Credit: Kyle Ross-USA TODAY Sports
It is safe to say that $341 million dollar shortstop Francisco Lindor has not gotten off to the best of starts in his Mets career thus far.
Lindor, who went hitless again in Monday night’s 6-5 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, is now 0 for his last 21, and his batting average has dipped to an anemic.163 on the season.
Not only that, but Lindor’s struggles at the top of the lineup in the No. 2 hole have severely hurt the Mets in big spots. On Monday night, he left a whopping six men on base and three in scoring position, as the Mets failed to capitalize after letting a three-run lead slip away.
Even manager Luis Rojas acknowledged his superstar’s struggles after the game.
“I know he has gotten a lot of chances with runners in scoring position and hasn’t delivered,” said Rojas. “You think of those things, there are not a lot of spots where you can drop him because of the balance he brings to the lineup. We trust this kid is going to come out of it.”
“He is a big piece for this team this year. If we are going to win than he is going to be a big part of it,” Rojas added.
Following their usual nightly pressers, the Mets organization made the announcement that they were firing hitting coach Chili Davis and assistant hitting coach Tom Slater.
While the decision was not all that surprising as the Mets’ offense has underachieved in the early part of the season, the timing was odd due to the recent offensive explosion. In their last three games, the Mets’ offense has scored 18 runs since the arrival of a legend in Donnie Stevenson.
After the announcement was made, acting general manager Zack Scott spoke with reporters. According to Scott, this was a joint decision made with team president Sandy Alderson.
And although Scott said it was not a direct result of Lindor’s struggles specifically, he acknowledged the need to improve the process behind the scenes by giving their slumping hitters better resources when they are in a funk at the plate.
“We had a lot of hits and runs the past few nights, which highlights how this decision is not about recent results. It’s really about the daily process and my assessment was that we can be better and this is a step towards that,” said Scott.
“It’s based more on a decision for what type of vision we want our major league hitting program to be,” said Scott. “It’s not about 23 games of results, it’s about assessing the process that’s going on before games and when guys are struggling.”
“We felt like the players needed a different level of support, and maybe some different skills brought into the mix,” added Scott.
Despite the offense’s recent success, Lindor looks lost at the plate. The Mets are fully aware that they won’t be going anywhere this season unless Lindor comes out of this slump and starts playing like the superstar they thought they were getting this past offseason when they traded for him and then signed him to a mega-extension.
The Mets’ bats have come to life, but they need their All-Star shortstop to start playing like it, in order for this club to run like a well-oiled machine this season.
The hope is, that new hitting coach Hugh Quattlebaum and assistant hitting coach Kevin Howard can help Lindor shake his slump by reverting back to the phenomenal player that he was in Cleveland.
As acting GM Zack Scott also noted, these new hires aren’t long-term commitments just yet. They are going to evaluate them over the next few months and if it works out they will re-assess what they want to do moving forward.
But for now, it is up to these two coaches to prove themselves by improving the process and helping players such as Lindor through their slumps this year.
Will this change help bring back the Lindor that the Mets thought they were getting when they signed him to his 10-year, $341 million deal? Time will tell, but if it does, this lineup will be a top unit in MLB, which is what the Amazins’ envisioned when they acquired Lindor.
