I was watching a clip on YouTube were MLB Network’s own Tom Verducci explained how Fransisco Lindor makes a major difference for the Mets on the defensive end. Pitchers will love Lindor’s play at short and could thrive with him behind them.

Verducci compared Lindor’s and Rosario’s defense over the last three seasons and spotted some enormous differences. First he took a look at Defensive Runs Saved:

As you can see, Lindor and Rosario have a difference of 55 DRS. Rosario was 34th while Lindor was 5th. Again, that’s a major difference. Later in the clip Verducci showed a major reason. Lindor plays way deeper and with his strong arm and great footwork, he is able to make the plays. This improves range as the ball isn’t at you as quickly. In the photo’s below you see the major difference in position placement on two different occasions. Runner at 1B & RH bat up and bases empty:

Lindor is going to make a huge difference for the Mets. In the picture below you see the defensive efficiency and BABIP against. Over the last 4 years, the Mets have been below average and some years even close to last in both assets. This shows teams have more success against the Mets when putting the ball in play.

The Mets pitchers would be thrilled with a better defensive team behind him. Stroman would benefit the most as his batted balls against are ground balls the most times:

I mentioned Matz’ 2019 as well because he allowed a ton on Line Drives in 2020, which had his GB% lot lower than usual. As you can see, only Peterson (slightly below) and deGrom are below average in GB% so all the others will benefit from having Lindor.

Lindor and his immaculate bat is a great improvement for the Mets. His speed is great but his defense is such a big improvement from what we had. In the video below you can see some clips were the difference shows. Great insight from Tom Verducci.

Photo by: @NumbersMLB on Twitter