Baseball fans know how quickly a narrative can turn its head. One minute, Francisco Lindor is the heart and soul leader of the New York Mets- the guy visiting every teammate before and after games. The deemed “C” of the team without even wearing. And the next minute, the New York Post story tries to pin him as the villain of the clubhouse.

But not everyone is buying into the narrative, at least not the host of the Locked on Mets podcast. The host of the show, Ryan Finkelstein, practically waved a red flag the second he saw the article’s headline–Revealed. Francisco Lindor and Jeff McNeel battled again, and the Mets shortstop’s chilly rapport with Juan Soto helped doom the 2025 season.

In fact, his message to the fanbase was simple–this story just feels off!

Finkelstein said, “The New York Post just published a story that paints Francisco Lindor as a bad team leader. I’m not buying it.” And it’s not like he didn’t give his reasons, and honestly, it’s hard to argue with him.

The Post painted a narrative of Lindor clashing with Jeff McNeil and apparently having some icy tension with Juan Soto. But here context matters a lot. And the more you dig into it, the more the whole thing feels like they are trying to stitch together loose threads to make one big “Lindor problem” narrative.

Let’s look into the Soto angle. According to the Post, their chilly “rapport” doomed the 2025 season. But this feels wild. As if Lindor and Soto not being lunch buddies explains the struggles Sean Manaea’s had or Senga’s injuries. Sometimes, a losing season is just a losing season.

As far as the buzz goes of Lindor and McNeil, the old cat-and-mouse energy between them has seemingly resurfaced. It apparently went down after a defensive misplay on June 20, right in the middle of a seven-game losing streak.

Lindor and McNeil got into an apparent fight, and the energy in the clubhouse went red. 

Now, onto the part everyone’s buzzing about: the Lindor–McNeil fight. Will you call this ideal? Not really. But is this a franchise-crumbling issue? Not really. Plus, McNeil is also entering the final year of his contract, and with suitors circling, the timeline of the story feels off, too. If the Mets move him, the clubhouse drama angle becomes an easy explanation—whether fair or not.

In the end, the truth is that losing makes everything look worse than it really is. And painting Lindor as the Mets villain seems to be the dirtiest trick of them all. And this all comes at the heart of a big off-season.

New York Mets face a make-or-break offseason 

This is a fact–the New York Mets didn’t stumble in 2025; they fell and crashed. A team that had openly talked about them being in the World Series, the way the noses were high and mighty after clinching Soto–they watched October baseball from home.

The second-half collapse was brutal, and now the pressure is on to turn things around– big time. And this winter, the Mets need two major things: keeping their own stars around, which are Pete Alonso and Edwin Diaz.

Just Baseball’s Ryan Finkelstein talked about how he thinks the Mets will get at least one of the deals done. And $150 million for five years for Pete Alonso is what he thinks. And that feels right, as Vladimir Guerrero’s new $35 million a year deal set the market. So, Alonso getting a $30 million deal makes sense.

Maybe the Mets can get creative with deferrals to help with their luxury tax bill, too–something Cohen could do happily if it keeps Polar Bear around. Remember last off-season when Cohen was the one who apparently convinced Alonso to make a comeback?

But apparently, Cohen himself isn’t going to get into players’ matters now, making the Alonso run sketchy. But the fact is that replacing Alonso is almost impossible. One can’t just walk into the offseason and pick 40 home-run bats off the shelf.

Not to mention Alonso is the heartbeat of the fanbase. Losing him also would leave a crater in the middle of the order, and the Mets know it.

Plus, with Cease heading to the Jays, the Mets are already missing one of their major pitching targets. For now, the one thing the Mets need to do seems to be to build the club brick by brick and reset the energy.