When Steve Cohen bought the Mets, it was no secret that the Mets would soon be looking to make a big splash. One year ago today, the Mets completed the first blockbuster trade of the Cohen era when they acquired Francisco Lindor from Cleveland. The Mets received the star shortstop and Carlos Carrasco for Andres Gimenez, Amed Rosario, Isaiah Greene and Josh Wolf.

Lindor had been one of the hottest names in trade rumors due to his impending free agency and Cleveland’s reluctance to hand out a big contract, and the Mets seemed like a near perfect candidate to get a deal done. Despite all the indications that Lindor would be traded and the Mets being such a good fit, it was still a shock to see them acquire a player of Lindor’s magnitude after years of the team operating like a small-market team under the Wilpons.

After having an incredible spring, Lindor signed a 10-year, $341 million extension prior to Opening Day. The contract is easily the biggest in the history of the franchise, once again showing that Cohen is willing to put his money where his mouth is.

Despite the strong spring, Lindor struggled mightily in his first two months in New York. He put up a triple slash line of .194/.294/.294 through the end of May.

From June 1 through the rest of the season, he hit .252/.387/.468, and finished his first year in Flushing hitting .230/.322/.412 with 20 home runs. While he couldn’t make up for his terrible start to completely fix his overall numbers, he showed that he still has the ability to be the player that Mets fans were hoping for on this day last year.

Lindor’s signature game as Met came on September 12 against the Yankees. He hit three home runs in the game, and was at the center of two confrontations.  Lindor made a whistling gesture towards Gleyber Torres after hitting his second home run of the game, which led to Giancarlo Stanton yelling back at Lindor when he tied the game with a home run of his own. When Lindor came up in the bottom of the eighth, he hit a no-doubt go-ahead homer into the Coca-Cola Corner for his third of the night and flexed as he rounded first base.

Although the bat was not up to par with the standard Lindor had set for himself over the years in Cleveland, his defensive prowess was evident from day one. He finished second in all of baseball in Outs Above Average, per Statcast, and was named a Gold Glove finalist. After years of having question marks defensively at shortstop, it was clear the Mets had finally gotten a shortstop who could be a difference maker on both sides of the ball.

While the Lindor trade brought one of the game’s premier players to New York, it also signaled a new era of Mets baseball where the team is willing to spend big to get the players they want. The Mets built on that just prior to the lockout when they signed the best free agent center fielder in Starling Marte to a four-year, $78 million contract and signed the best free agent pitcher in Max Scherzer to a three-year, $13o million deal.

Looking back at the Lindor trade a year later, it is clear that the trade brought levels of excitement Mets fans hadn’t had in a long time for two reasons.

The first reason is Lindor is the most talented player the Mets have acquired via trade since trading for Mike Piazza in 1998. Despite 2021 not being the year anyone would’ve thought it would be for him, there is still plenty of reason to believe Lindor can and will continue to be one of the league’s best shortstops going forward.

The second reason is it showed that Cohen is willing to flex his financial muscle to turn this team into a consistent winner. He has already followed up on his big first offseason with a huge November that saw the organization bring in Scherzer, Marte, Mark Canha and Eduardo Escobar in very short order. When the Mets acquired Lindor last year, the feeling was that this is just the beginning of what has the potential to become one of the best multi-year runs in Mets history with Cohen at the helm.