The wait is over! The 2026 Mets take the field today for their first spring training game. There are a lot of new faces on the roster this spring, and familiar faces in new places on the diamond. Players in new positions like Bo Bichette at third, Jorge Polanco at first, Juan Soto in left and Brett Baty in right will dominate story lines this spring. On top of that the Mets have 30ish non-roster players in camp this spring.
The Mets will face off against the Marlins today and will end their spring training schedule against them a month later on March 22nd. By then the roster will be set. How we get to that roster starts today!
Three Things To Watch For:
- Brandon Waddell. Today’s starter is back in came as a non-roster invitee for a second season in a row. Waddell ended up pitching 31 1/3 innings for the Mets last season with a 3.45 ERA and a 118 ERA+. His actual results were quite different than his expected results which had him at an xERA of 5.59 and an xBA of .281. He’s trying to break through camp as a lefty, and even if he doesn’t break camp with the team, it is safe to assume we’ll see him with the major league club at some point this season.
- Stolen bases in spring. There is a thought around baseball that spring training can give insight into stolen bases. Specifically around which players are trying to be more aggressive on the base paths, which teams are making more stealing attempts, etc. Juan Soto is coming off of a career high 38 stolen bases with a previous career high of 12. How many bases did he steal last spring? Zero. Antoan Richardson, the former Mets first base coach, was an absolute wizard and played a huge role in the 2025 Mets stolen bases. We’ll be looking all spring to see how the new first base coach, Gilbert Gomez, handles the role.
- New Defense. This was touched in the introduction. Players in new defensive positions will be the major story of the spring. We’ll see a good bit of this today. Juan Soto will be returning to left field. Bo Bichette will get reps a third base. We’ll also see Ronny Mauricio at short. If Lindor misses anytime, Mauricio is the only player on the Mets roster who played any innings at short with the Mets last year.
Let’s Go Mets!
