1 move the Mets could do to immediately improve the lineup

New York Mets v Washington Nationals
New York Mets v Washington Nationals | Greg Fiume/GettyImages

The New York Mets have a great lineup this season, but as most things it can be heavily improved with one move. The Mets need to move Francisco Lindor to leadoff. This move would improve the lineup and pretty significantly too. Lindor is a great player, but has always been better as a leadoff hitter, which is where his strengths lie.

The New York Mets can have the best lineup in the game.

Let's take a look at Lindor's stats by batting order spot. In 2021 he batted .261/.271/.435 in 46 AB. In 2020 he was a bit better, batting .274/.339/.451 175 AB. In 2017 he batted only .167/.286/.333 in 12 AB. It doesn't look much better when looking at WRC+, 89 (2021), 115 (2020), 63 (2017). It appears that he gets overwhelmed and just isn't as comfortable in that spot (he last did good in it back in 2016).

How does Lindor do batting lead-off? In 2019 he batted .285/.337/.520 in 596 AB with a 119 WRC+. In 2018 he batted .274/.347/.517 in 642 AB with a 130 WRC+. In 2017 he batted .281/.346/.558 in 267 AB with a WRC+ of 131. What if he batted lead-off for the Mets too? I suspect that he would do better than he's done so far, which is .261//.271/.435 in 2021 and .222/.462/.333 in 20211 (so far).

Francisco Lindor is one of the best players in the game, but his ability can be used better than by having him bat third. He's a much bigger asset batting lead-off, this would also allow the Mets to move Starling Marte into the third spot in the batting order, where his high average might prove to be a bigger help. Brandon Nimmo is too injury prone and inconsistent to be trusted with the lead-off spot.

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