PORT ST. LUCIE — Francisco Lindor felt discomfort in his right elbow on a swing only a few days into spring training last year and soon had a good idea it was something that wouldn’t resolve itself.
After the Mets played their final game on Oct. 1, the shortstop received imaging that revealed a bone spur in the elbow. Surgery followed, along with a short recovery.
Lindor is glad he waited, even with the pain he experienced on swings and misses throughout the season.
“I just didn’t want to do an MRI or X-ray [during the season] because I knew it was something they weren’t going to let me play through,” Lindor said Thursday before a workout at Clover Park.
The season worked out just fine for Lindor, who became only the fourth Mets player (joining Darryl Strawberry, Howard Johnson and David Wright) to reach 30 homers and 30 stolen bases in the same year.
“It’s part of being a professional athlete,” he said. “You have your aches and pains and you manage it.”
Overall, Lindor owned a .254/.336/.470 slash line with 31 homers, 98 RBIs and 31 stolen bases.
He was a finalist for a Gold Glove award at shortstop, but finished behind Dansby Swanson in the NL balloting.
Now he returns to help anchor a team that for the first time since his arrival before the 2021 season isn’t perceived as a serious threat in the National League.
It follows a disappointing 75-win season in which the Mets traded Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander and an offseason that had little sizzle.
“Every year you climb the stairs,” said Lindor, whose $341 million contract runs through 2031. “For some people it might seem we’re going backwards, but I bought into the concept of a long-term deal. I am not here for one or two years. I keep on seeing that we are moving in the right direction. We have changed people along the way, but that is part of the process. I’m fully on board. I respect what they are doing and I am here to win and I keep on seeing good things that we’re headed in the right direction.”
Lindor, 30, has played the game long enough to understand the only perceptions that matter are the ones by the players in the clubhouse. Outside expectations are irrelevant to him.
He cited the two teams that reached the World Series last season.
“I am sure nobody was expecting the Diamondbacks, but I am sure they were,” Lindor said. “Not too many people were expecting the Rangers, either, but I am sure they were. That’s kind of where everybody is in the same boat. It’s not about the expectations outside, it’s what you believe you can do.
“Everybody in the big leagues can play the game, it’s who can play it better? Who can play the game the right way day in and day out and who can be more consistent? At the end of the day, it’s a chance to be in October and once you get to October anything can happen.”
Lindor, Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil are the focal points of a Mets lineup that finished 18th in MLB last season in scoring.
The Mets will need contributions from younger players, and to that end Lindor is pleased Brett Baty and Mark Vientos connected with him over the winter.
Lindor worked out with each player — Baty and Vientos are the primary third basemen in camp and Vientos also figures into the DH mix.
“They concentrated,” Lindor said. “They locked in on the little details of the things they had to improve on and I’m very excited to see what they are going to come out and do this year. This is a big year for them because we all know what they can do. They know what they can do. Now they have to do it day in and day out. I am excited for them.”