New Mets Short Stop- Francisco Lindor (2021)

Francisco Miguel Lindor was born November 14h 1993, in Caguas, Puerto Rico. His father would stand on top of a hill & hit him ground balls, as he fielded them halfway down the hill. This made him the excellent fielding shortstop he became. He became known as Mr. Smile since he always walks around, smiling & enthusiastic. 

He would move to Montverde, Florida when he was 12 & became a star high school baseball player there. The school would name the baseball field after him when he became an All Star in the majors. Lindor was a first round pick of the Cleveland Indians, the 8th pick overall in the 2011 draft.

Lindor made his MLB debut on June 14th 2015 and immediately became the teams starting short
stop for the rest of the year & five more seasons after that. In 99 games he batted .313 with 22 doubles 12 HRs 12 steals 51 RBIs & a .353 on base%. He would lead the AL with 13 sacrifice hits & finish second for the AL Rookie of the Year.

In his first full season, he earned his first Gold Glove Award &was voted the leagues best defensive player. He hit over .300 once again (.301) lead the AL in sac flies (15) & earned himself the first of four straight All Star appearances. That year he helped his club get to their first World Series since 1997.

Post Season: Overall in the 2016 post season, he had the most multi hit games (7) by any player in history who was younger than 23 years old. He collected an overall of 16 hits & hit HRs in each of the opening games of the NLDS & ALCS.

In Game #1 of the ALCS against the Toronto Blue Jays, his 6th inning HR off Marco Estrada, broke a scoreless game open & were the only two runs scored in the Corey Kluber (Andrew Miller / Cody Allen) 2-0 shut out. He would drive in a run in Game #4 & Game#5 of the World Series, as Cleveland took a loss to the Chicago Cubs in seven games.

Lindor made two more All Star appearances & post season appearances the nest two seasons as well. He led the AL in plate appearances & at bats in 2017 while playing in 159 games. That year he hit his first walk off HR, coming in a game against Texas. 

He also hit his first career grand slam & another in the ALDS, becoming just the third short stop
to do so in the post season. That year he won his first Silver Slugger Award.

In May of 2018, he won two Player of the Week Awards, early on. On June 1st, he hit two HRs & had two doubles, becoming the fourth player to do it twice in a season. On July 1st he drove in a career high seven runs, with a grand slam & a three run HR, in a win against Oakland.  Lindor would have career highs in hits (183)  HRs (38) RBIs (92) & a league leading 129 runs scored.

 

In August he hit another walk off HR, a three run blast over the Twins. Once again he led the league in at bats & plate appearances playing in 158 games, batting .277 with a .352 on base%. It was the third straight year he was in the leagues top ten in hits & doubles.

Post Season: In the 2018 ALDS loss to the Houston Astros, Lindor hit HRs in Game #2 Game #3, while collecting four hits in the three games, batting .364.

In 2019 he batted .284 with his second straight season of thirty plus HRs (32) & 100 plus runs scored (101). He drove in 74 runs & posted a. 335 on base %. The speedy short stop stole over twenty bases for the second straight season as well. He won another Gold Glove & made another All Star appearance.

In the Covid 19 shortened 2020 season, he led the league playing in 60 games & had 266 plate appearances. 

His average fell to a career low .258 with 8 HRs & 27 RBIs while stealing six bases. After Cleveland lost the wild card playoff round, it was a definite that Lindoe would be traded, as he was to enter the last year of his contract.

On January 7th, 2021 he was traded to the New York Mets along with Carlos Carrasco in exchange for Amed Rosario, Andres Giminez & two minor leaguers.