shortstops of his caliber are not a dime a dozen, and dealing him would indicate a complete rebuild rather than the retooling Stearns hopes to pull off, which would ensure they can compete in 2027 \u2014 if there is baseball in 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For more on Francisco Lindor and the Mets, visit AMNY.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jul 5, 2026; Cumberland, Georgia, USA; New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor (12) runs the bases against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5110],"tags":[17391,5,122,4036,560,3328,159,5190,5189,4,43],"class_list":["post-625261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-islanders","tag-francisco-lindor","tag-hockey","tag-islanders","tag-mets","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-islanders","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkislanders","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116938797622402160","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Francisco](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-07-05T191716Z_809799355_MT1USATODAY29334658_RTRMADP_3_MLB-NEW-YORK-METS-AT-ATLANTA-BRAVES.jpg\" "\\"Francisco")
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