Ex-Yankees arm raises red flag over Juan Soto's Mets leadership comments, hints at jab toward Francisco Lindor

Having established themselves as the top dog in the NL East for the majority of the season, the Francisco Lindor-led Mets are now in peril of missing out on the postseason after a titanic collapse with just a few games to spare. As if the concerns on the field wasn't enough, Juan Soto went about on his way in an interview with the New York Post when he said that the clubhouse's true "leader" is Starling Marte.

This is contrary to the expected and de facto answer from players that have stated that Lindor is the team's true leader. Some fans have even clamored to have Lindor named as the official captain of the team, a role that has been left vacant since David Wright left in 2018. Given Soto's comments, players and analysts have chimed in on a possible discord when it comes to the Mets clubhouse. One such name is Adam Ottavino, who played for both New York teams.

"I do think they have some really good leadership qualities within that clubhouse. Brandon Nimmo, Francisco Lindor, and [even] Pete Alonso to some extent are pretty good leaders," said Ottavino. "A little bit of a red flag shot up for me when I saw Juan Soto discussing that he thought Starling Marte was actually the captain of the Mets and the most important leader on the team," he added." (22:28-22:46)

Ottavino, who stopped by the most recent episode of the Baseball Isn't Boring podcast, played for the Yankees from 2019 to 2020 and again in 2025. In addition, he had a sandwiched stint for the cross-city Mets from 2022 to 2024. He further expressed his confusion about Soto's comments about the leadership matter in the clubhouse.

"I just felt like it was a weird thing to say. Was that a shot at Lindor? I'm not sure. That got my antennas up a little bit and let me know that I don't think the vibe's quite the same." (22:48-23:03)

Lindor stars as Mets keep wild card spot alive in win against Padres

With less than a dozen games left in the regular season, the Mets are barely hanging onto the last NL wild card spot, thanks to their mini-run of back-to-back wins.

The latest of which was an 8-3 opening victory against the Padres, who themselves are contending for a wild card spot as the season winds down. Francisco Lindor went two-for-three with a solo shot, walk, RBI, and two runs scored.

With the victory, the Mets improved to 78-73 that put them 1.5 games ahead of the Diamondbacks and three games above the Reds and Giants. Barring a catastrophic collapse down the stretch, they should theoretically cling on to their spot in the playoffs.