Nolan McLean starts in the WBC Final this evening for Team USA, a game that will surely be attended by Mets players. While that is by far the major story for the Mets today, the Mets still have a game this afternoon.
The Mets head south to Jupiter this afternoon to take on the Marlins. This should also put the Mets about halfway between St. Lucie and Miami for tonight’s game! This will be the fifth time the Mets face the Marlins in spring training. After today they’ll face the Marlins on the last day of spring. The two teams will get a long break of not seeing each other with their first regular season series happening in late May.
Three Things To Watch For:
- Sean Manaea. Manaea’s velocity was down again in his last start. After the game both the Mets and Manaea assured reporters that they are not concerned about the drop. In both spring starts he has averaged between 88 and 89 mph on his fastball, which is a 3-4 mph drop from his career average. This has not happened in spring training for Manaea before. Hopefully as he gets more innings under his belt this spring his velocity will at least take a step towards his 2025 numbers (91-92 mph), which were a bit lower than his career speeds too.
- Opening Day around the horn. The Mets projected opening day defensive alignment of Polanco at first, Semien at second, Bichette at third and Lindor at short will all be on the diamond together! The Mets defensive experiment will finally get it’s first real test!
- Luis Robert Jr. Luis has been great in his first several spring games with the Mets going 3-for-7 at the plate with a run scored. The Mets are still trying to manage his reps to help him avoid injury.
Let’s Go Mets!
