Inside The Mets

Steve Cohen Pours Cold Water on Francisco Lindor's Mets Captain Dream

New York Mets star Francisco Lindor will seemingly never get this opportunity.
Grant Young|
Steve Cohen speaks to the media
Steve Cohen speaks to the media | IMAGO / NurPhoto

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New York Mets

Heading into the 2025 season, there was a lot of chatter surrounding whether the New York Mets would make Francisco Lindor the franchise's fifth official captain, and the first since the legendary David Wright, who did so from 2013 to 2018.

Chatter reached a point where Lindor addressed it himself during his appearance ona June 17 episode of "The Show: A NY Post baseball podcast with Joel Sherman & Jon Heyman" by saying, "Yeah, I mean, that's something that's gonna have to come from internally. And if it does happen, it would be an honor, and something that I wouldn't take for granted. I definitely wouldn't take a title like that lightly.

Read more: Juan Soto Gets Real About Francisco Lindor Relationship

"You know, I will continue to be Francisco Lindor, continue to work and push myself, and push the people around me, and want the best for the people around me. And if they decide to name me [captain], it would be an honor. You know, it would be extremely special. It's something that I could tell my kids and my grandkids one day," Lindor continued with his patented smile.

New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor (12)
New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor (12) | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Of course, Lindor was not ultimately named the Mets captain during the season. Joel Sherman, who was the co-host of the podcast Lindor made those aforementioned comments, said in a December 13 article with the New York Post that one reason for this was because Brandon Nimmo didn't like the idea of Lindor being named captain over him, given that he'd been with the Mets for longer.

And because of Nimmo's standing, Sherman said that the Mets' management "put the kibosh" on the idea of naming Lindor captain.

Steve Cohen Shuts Down Idea of Naming Mets Captain

However, it's now clear that Mets Owner Steve Cohen was never keen on naming Lindor (or anyone else) his team's captain, which he conveyed when speaking with the media on February 16.

"As long as I'm owning the team, there will never be a team captain. That was my decision. My view is, the locker room is unique, and let the locker room sort it out year-in, year-out. There will never be a captain... I've felt that way all along," Cohen said, per an X post from SNY.

Cohen later added, "My own views on how I want a locker to be. My view is, every year, the team's different, and let the team kind of figure it out in the locker room, rather than having a designation. Having a captain in baseball doesn't happen often, right? It's actually unusual. So whatever previous ownership did, that was their way of doing things. I look at things differently," when asked why the Mets won't have a captain so long as he is the owner of the team, per an X post from Max Goodman of NJ Advance Media.

So there you have it. Lindor won't be able to talk about being a Mets captain to his grandkids one day.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers the New York Mets and Women’s Basketball for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco, where he also played Division 1 baseball for five years. He believes Mark Teixeira should have been a first ballot MLB Hall of Fame inductee.

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