Francisco Lindor injury should create a battle the NY Mets have tried to ignore

Just as he was beginning to heat up, the New York Mets are facing uncertainty with Francisco Lindor. He left their first win in two weeks with a calf injury only hours after Juan Soto returned from one himself.

Cursed? Let’s not go around throwing out wild accusations like that at anyone. This is baseball. You win some. You lose some.

Lindor will go for an MRI and if the Soto injury is any indication, he’ll miss time. The Mets can ill-afford to have Lindor lingering on the roster day-to-day while Soto does the same. The obvious move, if he doesn’t miraculously feel better a day later, is to call up Ronny Mauricio. Bang the gong after. A battle they’ve tried to ignore will commence.

Ronny Mauricio vs. Brett Baty should take place if Francisco Lindor hits the IL

The Mets only have two other position players on their 40-man roster aside from Mauricio. Catcher Hayden Senger and outfielder Nick Morabito are those options. Nothing is stopping the Mets from doing something else. But with Mauricio hitting as well as he has in Triple-A and the perfect opportunity to allow the Mets to mix things up more, they’d be crazy not to have him among their 26.

Whether the Mets decide on moving Bo Bichette to shortstop or not, Mauricio belongs. He’s both a battler there as well as third base where Brett Baty will be a contender.

A lot of these choices are dependent on the rest of the roster. Soto’s day-to-day status will continue to make the Mets an outfield-heavy club. Tommy Pham is hitting the weight of an embryo at .000 through 11 chances. He has bought more time simply because of the health of the rest of his teammates. The same is true of Carson Benge whose .136 batting average is a constant reminder he’s not MLB-ready.

Baty hasn’t been all that much better, batting .209 with 0 home runs. 3 of his 7 RBI came on one bases-clearing triple on Opening Day courtesy of a misjudged flyball. With Lindor out or at least shaken, the Mets can’t send him anywhere. What they can do is add in a little more competition.

With Mauricio, the largest question is how he can handle facing left-handed pitchers. Slashing .263/.300/.474 with a homer against them this year in Syracuse, he’s beginning to feel like one of those guys who’ll never figure it out from one side of the plate. The Mets would have to play him or Baty against a lefty starter with the construction of their roster while Lindor is out.

There is no easy solution for the Mets in Lindor’s absence. They don’t have a budding star tearing the minors apart at his position. There’s no overcrowdedness in the majors. What it does is force the Mets to finally give Mauricio some playing time. We’ll leave the exact defensive alignment up to Kai Correa.

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