The New York Mets are the clear-cut winners of the MLB offseason. Why? Their 2022 starting rotation includes Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer. This is baseball’s best one-two pitching punch, and it could become one of the elite duos in the history of the sport. That said, New York’s prolific rotation duo isn’t the key to them being a National League contender; their success comes down to Francisco Lindor.

New manager Buck Showalter has a deep roster in talent and one with playoff expectations attached to it. The new arrivals, which also include Starling Marte, Mark Canha and Eduardo Escobar, are vital, but without the presumed fixtures of this ballclub being bedrocks, the Mets won’t be the juggernaut that they’re designed to be.

Here’s why Lindor is pivotal to the New York Mets’ playoff aspirations.

Francisco Lindor had a rough debut season with the New York Mets

The first splash of the Steve Cohen era was acquiring Lindor from Cleveland and later giving him a $341 million contract before opening day. Playing under the final year of his preexisting contract, Lindor had quite possibly the worst season of his MLB career.

Lindor struggled mightily at the plate across the first three months of the season. Then he had flashes of the Lindor the Mets signed up for after the MLB All-Star Game, launching home runs and hitting at a plausible level. All in all, though, he had an abysmal year.

Opposing pitchers induced a great deal of weak contact from Lindor, and the only threat he posed was that he has been an impact player in the past. To boot, he hit a career-low .230.

Francisco Lindor stats (2021): .230/.322/.412, 20 home runs and 63 RBIs across 452 at-bats

It also didn’t help that his struggles came during a season where the Mets were unable to capitalize on the feeble nature of their division, the National League East. Lindor was one of a handful of position players who disappointed but the only one whose arrival was met with a historic contract.