New York Mets star shortstop will undergo surgery on his left hamate bone, manager Carlos Mendoza announced Wednesday, and will miss six weeks.
His initial estimated time of return puts him right at Opening Day, though the Mets remain optimistic that he’ll be good to go for the start of the new year.
“It varies. People are saying six weeks for return to play,” Mendoza said. “Knowing Lindor, I’m not going to bet against him. This is a guy who has played through broken toes and a lower back [injury] two years ago when he could barely walk, and he played through it. We’re going to remain optimistic that he’s going to be available to us, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
“…Knowing the person, knowing the player, the athlete, I’m pretty comfortable saying he’s going to be ready to go. Is it going to take time? I don’t know. The good thing is that we’ll be able to do a lot of different things to keep him in shape.”
The Mets will distribute reps at shortstop amongst the players already at camp, specifically Ronny Mauricio, Vidal Brujan, and Grae Kessinger.
“As we continue to get information, we’ll make some adjustments if we need to,” Mendoza added.
Lindor is one of the most important cogs in the machine that is the Mets’ lineup. He is coming off a 2025 season in which he posted an .811 OPS with 31 home runs, 31 stolen bases, and 86 RBI.
While the expectation is that he will miss little to no time, one of the side effects of this surgery is the power aspect of a slugger’s bat lagging behind. After losing Pete Alonso in the offseason, that could put further stress on a new-look offense that does not boast nearly as much home-run hitting prowess.
“We feel good with the guys that we got on the roster, and we’ll see how that roster looks when we break camp,” Mendoza said. “But we feel optimistic that Lindor is going to be that same player, as well. There have been some cases where power has been a topic, but there are other cases where guys have had the surgery, and it doesn’t affect them at all. Everyone is different, but I’m going to continue to bank on my guy.”
