How tough lesson helped Francisco Lindor become leader Mets needed

It's been roughly three years since Francisco Lindor and former New York Mets teammate Javier Baez had to apologize for their controversial "thumbs-down" celebration that was a response to fans booing the team at Citi Field.

During a recent conversation with Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, Lindor shared how that experience "100%" helped him emerge as "a better person" and as the leader the 2024 Mets desperately needed.

"I’ve also grown," Lindor said about his Mets tenure that began when he joined the club via a January 2021 trade from the franchise now known as the Cleveland Guardians. "I’ve matured. We have great people here who have guided me, who have talked to me. 'Hey, I don’t think that was right.' Or, 'Hey, that was right, but you should have addressed it a little bit different .'"

Lindor called a players-only meeting on the same night that the Mets fell to 22-33 back on May 29 and has repeatedly been credited for helping save the club's season. It also hasn't hurt that the star shortstop has largely performed as a legitimate National League Most Valuable Player Award candidate since the final days of spring.

"That allowed me to hold guys accountable and for them to hold me accountable as well," Lindor told Rosenthal about the meeting. "We looked at each other in the eyes and said, 'We’ve got to go. We’ve got to get this done. We’ve got to do whatever it takes to make sure we are moving in the right direction. And we’ve got to start by looking at each other’s process and holding each other accountable.'"

Players took those messages to heart, and the 70-64 Mets began Friday trailing the Atlanta Braves by three games in the battle for the NL's last available wild-card playoff spot. New York's three-game series at the woeful Chicago White Sox (31-104) that gets underway on Friday evening should present the Amazins with opportunities to inch closer to the Braves in the standings.

"It has been … bumpy," Lindor admitted about the club's roller-coaster ride of a season. "It’s one of those years where coming in, you know you have something special. Obviously, we’ve all got to build to get to the place we want to get to. It didn’t click right away. Then we started clicking. Then we started playing better."

As of Friday afternoon, DraftKings Sportsbook listed Lindor as a +550 underdog behind only Shohei Ohtani (-1400) of the Los Angeles Dodgers among the betting favorites to claim the NL MVP Award. Lindor may steal more than a couple of MVP votes away if he drags the Mets to the playoffs by the time the last games of the regular season are played on Sept. 29.