Quick Broadcasting Note: Today’s spring training game will only on be on MLBN if you live out-of-market. There is no SNY/WPIX coverage but there is radio coverage on 880 AM. Yankees coverage is a bit more confusing. The game is on the Gotham Sports App, which carries the Yankees, Nets, Knicks, Rangers, Islanders, Devils and Sabres. I’m not 100% confident, but you should be able to watch the Yankees game if you have a cable subscription that carries YES and you link that account to the Gotham Sports App.
The Mets head to Tampa this afternoon for a very early trip across the entire state of Florida. There’s a stinky situation right now with Yankees, and it has nothing to do with all the former Yankee faces now in the Mets dugout. There was a massive sewage line breakage outside of the stadium which led to raw sewage in the Yankees clubhouse. Hopefully the situation is remedied before the game today.
Three Things To Watch For:
- Justin Hagenman. Hagenman was drafted by the Dodgers in 2018 and traded to the Red Sox in 2023. He finally made his major league debut last season with the Mets. He pitched in nine games including one start totaling 23 2/3 innings with a 4.56 ERA, 3.77 FIP, 1.099 WHIP and an 89 ERA+. He pitched multiple innings every time he pitched for the Mets last season, saving the bullpen multiple, valuable innings of work. We saw the Mets were aggressive already getting pitchers multiple innings of work in their first spring training game and we’ll see if that pattern continues today with Justin Hagenman. As a bonus challenge for Justin Hagenman, the Yankees are throwing out a regular, major league heavy batting order to start the game.
- Carson Benge. Leading off for the Mets today is the highest rated position prospect in the Mets system right now. Benge has been ranked #19 by Baseball America, #10 by Baseball Prospectus, #16 by MLB Pipeline, and #21 by Fan Graphs. He will probably be the Mets right fielder at some point this season. He’s coming off of a minor league season where he played across three levels with a .281/.385/.472 with 15 homers and 22 stolen bases.
- Ryan Clifford. Ryan Clifford (#86 Baseball Prospectus) is the last of the prospects left from the Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer trades a couple of seasons ago. Last season Clifford played first and the outfield when he wasn’t the DH. If you look at his time in the field only, he played in the outfield about 40% of the time. In 2024 he had a 133 wRC+ in Binghamton and last season he hit .237/.356/.470 between Binghamton and Syracuse with 29 homers. It’s a big day today if you like Mets position prospects!
Let’s Go Mets!
