For the first time in two months, Francisco Lindor is expected to be in the Mets’ lineup on Wednesday.
Lindor was activated from the injured list to make his return after missing more than two months with a strained left calf. He was injured April 22 and placed on the IL the next day.
Lindor played eight innings at shortstop and had two hits in five at-bats in his final rehab game on Tuesday with Syracuse. Because of the return from injury and his schedule during recovery, the Mets didn’t want to push him to play both games of the scheduled doubleheader with the Cubs on Wednesday.
The Mets went without Juan Soto in the first game of the doubleheader due to back stiffness and have rarely fielded their preferred lineup top-to-bottom due to injuries.
“We’ve got to start playing better baseball, win more games consistently. Francisco is a big part of that,” president of baseball operations David Stearns said. “We think he can help us. We’ve got a sense of urgency throughout our team right now. We also can’t put everything on Francisco to come back at a time when he hasn’t played baseball very much, and expect us to put him on his back.”
Lindor is batting .226 on the season. A notoriously slow starter, Lindor had been settling in over the nine games before his injury with 11 hits in 33 at-bats to raise his average from .188.
Last season, the five-time All-Star batted .267 with 31 home runs, 86 RBIs, a .346 on-base percentage, a .466 slugging percentage, a National League-leading 644 at-bats and major league-topping 732 plate appearances in 160 games.
He has a career batting average of .273 with 281 homers and 861 RBIs in 1,559 regular-season games with Cleveland (2015-20) and New York.
