PORT ST. LUCIE — On a day that featured two Mets aces due more than $75 million this season, their $341 million shortstop provided a window into how the team’s hitting can keep up with its starting pitching.
If Francisco Lindor brings this sizzling bat into the regular season, the Mets’ offense could be a force. Of course, that was the hope this time last year, too.
Lindor enjoyed the best game of his short Grapefruit League, homering twice — first from the left side, then right — to support Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer in the Mets’ 7-3 win over the Cardinals at Clover Park.
As he finished off a 3-for-4 Sunday afternoon in his fifth exhibition game, Lindor’s 1.444 OPS represented the third-best mark in major league spring training, a stat that is meaningless unless it translates to the regular season.
Asked the key to keeping his bat hot into April, Lindor said: “I don’t know. We’ll see.”
Last year, the Mets saw their prized acquisition from Cleveland bat .370 with four home runs though 17 spring games, only to immediately go cold when the games began to matter. He batted .182 in March and April of last season, beginning a largely disappointing first campaign after signing a 10-year extension with the Mets.
After a long offseason and on a team with more star power that may take some of the glare off him, Lindor hopes a bounce-back season is coming.
“I’m very balanced right now,” said Lindor, who rocketed a homer to right off Daniel Hudson and crushed a no-doubter to left against top prospect Matthew Liberatore. “I feel like I’m getting to a spot and putting my body into a good hitting position.”
The feeling was present throughout the Mets’ lineup for the first time this spring. Pete Alonso contributed a few hits, including a double, Tomas Nido homered and Starling Marte doubled in his spring debut.
The Mets’ high-octane arms have perhaps the highest ceiling of any team in baseball, and their defense and bullpen do not project to be weaknesses. If their offense is above-average, the path to the postseason would be easy to see.
It is possible no one is more important to the Mets reaching their peak than Lindor, who had been an All-Star in four straight years before downturns in the shortened 2020 campaign and last season. Getting his own bat going from both sides of the plate is a good start.
“It’s a good offense,” said Lindor, who has tallied four extra-base hits in 17 spring at-bats. “We’re going to do some damage if we stay healthy and stay within ourselves. It’s going to be fun.”
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