Francisco Lindor gets one step closer to elusive Mets All-Star nod

Francisco Lindor is on the path toward recognition. 

The Mets de facto captain is the leading vote-getter — by plenty — at National League shortstop in the first balloting update for the All-Star Game. 

Lindor, who somehow has never made the Midsummer Classic as a Met, has tallied just over a million votes, or 400,000 more than second place (the Dodgers’ Mookie Betts).

The Phillies’ Trea Turner is third. 

Barring something unforeseen, Lindor will crack his first All-Star Game since 2019 and fifth overall.

In recent seasons with the Mets, he had become accustomed to slow starts and excellence otherwise, which had equated to three top 10 finishes for NL MVP, but no July honors. 

This year has been different, Lindor doing just about everything well in hitting .279 with an .828 OPS, 14 home runs and 13 steals in his first 70 games, some of which have been played through a broken pinky toe. 

The Mets have two other potential starters, though Pete Alonso and Juan Soto at the moment would be on the outside looking in. 

In Monday’s voting reveal, Alonso is second among NL first basemen and trailing the Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman by about 240,000 votes.

The competition is an interesting one, Alonso bringing more power but Freeman entering play Monday hitting .332. 

Soto ranks fourth among NL outfielders with 625,618 votes, trailing Cub and former Mets prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong (1,126,119), his teammate Kyle Tucker (704,740) and the Dodgers’ Teoscar Hernández (685,553). 

Among other Mets, Francisco Alvarez comes in third at catcher, Jeff McNeil fifth at second base, Mark Vientos sixth at third base, Starling Marte fifth at DH and Brandon Nimmo 10th and Tyrone Taylor 13th in the outfield. 

Phase 1 of the voting ends on June 26, at which time the two top vote-getters at each spot (and the top six outfielders) will advance to the next phase. 

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Brooks Raley, who was re-signed in April after Tommy John surgery ended his 2024 season with the Mets, is set to begin a rehab assignment with Low-A St. Lucie on Tuesday. 

The Mets, who have lost AJ Minter and Danny Young for the season and only are carrying José Castillo as a lefty in the bullpen, will be able to use the help whenever Raley is ready. 

But he is not expected to be ready soon after undergoing surgery last May. 

“He’s coming back from a significant surgery,” president of baseball operations David Stearns said last week. “This is not a short rehab assignment. We’ve got to go through a full spring training ramp, make sure he’s ready to go. … You might be looking at a full 30 days there.” 

Turning 37 this month, Raley had been effective with the Mets in pitching to a 2.48 ERA through 74 games the previous two seasons.