Francisco Lindor Set For Best Mets Season
PLUS: WENDELL SMITH, THE WRITER WHO SAVED JACKIE ROBINSON
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
After blowing 33 save opportunities and posting a 4.77 bullpen ERA, the Texas Rangers really could have used star southpaw closer Josh Hader, who signed instead with the AL West divisional rival Houston Astros . . .
The division is also home to the Seattle Mariners, who went to the American League Championship Series three times under Lou Piniella but made only one postseason appearance (2022) since he left after the 2002 campaign . . .
Terry Francona’s Cleveland Indians were more successful in the AL Central, reaching the playoffs six times (including one World Series) in his 11 seasons, making him the most successful manager in club history . . .
Francona left the door open for a return to the dugout but has to heal from two hernia procedures and a shoulder replacement first . . .
Good news: MLB is discussing moving the World Baseball Classic out of March, where it definitely interferes with spring training, to another time of year — possibly All-Star Week, though post-World Series would work best . . .
Shohei Ohtani got to keep favored No. 17 with the Dodgers because the wife of returning reliever Joe Kelly willingly gave it up . . .
Just say no to Paris, as arrangements to stage a baseball series there never materialized.
Leading Off
Francisco Lindor Is Primed To Be Even Better (And He Has Been Darned Good So Far)
By Dan Freedman
Please don’t allow us to forget about or overlook the splendor and greatness of Francisco Lindor.
When Lindor was in Cleveland, his brilliance was appreciated. In fact, he was beloved, but always with the jaundiced eye of: “This small market team will never be able to afford this magnificent player long-term.” And that turned out to be correct.
Before the 2021 season, then Guardians sent Lindor (with Carlos Carrasco) to the Mets for Amed Rosario, Andres Gimenez, and two prospects. And in typical big-market fashion, the Mets immediately signed Lindor to a 10/$341 million contract.
Under the white hot lights of the Big Apple and the pressure a $341 million contract thrusts upon a player, Lindor hit under .200 over the first two months of the 2021 season. The fans in Queens didn’t totally sour on him by Memorial Day, but it certainly wasn’t a great first impression. And New York fans are a difficult lot to win over, or win back if you make a poor first impression.
And then, while batting .158, slugging .200, with one home run under his belt in his first 26 games with the Mets, Lindor grabbed second baseman Jeff McNeil by the throat in an altercation behind the dugout.
While this kerfuffle played out in the New York tabloids, the story changed from a fight to a mild argument to a simple disagreement over whether they saw a rat or a raccoon in the bowls of CitiField.
Regardless of the actual story (one which we may never know), it was a bad look for the $300 million guy with the sub-Mendoza batting average.
Lindor tried to redeem himself over the course of the rest of the season, but he didn’t exactly set the world on fire. Playing around an oblique injury that thwarted him in parts of July and August, Lindor hit .252 with 16 home runs after May. “Mr. Smile” ended 2021 with an OPS+ of 100, and his worst career statistics in nearly every offensive category.
The next year, 2022, was much closer to a standard Lindor season. He hit .270, tallied 26 dingers, drove in 107 runs, and had a 125 OPS+. He even came in ninth in MVP voting.
But to the fans and the media, the first two months of 2021 (on the field and just off of it), and his $34 million salary, still loomed large. So heading into 2023, Lindor had a target on his back, justified or not.
Lindor, with his huge smile and flashy batting gloves, seemed made for New York, but to the victor goes the spoils, and you must perform to get the love. According to Mets fans, he had not yet performed.
If Lindor hoped to get that giant apple-shaped monkey off his back early in 2023, he didn’t do himself any favors.
He came out of the gate hitting .218 in March/April but did slug four home runs. May and June weren’t much better: .227 and .230, respectively. But he did hit six dingers each month and was trending in the right direction.
In mid-June, Lindor’s wife, Katia, gave birth to their second daughter. And the sleep deprivation did him some good. In the 12 games after becoming a “girl dad” twice over, Lindor hit .310, belted four home runs, and had an OPS of 1.035.
In July, he hit another five round-trippers, with an OPS of .923. In August, he kept it going, collecting 32 more hits, nine for extra bases, with a .371 OBP. And then in September (the last month of a wasted season for the club), Lindor continued to build.
Seven home runs, 11 extra base hits, 19 RBI, and an OPS of .868.
When the season was done, Lindor had made the Flushing fans smile with 31 homers, 98 RBI, a 120 OPS+, and his first time joining the 30/30 club (actually 31/31). All of which led to Lindor winning the Silver Slugger award for the third time (but his first time in New York).
