After four years of slow starts and strange snubs, Francisco Lindor was finally chosen to represent the Mets at the MLB All-Star Game.
Lindor was named the starting shortstop for the National League on Wednesday, being named to his fifth All-Star team and becoming the first Mets shortstop to start the Midsummer Classic since Jose Reyes in 2011.
Manager Carlos Mendoza delivered the news to the team leader in between games of a doubleheader against the Milwaukee Brewers. Lindor then called his wife, his sister, mother and father to deliver the news.
The All-Star Game will be held July 15 at Truist Park in Atlanta.
“It’s a real honor,” Lindor said. “I’m honored and proud to be able to take the field in Atlanta as a Met. I’m looking forward to it. There’s a lot of good people in this organization, and to be able to represent them, I do that with a lot of pride and utmost respect.”
He thanked the fans for voting for him and snapping his streak of four summers without an All-Star appearance (the game was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), despite having played well enough to earn the nod in three of those four years. The last time Lindor was invited to the Midsummer Classic, he was a 25-year-old with Cleveland. Now at 31, Lindor is in his fifth season with the Mets, having been traded in 2021. He’s in the fourth year of a 10-year, $341 contract, he’s gotten married and had three kids with his wife, Katia, and become a key team leader in the Mets’ clubhouse.
Lindor’s star has steadily risen since coming to New York, which is typical of an elite player in baseball’s biggest market. It’s why his omission from the last few All-Star Games has confounded the Mets. Usually, players become more popular when they move to bigger markets, not less.
“It’s really tough here — we’ve talked about it before — to have the numbers early on to warrant the All-Star selection from the rest of the guys and the fan bases,” said outfielder Brandon Nimmo. “I think he did an unbelievable job and was able to fight through cold April and May and get those numbers in a good spot. So happy for him, and I know he’ll represent us well.”
In 2023 and 2024, Lindor was just as cold as Citi Field tends to be early in the season. He had turned it around well before All-Star ballots were finalized, but still wasn’t selected, even when another shortstop was injured shortly before the game in 2023.
This year, Lindor started off hot, only slowing down recently in June. His OPS was nearly .900 in May, and he hit 12 homers over the first two months of the season, and he currently has compiled 3.0 WAR, the 11th-highest in the NL.
An elite defensive shortstop with 5 OAA, tied for the fifth-best among all qualified shortstops, Lindor has played 84 games at the position this season and in 85 of 86 regular season games. Wednesday night against Milwaukee, he hit second and got into the game as a DH, both first for the season. While he didn’t mind hitting second, he wasn’t a fan of sitting out defensively.
“It’s weird not playing shortstop,” he said. “At one point I wanted to take a couple of swings, and I’m like, ‘I don’t know, I don’t usually swing when I’m playing shortstop, so why do I have to take swings?’ I just did a couple pre-pitch and ran side-to-side like I was catching a couple of ground balls, and I threw weighted balls inside. I acted like I was playing shortstop.”
Lindor tried to convince Mendoza to let him play shortstop in both games of a doubleheader, but he’s been playing through a broken pinky toe all month after being hit by a pitch in Los Angeles. The manager wanted to give him a partial break.
The toe will keep Lindor from participating in the Home Run Derby.
“I can’t,” he said. “Right now, I can’t. It’s not smart. I have a broken toe, I don’t think it’d be smart to swing as hard as I can. But one day, I would definitely do it. I think it’d be a cool experience. I’d probably go out there and hit a bunch of line drives.”
First baseman Pete Alonso is a near lock to make the All-Star team for the fifth time and will more than likely commit to playing in the Home Run Derby again. The slugger is having a standout season, leading the league in games played (87) and doubles (24), with the second-most home runs on the team (18) and the highest OPS (.921).
The league views Alonso as one of the best ambassadors for the Derby, and Alonso has said that he’ll participate every time he’s asked. A two-time winner of the event, his winnings go toward various initiatives at his Alonso Foundation.
ESPN will reveal the rest of the rosters Sunday at 5 p.m. ET. The Mets expect to have a heavy presence in enemy territory.
