Lindor was forced to exit New York’s game against Chicago.

In the New York Mets’ matchup with the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday, star shortstop Francisco Lindor was forced to exit the game in the top of the third inning.

It was initially unclear what caused Lindor to get scratched so early, but then Mets manager Carlos Mendoza joined SNY’s Steve Gelbs mid-game to explain the issue:

Carlos Mendoza joined @SteveGelbs to discuss Francisco Lindor coming out of tonight’s game due to flu-like symptoms, how far ahead he thinks managerially, and what he’s seen from José Buttó so far pic.twitter.com/Vg3SmntI8P

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 1, 2024

Fortunately for the Mets, Lindor did not suffer an injury, but is dealing with flu-like symptoms that forced him to exit the game.

He was replaced at shortstop by Joey Wendle.

Lindor popped out to shortstop in the first inning in his only plate appearance of the night.

After starting to heat up, Lindor has been in a bad rut over the Mets’ last four games. In that span, Lindor is 2-for-18 with two walks and five strikeouts.

Hopefully Lindor’s illness passes quickly, and he is able to get back in the lineup as soon as possible so he can right the ship and help the Mets’ struggling offense.

On the season, Lindor is hitting just .195 with five home runs and a .639 OPS.

Mets prospect called up, hits walk of home run, demoted

© Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports
Late last week, the Mets called up prospect Mark Vientos. The move was expected to take some pressure off of Brett Baty, who has struggled recently for New York.

Vientos impressed and drew some buzz in his brief three-game stint at Citi Field. He went 3-for-7 in two games against the St. Louis Cardinals and one against the Cubs, including a walk-off two-run home run to give the Mets a 4-2 victory against the Cardinals on Sunday. He platooned with Baty over the weekend and earned the start at third base Monday.

But Starling Marte was reinstated from the bereavement list after the outfielder missed the past three games because of personal reasons, and Vientos was optioned to Triple-A affiliate Syracuse.

Before Vientos’ surprise call up – which was a part of a series of weekend moves for New York – he was performing well for the Syracuse Mets. The young slugger was slashing .302/.388/.535/.923 with five home runs, 22 RBI and 12 walks, making the most of his 98 total plate appearances in 23 games at Triple-A.

The Mets have lost three of their first four games on this seven-game home stand, dropping to 15-14, but remain in third place in the National League East.

The Mets offense averaged only three runs per game in the games missed by Marte.