Mets' Francisco Lindor reflects on 'shocking' season

Star shortstop Francisco Lindor never thought the New York Mets could potentially be sellers ahead of this summer's trade deadline. 

"In a way, yeah, it is shocking," Lindor said about the Mets' disappointing season during a conversation with Bill Ladson of the MLB website that occurred Thursday morning and was shared Friday afternoon. "At the same time, you understand that we are going to have ups and downs. It’s one of those weird things where we all struggled at the same time. Usually, you have one guy who is 0-for-20 and everybody else is hitting or one guy is not pitching well, but everybody else is dominating on the mound. This time, it’s like all of us are struggling. We are talented, but not putting it together." 

The 45-51 Mets split their first six games coming off the All-Star break and began Friday as non-factors in the National League East race that were seven games back of a wild-card playoff berth at that time. While ESPN stats show Lindor ended Thursday's MLB action leading all shortstops with 19 home runs and 61 RBI on the campaign, he was also batting just .229 heading into Friday's series opener at the 51-46 Boston Red Sox. 

It was reported earlier this week the Mets' front office could make certain veterans available ahead of next weekend depending on what happens across three games at the Red Sox and two at the New York Yankees between Friday night and this coming Wednesday. The trade deadline is Aug. 1. 

"For me, it’s time to start winning and let the front office deal with what they have to deal with," Lindor told Ladson about the club's short-term and long-term plans. " I don’t want to go through a rebuild. I want to be in the postseason every single year. But if that’s something the front office needs to do, they have to do what they have to do. They are going to do what’s best for the team. They put a lot of energy this past offseason to put a winning team together. We just have to back them up." 

Lindor added that Buck Showalter, the reigning NL Manager of the Year, has "kept the negativity away from us" throughout what's become a disastrous campaign. That's all well and good, but owner Steve Cohen may move on from Showalter a few months down the road if baseball's most expensive squad is essentially an afterthought by the first day of the fall months.