Mets' Francisco Lindor has surgery to remove bone spur from elbow
Francisco Lindor of the New York Mets at Citi Field. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Francisco Lindor had surgery Tuesday to remove a bone spur from his right elbow, the Mets announced Wednesday afternoon.
The team expects the shortstop to be fully ready for spring training in mid-February, it added.
Lindor dealt with the elbow discomfort all season, a source said, and it particularly flared up over the final couple of weeks of the season.
But it seemed not to significantly impact his play on the field. He finished with numbers that may well earn him down-ballot NL MVP votes, including 6.0 Wins Above Replacement, according to FanGraphs, tied for fifth among NL position players and first among NL shortstops. He had a .254/.336/.470 slash line with 98 RBIs and 108 runs.
His was just the fifth season in Mets history in which a player had 30 homers, 30 steals and 30 doubles, following David Wright (2007), Howard Johnson (1991 and 1989) and Darryl Strawberry (1987).
A statistical hint that something might have been amiss: His below-average throwing arm was even worse than it was the year prior. His throws averaged 80 mph, according to data made public by MLB, after being at 83.3 mph in 2022.
Along the way, Lindor prided himself on playing every day, totaling 160 out of 162 games. He missed two in August because of soreness in his right side.
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
