Friday, April 04

Welcome back to the Mets Beat newsletter! Anthony DiComo has covered the Mets for MLB.com since 2007, including the past 16 seasons full-time on the beat.

Francisco Lindor was out of the Mets’ lineup on Monday following the birth of his son, Koa. It wound up being an early off-day that came at perhaps an opportune time for Lindor, who went 0-for-11 over the team’s first three games in Houston. (He should be back in the lineup tonight.)

Without context, that may look like just a bad few days at the office -- and it very well may have been. But in this case, the context does seem to matter.

Consider Lindor’s recent history:

• In 2024, he was slashing .193/.268/.348 as late in the season as May 20.

• In 2023, he was slashing .211/.291/.411 as late as June 17.

• In 2021, he was slashing .194/.292/.303 on June 1.

Those starts included some of the longest 0-for streaks in Mets history, including an 0-for-24 spell last April. Lindor rebounded from that to play MVP-caliber baseball over the final four-plus months of the season, and he’s always done well to separate the offensive part of his game from his baserunning and defense.

Still, the slow starts are frustrating for Lindor, who doesn’t have a great explanation for why they happen.

“That’s a fantastic question,” Lindor said. “I’m sure everyone is asking that, and I’m sure everyone is trying to figure it out, and I’m right there with everyone.”

Since joining the Mets, Lindor’s OPS is roughly 100 points higher after the All-Star break than before it. March and April have historically been his worst months, followed closely by May. June is better, giving way to his best month, July. From that point on, Lindor is generally either solid or spectacular.

Asked how he might be able to avoid this sort of thing, Lindor shrugged: “I guess I’ve got to put the ball in play, focus on not hitting it to the opposing players.”

His 0-for-11 aside, it’s far too early to assume Lindor will once again look sluggish for a third of the season or longer. As manager Carlos Mendoza was sure to point out, three games is not enough of a sample size to assume Lindor’s pattern will repeat itself. He hit some balls hard during the series in Houston, with nothing to show for it.

Still, results are what matter. Well aware of his propensity for slow starts, Lindor tweaked his Spring Training routine to prepare for the season, appearing in Grapefruit League games a couple days earlier than he normally would. The hope was that he would find his timing a bit quicker -- to avoid, in other words, exactly what happened last weekend in Houston.

“I had a couple of at-bats where I hit the ball right at people,” Lindor said. “So [I’ll] just continue to work and grind, and hopefully, this is not a month-long thing.”

Who is the Mets’ all-time hits leader among players born in Florida?

A. Pete Alonso

B. Howard Johnson

C. Dave Magadan

D. Daniel Murphy

Here’s a connection you may not know exists: Duke basketball star Cooper Flagg, who is leading his team into the Final Four this weekend, attended the same Florida high school as Lindor. Four years ago, Lindor donated $1 million to that school, the Montverde Academy. Part of the gift went to a 12,711 square-foot gymnasium, which Lindor uses in the offseason.

Lindor and Flagg have met in passing, but that’s the extent of their relationship. Still, there’s plenty of Montverde pride at stake for both athletes. Flagg’s senior class was considered one of the finest high school basketball teams of all time, featuring him, Derik Queen, Liam McNeeley and Asa Newell, all of whom played in the NCAA tournament this year.

For Lindor, the Final Four is an opportunity to further cement Montverde’s legacy as an elite institution.

The Mets announced Monday which local businesses will be part of their Taste of Queens and Coca-Cola Food Truck operations this year at Citi Field. The winners are:

• Arepalicious, an Ozone Park-based Colombian restaurant that will sell cheese arepas out of the Taste of Queens module in center field from April 4-June 26.

• Field Trip, a Manhattan-based rice bowl restaurant that will sell jerk meatball and braised beef bowls out of the Coca-Cola Food Truck from April 4-June 26.

• Thai Tai Eatery, a Maspeth-based company that will sell a classic banh mi sandwich out of the Taste of Queens module from July 1-Sept. 21.

• Dorado Tacos & Quesadillas, a Manhattan-based Mexican eatery that will sell shrimp and carne asada quesadillas and tacos out of the Coca-Cola Food Truck from July 1-Sept. 21.

Citi Field was recently named the winner of the USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice travel award contest for “Best Baseball Stadium Food” for the second consecutive year. The ballpark also won USA Today’s overall stadium cuisine award in 2023.

• I dove into Lindor’s early skid, as well as Juan Soto’s hot start and Jose Siri’s impact in a piece detailing three takeaways from the opening series.

• What a difference 24 hours can make. After striking out with the game on the line in his Mets debut, Soto came through with a laser-beam homer the following night. As one of his new teammates put it, “There’s a reason why he is who he is.”

• Over the first three games of the season, the Mets’ bullpen did not allow a run until Danny Young finally snapped the streak in Game 4. Mets relievers came close, but couldn’t quite break an 18-year-old franchise record.

B) Howard Johnson

A native of Clearwater, Fla., Johnson recorded 997 hits in his Mets career. That’s 30 more than Murphy.

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