PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- At one point Sunday, Francisco Lindor dived to his left in hopes of corralling a Jesús Sánchez single. An inning later, Lindor hit a foul ball a projected 391 feet down the right-field line at Clover Park, plenty deep enough to have been a home run had it stayed fair. On the next pitch, Lindor ripped a 105 mph single into deep right field.
On each occasion, Lindor felt something in his left wrist, where four weeks and four days ago, a surgeon had removed the hamate bone. That something wasn’t necessarily bad, just different. Doctors told Lindor he may continue to feel unusual for eight weeks post-surgery. Some of Lindor’s peers have warned him the feeling could linger for up to a year or two, or even for the rest of his career.
“There’s going to be moments, yeah, for sure,” Lindor said. “That’s something that the trainers have said since Day 1, that I’m going to feel something. There was a bone removed, and there’s a lot of nerves there and soft tissue stuff. So yeah, there’s going to be moments I’m going to feel it.”
Lindor added that Sunday “felt like it was a good day overall.” And why not? With 11 days to go until Opening Day, he made his Grapefruit League debut, reaffirming his readiness. While Lindor once again stopped short of guaranteeing his presence at shortstop March 26 against the Pirates, he noted that he has “checked every single box to be there.”
The most sizable box, one that president of baseball operations David Stearns called a “prerequisite” for Lindor’s timely return, was appearing in a Grapefruit League game. The shortstop finally did that Sunday against the Blue Jays, playing four innings in the field and finishing 1-for-3 at the plate in the Mets' 8-1 rain-shortened win. It was a busy couple of hours for Lindor, who took three at-bats and had multiple balls hit his way.
“We just let him loose,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “No hesitation. Watching him going through his pregame work the last few days, watching him on the back fields, yeah, I think he looked like Francisco Lindor.”
The Mets, Mendoza added, would never have put Lindor in the lineup had they considered him anything less than a full go. That doesn’t mean Lindor is ready to play games without discomfort, but it does mean he’s not putting his surgically repaired left hand at risk. Their hope is that it also means Lindor can impact the baseball how he typically does, despite the potential loss of strength that can sometimes accompany hamate surgeries.
While it will take more than one game for Lindor to prove he’s his normal self, Sunday marked an important beginning.
“It was a really good experience,” Lindor said. “I felt like I was pretty much like myself, and I finished the game healthy. Overall, it was a good day for me.”
Lindor underwent surgery Feb. 11 after experiencing hand and wrist soreness at the start of camp that did not dissipate. The surgery came with a six-week recovery timetable, putting him right up against Opening Day.
Since that time, he has steadily progressed, beginning with defensive drills and more recently incorporating full batting practice. Lindor appeared in three Minor League spring games before making his Grapefruit League debut.
“I saw it right away the other day when he was taking BP -- he looks normal,” Mendoza said. “There’s no hesitation there. He’s swinging the bat as he normally would. I’m pretty sure he’s going to feel it -- that’s something that he knows. … As far as the strength and all that, he’s in a good place.”
Lindor, 32, has missed just 15 games since 2022 despite a series of nagging injuries. He hit 31 homers and stole 31 bases last year, producing his second 30-30 season in the past three years.
Moving forward, Lindor is scheduled to play Tuesday and Thursday and go from there. He should be ready to appear in back-to-back games or even three in a row by late next week. In theory, that should set Lindor up well for March 26 against Paul Skenes and the Pirates, with a full workload and plenty of rest days between now and then.
Along the way, he’ll continue to feel something, which is a normal part of the process, too.
“They said that rehab is not a linear thing,” Lindor said. “There’s going to be ups and downs, and that’s where I’m at. Today was a good day. Hopefully, I can come back tomorrow and feel even better, and we’ll go from there.”