Mets Roster: Getting to know Francisco Lindor and the rest of the new guys

By early January 2021, the New York Mets had already made several high-profile trades and signings that far exceeded their usual Wilpon-era offseason haul. On December 1, 2020, the Mets signed righty reliever Trevor May to a two-year, $15.5 million contract, counting on him to be a reliable force in the back of the bullpen. A couple of weeks later, the Mets addressed their gaping hole at catcher by signing James McCann to a four-year, $40.6 million deal.

Then, on January 7, 2021, the Mets pulled off one of the biggest blockbuster deals in the franchise’s history when they traded with the Cleveland Indians for Francisco Lindor and Carlos Carrasco. All four of these players figure to be crucial components to the team’s on-field success in 2021, and Mets fans are largely very excited about all of them.

Though many Mets fans have become familiar with what Lindor, Carrasco, McCann, and May have to offer on the field, all four players have also done some fun “getting to know you” interviews in recent weeks. These videos gave them a chance to show Mets fans their personalities and off-the-field interests. Here are some “fun facts” about four of the Mets’ biggest offseason additions that may not show up on their baseball card or Baseball-Reference page.

Meet the Mets: Francisco Lindor

Much has been made so far about Francisco Lindor’s Gold Glove defense at shortstop and his potent bat at the plate, but Lindor is also well known across baseball for his megawatt smile. In a recent interview with Mets public address announcer Marysol Castro, he shed some light on the origins of his famous grin, which apparently wasn’t always as stunning as it is now.

“I had braces, my teeth were like neighbors who had never met before,” confessed Lindor in this recent one-on-one. “Now, they’ve met, and they get along, and I put a retainer in there. They gotta stay together, they’re not separating!”

It seems like the man known throughout MLB as “Mr. Smile” has no intention of surrendering this title any time soon, even to other famous smilers on the Mets like Mr. “Happiest Man in Baseball” himself, Brandon Nimmo.

Though Lindor hails from Puerto Rico, his favorite foods are pizza and lasagna. Coming to New York, a city known for its pizza and Italian cuisine, Lindor will hopefully feel right at home.

“I’ll eat pizza all day, every day. . . breakfast, lunch, and dinner,” emphasized Lindor to an incredulous Castro, who likely expected him to respond with a Puerto Rican dish of some sort.

Off the field, Lindor enjoys spending time with his family (he has a daughter who is just a few months old) and bike riding. His Instagram account features a recent photo of him kidded out in cycling attire, and he mentioned to Castro that he has joked with his family about competing in the Tour de France one day. He also noted that in his downtime, he enjoys “watching videos about cars and watches” as well.

When asked about his favorite kind of music, Lindor responded without hesitation, “everything but country and hard metallic rock.”

On a different music-related note, Lindor was recently featured in the music video for Bad Bunny’s song, “Yo Visto Así. ” He described the experience on set as “a lot of fun. . . it was special, for sure.”

Lindor has made a name for himself, in part, by approaching his life on and off-the-field with contagious enthusiasm and excitement. He is one of the most electrifying players in the game today, and he is determined to keep up this reputation as he begins his Mets career.

“I want people to get to know that I’m just a little kid at heart that smiles and has fun and cares about other people. This is me, this is who I am,” said Lindor to close out his interview with Castro.

Mets fans have wholeheartedly embraced Lindor so far. I have a feeling that he will further endear himself to the Flushing Faithful with his on-field play.

Meet the Mets: Carlos Carrasco

Years before the Cookie Club ever existed, Carlos Carrasco was known by his Cleveland teammates as “Cookie.” In a “getting to know you” interview with Marysol Castro from January of this year, she mentioned that Carrasco’s nickname was coined when former teammates caught him eating cookies in the clubhouse.

Carrasco himself has confirmed this fact in interviews and social media Q&As, revealing years ago that a former Indians pitcher gave him the famous moniker.

When asked by Castro in this latest interview to choose between shortbread cookies, Scooby-Doo graham crackers, and Oreos, Carrasco emphatically picked Oreos. He also revealed that he prefers to dunk his Oreos straight into a glass of milk, rather than twist apart the cookie wafers.

Perhaps he can compare cookie-dunking notes with new teammate J.D. Davis, who described his elaborate cookie eating routine in great detail last year during an episode of SNY’s web series, “The Cookie Club.”

Outside of eating cookies, Carrasco is very busy when he is not playing baseball. In this same interview, he said that one of his favorite non-baseball activities is being a “handyman” and fixing things around the house.

“I do more stuff with electricity, to be honest with you guys. Everything in my house, if we need to put in some fans or move things from one power outlet to another in a different way, I do it. I love to do that. . . If something gets damaged in the house, I always repair it,” said Carrasco.

A few minutes later, Carrasco also said that he often spends his off days fixing things around the house, spending time with his family, or working on one of his many charitable projects and helping out his community. Since his major league debut in 2009, Carrasco has established two charitable foundations. The Carlos Carrasco Foundation is based in the United States and focuses on early childhood education for children in Tampa and Cleveland. The corresponding organization in his home country of Venezuela donates toys, medical supplies, sports equipment, and other necessities to Venezuelans in need.

“Not even COVID is going to stop me from continuing to help out the community,” said Carrasco to Castro near the end of their chat.

Based on what I’ve seen and read about Carrasco so far, he seems like a genuinely wonderful person and has already become one of my favorite Mets.

Meet the Mets: Trevor May

Trevor May is extremely Online. Any Mets fan who tuned into his introductory press conference on December 3 noticed his extensive microphone-and-headphones setup, a far cry from the laptop-and-Airpods combination that most players have been rocking during the era of virtual press conferences and interviews.

In his press conference, May revealed that he used to DJ, though he said that since he got into Twitch streaming, he has not DJed nearly as much.

“For DJing, I went under the name ‘DJ Hey Beef’ when I was 19,” May recounted. “We quickly changed that to ‘Mayser,’ just a play off my last name with the word ‘laser’. . . It’s just Trevor May now. But I do have turntables, I do still dabble in my young age at 31. . . I just like entertaining people. It’s the same thing for baseball.”

May has also been asked about his hobby of online gaming and Twitch streaming, which has been a big part of his life for several years.

“I’ve been Twitch streaming since 2016,” May told Newsday in a January 2021 phone interview. “I was a little bit ahead of the curve on that. It became a little bit of almost like baseball is my 1A job and streaming became 1B for a while. . . [when I was rehabbing from Tommy John] I was streaming every day, like 40 hours a week. I like entertaining. I think, if it weren’t for playing sports, I could have very easily been a theater kid and went down that route.”

In that same phone interview, May mentioned that he recently became a part-owner of a team in a new four-team football league called the Fan Controlled Football League (FCF), which allows fans to have a direct say in every detail of their teams, from uniform colors to the coaches and players. His team is called the Zappers, which will face off against the Beasts, the Glacier Boyz, and the Wild Aces starting in February.

Though May’s full-time job is, of course, his work as a pitcher, I have really enjoyed getting to know his many off-the-field interests over the past few months. I look forward to seeing how he will use his platforms to engage with Mets fans over the next couple of years.

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All four of these new acquisitions have had a chance to give fans a sneak peek of their personalities and interests. Their on-field pedigrees speak for themselves, but these recent interviews with the newest members of the Amazins gave Mets fans a great look into their off-the-field lives as well.