The New York Post‘s Mike Puma reported Friday that there was a personality split in the New York Mets locker room last season.
According to Puma, a “clubhouse source indicated that relations between [Francisco] Lindor and Juan Soto were chilly” during the 2025 campaign.
The source said, according to Puma: “Soto is very businesslike— all business, no fluff. He wants to come to the yard and work his tail off and win games. He’s not into fashion or any of that stuff. Lindor is into that. It’s just two different personalities.”
Puma also wrote that there were “questions over who exactly was leading the team” as Lindor “seemed to lose some of his grasp on the clubhouse.”
After bringing in Soto on an MLB-record contract last December, the Mets missed out on the postseason following an 83-79 finish to the 2025 campaign.
The Mets haven’t had a team captain since David Wright in 2018. MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo reported in March that the Mets had “broadly discussed the idea of naming a captain” before deciding against a change.
“That’s not a reflection on Lindor, whom teammates and officials believe would be an excellent organizational steward,” DiComo wrote at the time. “It’s simply an acknowledgement that the Mets’ leadership picture is a nuanced one.”
DiComo went on to name Soto as well as Brandon Nimmo, Pete Alonso and Francisco Alvarez as other leadership figures in the Mets locker room.
Lindor has said multiple times he would be honored to be named an official captain by the Mets.
When asked about the potential of someday being named team captain on a June 17 episode of The Show: A NY Post baseball podcast with Joel Sherman & Jon Heyman, Lindor answered: “That’s something that’s going to have to come from internally.”
“I definitely wouldn’t take a title like that lightly… It would be extremely special. It’s something that I could tell my kids and my grandkids one day.”
Soto was later quoted in an Aug. 27 article by Puma as saying he felt Starling Marte was “actually the captain of this team.”
Both Lindor and Soto have remained positive factors for the Mets despite their club’s overall struggles. Baseball Reference has the two stars leading the Mets in WAR (Soto at 6.2, Lindor at 5.9) last season.
Lindor is heading in to the fifth season of the 10-year, $341 million contract he signed in Queens ahead of the 2022 campaign, while Soto is about to enter the second year of his 15-year, $765 million megadeal. The Mets will need another strong season from both players in order to bounce back in 2026.
