Laura Albanese: Mets have some reasons to be optimistic about the future
Francisco Lindor wears a delicate gold chain bearing a diamond-encrusted New York Mets logo that lays just above his heart.
It’s not a common adornment for a ballplayer. You’ll see plenty of chunky diamond chains in a clubhouse, and maybe a cross necklace here or there. But baseball is a business, players are a movable commodity, and diamonds have terrible re-sale value. In that way, the necklace is a sign of commitment: This is his team, through the good and the bad.
And the last two years have been very, very bad.
Still, as he conducted his post-mortem in the moments after the Mets played the final game of their miserable 2026 season, you couldn’t help but contrast his demeanor now to the thinly-veiled devastation that marked his comments last year.
He hit his 300th home run Sunday, becoming the only career shortstop to have amassed 300 homers and 200 stolen bases or more, and only the second switch hitter to do so. Per Elias Sports Bureau, he’s only the fifth shortstop to have hit 300 home runs while playing at least 50% of his games at the position.
But while he was certainly grateful for the milestone — “It’s special,” he said. “I wasn’t trying [to hit one] the last couple of days…Then today, something [in me] said, ‘Do you want to know what? I’m going to try to hit a home run.’ ” — this goes deeper than that.
The Mets are Lindor's future — possibly for the rest of his career — and right now, he sees a path to something more than the sand trap they were incapable of escaping this year.
“We have some good pieces,” he said. “Our relationships grew. Guys are getting used to being in New York. The coaching staff that this was their first time in the big leagues, now it’s going to be year two. … I feel like we’re propelling ourselves to go forward. I feel like we’re going to be in a much better spot.”
Optimism may seem odd, given the circumstances. With their 6-4 loss to the Nationals Sunday, the Mets finished 74-88, and came into the day having already clinched last place for the first time since 2003.
But this isn’t last year, when they spent Game 162 making a limp attempt to qualify for a postseason they didn’t deserve to be in. The clubhouse then was a grim affair — shellshock with an undercurrent of anger. But the mourning process started early this time around, and when the final, merciful out was recorded, they had long moved through their stages of grief, and made it to radical acceptance.
This isn’t to say they weren’t displeased: To wit, Juan Soto called the season “disappointing, embarrassing.” But you can only wallow for so long, and it does genuinely appear that the Mets are building a foundation amidst the rubble that surrounds them.
“The guys have gelled together,” manager Andy Green said before the game. “You’re talking about a group that, top to bottom, genuinely likes playing with each other and has had a good time in the second half. … It’s not always necessary to love everybody that you work with to be productive, but it’s also a good thing that’s going on in there right now.”
A.J. Ewing called it a family. Carson Benge called his teammates brothers. “It definitely feels” like they’ve gelled more in the last few months, Sean Manaea said.
“I feel like the clubhouse is great,” Lindor said.” Everybody here is in a really good spot. We’re all pulling for each other. We care for each other.”
It may seem Pollyanna-ish to focus on the good in times like this, but it's unreasonable to ignore that the Mets were among the better teams in baseball after their trade deadline fire sale. Benge is a legitimate Rookie of the Year candidate, even if he’s a longshot, and Nolan McLean should get a few votes as well. Bo Bichette acclimated nicely after a bumpy start, and if he decides not to exercise his player option, he should be a force in this lineup.
Green, too, has shown strong leadership skills, and an ability to reach his players in dire times.
“We’re hungry to change the narrative,” Green said, adding that his team wants to “get after it and do something special together.”
Right now, “there’s still frustration for the way the season unfolded for everybody in the organization, for the entire fanbase,” he said. “I think that takes a while to flush before you get to the excitement phase. That can drive you for a while too to ensure that you end up doing everything you possibly can do to get to the excited phase prepared. I’m certain that by the time everybody shows up in spring, I know where the mood is going to be.”
Lindor concurs. He’s frustrated with his injuries. He knows it took a minute to get the clubhouse to where it needed to be. He's hungry for the next chapter.
“Health matters a lot,” he said of the lessons he took from this season. “I learned that you can’t force relationships…
“Relationships,” he added, “grow bigger, even throughout the ups and downs.”
If all goes well, it’ll be like the small diamonds in that delicate necklace that he wears — forged under extreme pressure, and morphed into something else entirely.
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
