Coming up Short
Brought in as All-Star SS, Lindor again misses out on Midsummer Classic
ATLANTA — Francisco Lindor’s summer routine with the Indians included participating in
the All-Star Game in each of his four full seasons.
With the Mets he’s now 0-for-2, after MLB over the weekend announced the selections for the July 19 game at Dodger Stadium: Trea Turner and Dansby Swanson will represent the NL at shortstop.
Lindor has enjoyed a solid first half — he has a .245/.319/.424 slash line with 15 homers and 60 RBIs — but Monday indicated he wasn’t disappointed or frustrated to miss the All-Star Game for a second straight year. Pete Alonso, Starling Marte, Jeff McNeil and Edwin Diaz were the Mets selected to the game.
Lindor, Brandon Nimmo and Taijuan Walker were the additional Mets who had cases to be selected. Lindor was asked how he would evaluate his first half and to grade himself.
“I really haven’t thought about it,” Lindor said before going 3-for-5 in the Mets’ 4-1 win over the Braves. “I would say an ‘OK’ first half. I would give it a ‘B.’
Health-wise I am there. I have had a healthy first couple of months.”
Lindor appeared on track for an All-Star selection with two strong months to begin the season, but hit only .202/.255/.362 in June to hurt his chances. He began the month by fracturing his right middle finger in the double doors of his hotel suite.
The shortstop had three homers in 40 at-bats to begin July, but it wasn’t enough to push him to Los Angeles. Defensively, Lindor has recorded two outs above average, according to Baseball Savant, which places him in the 77th percentile among MLB shortstops. Last season, Lindor recorded 20 outs above average, which ranked second in MLB among shortstops, behind only the Royals’ Nicky Lopez (25).
“I’m happy with where I am at,” Lindor said. “I didn’t have the numbers to be an All-Star, according to everybody. I am happy for the guys who made it, they deserve it, Swanson and Turner have had fantastic years. A lot of people have put up good numbers and that is good for the league.”
Lindor strained an oblique in his first game back from the AllStar break last year. It’s an injury Lindor attributed to overdoing it in the batting cage during the break after a disappointing first half.
He plans to adjust accordingly during next week’s break.
“I definitely know how to deal with it now,” Lindor said. “There will probably be no hitting for me. I will throw, run, keep my legs going but probably take some time off from hitting for sure.”
Lindor, whose 10-year contract extension worth $341 million kicked in before this season, said the All-Star Game was something he thought about in recent weeks, but he wasn’t obsessed with making it.
“It’s the best event of the summer,” he said. “The players that made it are well-deserved. There’s still some players that have really good numbers that didn’t make it.
“It sucks for those guys that didn’t make it, however the season doesn’t really finish here. We have still got a long way to go and I am happy for the ones that made it for sure. It’s an honor. It’s a dream.”