From the time of his second child’s birth, only four players had more bWAR than Lindor, and all of the other players laced them up in Los Angeles and Atlanta.
With the exception of a few bumps in the road, if you looked closely and in the aggregate, the Lindor that we all knew and loved has been there all along. It is just that sequencing in sports matters, and that may have allowed the fans in New York to miss it.
So now Lindor enters Year Three of his massive contract in a good place, ostensibly physically as well as mentally. The team –- despite a rough 2023 –- is built to win, with a strong rotation and depth at nearly every position.
It is all set up for the All-Star shortstop to have another MVP-caliber season, the type that the Mets faithful all anticipated when the club acquired him and then signed him to the largest deal in franchise history. The Lindor of old has been there the whole time, but now is the time for him to take it to the next level.
PLAY BALL!!
Dan Freedman is the Executive Vice President of Business & Legal Affairs at Lionsgate Films. His writing about baseball stems from his unique (?) perspective on the game, his desire for people to love the game as much as he does, and how the game often relates to life. His musings can be found at www.baseballcraziness.com and Forbes.com. Follow him on Twitter @dffreedman or write dffreedman@hotmail.com
Cleaning Up
Sportswriter Was Hired to Travel With And Protect The Young Jackie Robinson
By Dan Schlossberg
Ardent fans of baseball may not know who Wendell Smith was but he’s in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
He won the J.G. Taylor Spink Award in 1994, nearly a half-century after Jackie Robinson integrated the all-white majors.
He wouldn’t have done it — or done it successfully — without Smith.
Born in Detroit in 1914, Smith went to West Virginia State College as a physical education major but couldn’t realize his dream of playing professional baseball because of his skin color.
That ignited a burning desire to do something on behalf of black players who followed.
Hired by the Pittsburgh Courier, a black weekly, for $17 a week, Smith worked there from 1937-48. Then he jumped to the Chicago Herald-American as the first black sportswriter at a white newspaper. He later doubled his salary by joining Chicago television station WGN.
While he was still a sportswriter, Smith told Branch Rickey about Robinson. The Brooklyn general manager scouted the black prospect, held several face-to-face meetings, and finally signed him with an eye toward integrating the majors.
Although it was an obvious conflict of interest, Smith accepted Rickey’s offer to travel with Robinson in 1946 and 1947 as a mentor — even though he was still writing for the Courier.
Smith was instrumental in convincing clubs and towns to desegregate spring training facilities and convinced the Chicago Herald-American to launch a campaign of support.
Today, a Wendell Smith Elementary School stands on Chicago’s Far South Side and there’s a book called “The Wendell Smith Reader: Selected Writings on Sports, Civil Rights, and Black History.”
It’s a fitting tribute to Smith, who became the first black member of the Baseball Writers Association of America, and to his important work.
Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ covers baseball for forbes.com, MLBReport.com, Memories & Dreams, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Sports Collectors Digest, Here’s The Pitch, and many other outlets. His Hank Aaron hardcover will be published this spring by Skyhorse (Sports Publishing). Contact Dan via ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia: on Retired Numbers
Willie Mays was never a general manager but became adept at trading anyway: he had a habit of buying closets-full of the No. 24 jerseys he wore for the Giants and trading them to visiting players who wore the same numerals. It almost seemed he was anxious to erase the number from circulation, as even offered $1,000 to players willing to give him their No. 24 uni right off their backs . . .
Fellow Hall of Famer Ken Griffey, Jr. is arguably the best player who wore No. 24 after Mays . . .
The number retired most often is 20, worn by Lou Brock, Monte Irvin, Frank Robinson, Mike Schmidt, Don Sutton, Pie Traynor — all in Cooperstown — plus Luis Gonzalez, Jorge Posada, and Frank White . . .
The first retired number was Lou Gehrig’s 4, given to him by the Yankees to mark his spot in the Murderer’s Row batting order . . .
It was followed by Willard Hershberger’s No. 5, retired in 1940 after the Cincinnati catcher killed himself. The Reds retired it twice, since Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench also wore it after it was reactivated . . .
The third number retired belonged to pitcher Carl Hubbell, who wore No. 11 for the New York Giants, followed by Babe Ruth’s No. 3 in 1948 and Joe DiMaggio’s No. 5 in 1952 . . .
The Yankees have since retired all their single-digit jerseys, most recently Derek Jeter’s No. 2 . . .
There are now more than 200 numbers retired, including Jackie Robinson’s 42 that is universally retired even though he played only for one club (the Brooklyn Dodgers) . . .
Numbers were introduced on a regular basis in 1929 so that fans could figure out who’s who by buying scorecards containing rosters.
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.