Lindor says he didn’t give best effort in 2020

Francisco Lindor, a favorite among Indians fans since the first time he stepped to the plate at Progressive Field in 2015, might have betrayed those fans and his teammates last season.

Lindor, traded to the Mets in January, on Feb. 22 told reporters covering the Mets at their spring training site in Port St. Lucie, Fla., that he did not give his full effort with the Indians last season. He homered eight times, drove in 27 runs and hit .258.

Even taking into consideration the 2020 season was reduced to 60 games because of the novel coronavirus pandemic, all the markers were career lows for Lindor.

“I didn’t give my best in the weight room and that showed in the last week of the season,” Lindor said. “I got tired. It’s (working harder) during the season this year to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Lindor went 6 for 44 (.136) with no home runs and three RBI the last 12 games of the 2020 regular season. Despite that, the Indians were 9-3 in those games.

Lindor started all 60 games for the Indians, who finished 35-25 and finished one game behind the Twins in the AL Central. They were swept by the Yankees in a best-ofthree wild-card series in the playoffs.

Lindor batted .190 with two out and runners in scoring position last season in 27 at-bats. That is a relatively small sample size, but he batted 94 times in a tie game and hit just .207, although he did homer five times and drove in 12 runs in that situation.

Replacing Lindor is one of the major projects for the Indians in their spring training camp in Goodyear, Ariz. The leading candidates are the two Major Leaguers acquired from the Mets for Lindor and pitcher Carlos Carrasco — Amed Rosario and Andres Gimenez.

Indians manager Terry Francona was asked about Lindor in a Zoom call before Lindor made his confession to reporters covering the Mets.

“As a person, Frankie certainly exuded a ton of charisma and personality, but that doesn’t necessarily help you win games,” Francona said. “But Frankie is one of the top players in the game of baseball. And that’s hard to replace. Sometimes you don’t just replace that with one bat, and we know that.

“And the next guy, whoever our shortstop is this year, he doesn’t have to be Francisco Lindor. That’s not fair to them. They just need to go out and play the game and play the game the best they can.”

Lindor rejected an Indians offer of $200 million offer for an unspecified number of years, according to the New York Post story. He will be a free agent in November if he does not sign an extension before then.

Lindor