Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor is a player to watch heading into the MLB trade deadline. AP Photo/Frank Franklin II

Begin here when it comes to trying to figure out whether Francisco Lindor will be traded between now and the Aug 3 trade deadline:

If he were a free agent after this season, what kind of contract do you think he would receive?

Before this season, the Mets shortstop had been a brilliant, durable player assembling Cooperstown credentials. But he had offseason elbow surgery, hamate surgery that disrupted most of his spring training and a calf injury that cost him two months of this season.

When Lindor has played — even with a terrific performance Sunday in Philadelphia — the results in every way have fallen well short of his norms. Through the weekend, he was hitting just .220 while committing errors at a rate foreign to his history and mental mistakes at odds with his high baseball IQ.