MIAMI — To Francisco Lindor the idea the Mets could change managers after the season isn’t even worth pondering.
The Mets shortstop told The Post on Tuesday he has developed a high level of respect for Buck Showalter as a leader and strategist over the last two seasons and has a difficult time believing that incoming president of baseball operations David Stearns would change managers upon arrival.
“I don’t think that’s the way Stearns runs stuff,” Lindor said before the Mets faced the Marlins. “From what I know he’s a very smart guy, he’s a guy that interacts with players and a guy that doesn’t make emotional decisions. He makes very educated decisions just like [owner] Steve Cohen does.”
Showalter, 67, has one-year remaining on his contract and would be an easy scapegoat for the team’s underwhelming performance this season that is all but certain to conclude short of the playoffs.
Stearns is expected to retain Billy Eppler as the general manager after this season, but Showalter’s position would appear more tenuous.
Craig Counsell, who managed the Brewers during Stearns’ tenure heading the team’s front office, is unsigned beyond this season and could be a candidate to follow Stearns to Queens.
But there’s also the possibility Counsell could take a year or two off from managing.
Lindor, one of the Mets clubhouse leaders, said the team already has everything it needs in a manager.
“Buck holds everybody accountable, he’s a great leader, he’s outstanding at quieting the noise here in the clubhouse, which sometimes can be tough in New York, and he cares for the players,” Lindor said. “He checks in with the players, he listens, he gathers information. There’s a lot of things I like about him. He’s been through good things and bad things and I think he’s an amazing manager, a Hall of Fame manager.”
Lindor said he hasn’t polled the players in the clubhouse, but he senses his teammates feel the same way about Showalter.
“I do feel the love toward him and the respect, which is the most important thing,” Lindor said.
Asked if he thought the manager would return, Lindor was incredulous that it’s even a question.
Last season the Mets won 101 games under Showalter before losing in the wild-card round of the playoffs.
“The guy has been here two years and he won Manager of the Year one of them,” Lindor said. “One year that didn’t go as planned. He’s doing great. I don’t even think it should be a question.”
Lindor said he will give that opinion directly to Stearns if asked for it.
Stearns will begin in his new job once the regular season concludes.
“But I don’t think my first conversation with him is going to be, ‘You need to change this, focus on this, don’t change this,’ ” Lindor said. “I don’t think that is going to be the first conversation. I am just looking forward to the day he comes and starts working for the Mets.”
The two managers that preceded Showalter in the Mets dugout, Mickey Callaway and Luis Rojas, were both retained in the first season following a regime change in the front office.
“There was a new boss coming in when Steve Cohen bought the team and Luis [Rojas] stayed,” Lindor said. “It does not mean because there is a new boss that they are going to change everything that they have.”
