Francisco Lindor opts for hand surgery in crushing early Mets blow

PORT ST. LUCIE — Francisco Lindor’s spring will consist mainly of rehab from surgery.

The veteran shortstop was scheduled to undergo that procedure Wednesday, after an evaluation confirmed a stress reaction to the hamate bone in his left hand. Lindor’s expected recovery time from the surgery is six weeks, putting in question his availability for Opening Day.

“I’m not going to bet against him,” manager Carlos Mendoza said on the official report day for pitchers and catchers. “This is a guy who has played through broken toes and lower back [discomfort]. Two years ago he barely walked and he continued to play through it, so we’re optimistic he’s going to be available for us on Opening Day.”

The stress reaction and surgery is just the latest offseason setback for Lindor, who previously withdrew from the World Baseball Classic — he was set to serve as Team Puerto Rico’s captain — after the event’s insurer denied him coverage. Lindor underwent a second elbow surgery in three years this offseason.

The Mets will head into full-squad workouts next week with a shortstop cast minus Lindor that consists mostly of Ronny Mauricio, Vidal Bruján, Grae Kessinger and Jackson Cluff.

“The guys that we have in camp are the ones who are going to get the reps early on,” Mendoza said. “And then as we continue to get information we’ll make some adjustments if we need to.”

Bo Bichette, who was signed this offseason to play third base — after playing shortstop his entire career — likely won’t move from his new position this spring.

Lindor’s absence from the Grapefruit League will prevent him from building an early rapport defensively with double-play partner Marcus Semien, who arrived from Texas in a trade for Brandon Nimmo.

“But the one thing Lindor will try to do is be out there for team defense as much as possible,” Mendoza said. “He will have conversations with Marcus after games, so that way we can create that type of relationship there.”

Mendoza said he just learned in recent days that Lindor might need surgery. Team officials were aware in past seasons that Lindor was playing through discomfort in the hand.

Lindor last season appeared in 160 games — marking the third time in four seasons he reached that plateau. Overall, he produced a .267/.346/.466 slash line with 31 homers and 31 stolen bases.

“I think the only time he feels 100 percent is Day 1 of spring training since I have been here,” Mendoza said. “So he’s mentioned it the past couple of years, but it came and went. But we found out a couple of days ago and for him to say something like that was concerning to the point we took the step that we did.”

Lindor is hardly alone — Jackson Holliday and Corbin Carroll, according to reports — will both undergo hamate bone surgery this week.

“This is a pretty common [injury],” Mendoza said. “It’s just rare that in the span of 24 hours we had three really good players going down with the same injury.”

Francisco Alvarez underwent hamate bone surgery last March and was in the Mets starting lineup by late April. But Alvarez’s early lack of power was an issue — he hit just three homers over two months before he was demoted to Triple-A Syracuse. Alvarez showed greater power late in the season, hitting seven homers over the final two months.

“We’re optimistic that Lindor is going to be the same player [as always],” Mendoza said. “There’s been cases where power has been a topic, but there’s also been cases where guys have that type of surgery and it doesn’t affect them at all.”