In 25-25 club again, Lindor dreaming even bigger

NEW YORK -- Early in Francisco Lindor’s career with Cleveland, the shortstop began spending portions of his offseasons training with Barry Larkin, who happened to live in Orlando at the time. Lindor was entranced by Larkin for several reasons, but one in particular: In 1996, the future Hall of Famer hit 33 homers and stole 36 bases, making him one of 43 members of Major League Baseball’s 30-30 club.

Lindor has designs on becoming the 44th.

“I want it,” Lindor said before hitting his 25h homer in the Mets’ 8-7 loss to the Mariners on Friday. “Pray for me. Put good vibes for me out to the world.”

• Every 30-30 season, ranked by club

Lindor’s homer came a night after he stole his career-high-tying 25th base, which made him just the fifth player in Mets history to record a 25-25 season and the first since Carlos Beltrán -- a fellow Puerto Rican and another of his mentors -- in 2008. Much like Beltrán, the other Mets players on the list (Darryl Strawberry, Howard Johnson and David Wright) all managed to go 30-30 at least once in their careers.

For Lindor, the idea of joining them is not so farfetched. He’s already hit 30 homers in a season three times, topping out at 38 in 2018. Although he’s never stolen 30 bases, Lindor worked with first-base coach Wayne Kirby this year to exploit MLB’s new rules, including a limit on pickoff throws that helps runners even more than the slightly reduced width between bases.

Lindor doesn’t necessarily need the vindication, but a 30-30 season would underscore his value in a season that has seen him lead the Mets in WAR by a significant margin. Whereas his teammates have all either slumped at points of this season, suffered injuries or both, Lindor has been a model of consistency and durability.

He has continually provided value since the Trade Deadline, even as the Mets have suffered through myriad losses like the one they did on Saturday, when Adam Ottavino allowed a go-ahead homer in the ninth and Daniel Vogelbach was thrown out at second base as the potential tying run in the bottom half of the inning.

Lindor was on the field for it all. Since returning from an oblique injury in Aug. 2021, he’s appeared in 331 of a possible 334 games (99.1%). Only Marcus Semien of the Rangers has played in more.

“I take a lot of pride in being there every single day and being there with my teammates, posting up with every one of them,” Lindor said recently. “It’s my goal to be able to be available every single day.”

When Lindor is playing regularly, the statistics tend to fall into place. In addition to reentering the 25-25 club on Friday (he achieved it once before in 2018), Lindor joined Jimmy Rollins and Hanley Ramírez as the only shortstops in Major League history with multiple seasons of 25 homers, 25 doubles and 25 stolen bases. Call it the 25-25 club with a twist -- something that even Larkin never accomplished.

But 30-30 is different. The feat is roughly four times rarer than hitting 40 homers, more than seven times rarer than a no-hitter, roughly eight times rarer than hitting for a cycle. So yes, Lindor very much wants to be in the club -- so much so that when a reporter began asking him about it on Friday, Lindor placed his finger to his lips in a playful manner. Shhh. Don’t jinx it.

“Do I want it? Yes, I want it,” Lindor said. “It would be cool. It would be special. So put good vibes out to the world for me. Please.”