Francisco Lindor Brought the Mets Out of Their Underdog Era. Now It’s Time to Bring Them a World Series.
As Lindor shares with me, the critics were missing an important part of the puzzle. “So, Katia went through postpartum depression, it was my first year in New York. That was tough. Marriage is tough! Having kids, it’s tough. I wasn’t playing well,” he says, with the type of clarity that only comes from hindsight. “People were like, ‘Oh, New York is getting to him.’ No! It’s not New York. Trust me. It is a tough market to play in, but it’s just, life is fast. You know? It’s not like my life is perfect. It don’t work like that. I do have a great life, I do love my wife, I love my daughters. But we all hit our times where we’re like…I’m exhausted.”
Cohen was watching in the wings, surely wondering what was going on with his colossal acquisition that was supposed to change everything. “We never talked about it,” Cohen says. “But look, it’s not easy to make the transition from a small market to a bigger market with that big contract, to live up to the hype, right? An adjustment period is not unusual at all.”
By 2022, Lindor regained the form that made him a $341 million investment, settled into fatherhood, and steered the Mets back into the postseason. It’s been smooth sailing for Lindor ever since, each passing year silencing the detractors who cried about him being overpaid. David Stearns, the Mets president of baseball operations—who, like Cohen, grew up in New York as a lifelong Mets guy—views Lindor’s ongoing impact with a wide lens. “There are a series of players who define eras within the franchise,” he says. “I think this is going to be an era of Mets baseball that is defined in large part by Francisco Lindor.”
“Throughout his career, he’s had these different, high-expectation challenges come his way,” Stearns continues. “To this point, he’s met every single one of them.”
Optimism in Queens is the highest it’s been in Lindor’s lifetime.
For one, his gargantuan contract has him committed to the Mets for at least seven more years. At the same time, Juan Soto—whom the Mets lured away from the crosstown Yankees with a Scrooge McDuck–ian $765 million deal, the most lucrative contract professional sports has ever seen—is joining the lineup.
“He’s elite. I’ve seen elite players. But he’s elite elite,” Lindor assures me, his eyes widening. “Very few people have that presence, and he’s got it. He deserves every penny.” While Lindor didn’t meddle in the recruiting process, it’s obvious that Lindor being on the squad influenced Soto’s decision. The prospect of collecting $765 million did most of the heavy lifting, but getting to play with Lindor is wildly enticing in its own right. With those two, plus a majority of the 2024 roster returning, the Mets are a darling of the baseball world, favorites to win the World Series, and about as far from the state the team was in when Cohen bought it.
With Soto in the fold now, the Mets go from a cute underdog story in 2024 to a much higher-stakes operation. “I feel good, I definitely believe that we have a postseason team,” Lindor says, nodding. “But life taught me that just because we’re good on paper, it doesn’t mean teams can’t come in and roll through us.”
