213 Miles From Shea

The Mets return home tonight from their weekend road trip to the west coast of Florida to play the Marlins. Extra emphasis on tonight, because this is the Mets first night game of the season. The last couple of springs the Mets have sprinkled a few more night games into the schedule. This spring the Mets have an astounding nine games starting at 6:05 or later.

The main story tonight is Kodai Senga, who is making his 2025 spring debut for the Mets. Senga was a critical part of the 2023 Mets where he made the All-Star game as a rookie, posting a 2.98 ERA, 140 ERA+ over 166 1/3 innings spread over 29 starts. The Mets need that version of Senga for 2025.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. Kodai Senga. Senga only made one regular season start in 2024 where he allowed two runs from two hits over 5 1/3 innings while striking out nine batters. The start was deep in July after battling back from multiple injuries that derailed the start of the season. Senga got injured after that start, and wouldn’t pitch for the Mets again until the playoffs. Tonight we just want to see Senga on the mound again. Everything else is just details.
2. Pete Alonso. Alonso has a 1.727 OPS this spring with no home runs. He’s accomplished this by going 3-for-6 at the plate, with all three hits being doubles, and working five walks this spring. He also has 0 strikeouts. This is unsustainable, but it’s fun watching Alonso put up ridiculous, weird numbers over his first four spring training games.
3. Catching Depth. Luis Torrens is 5-for-12 over his first five games this season with a .878 OPS. Chris Williams who is trying to become the Mets third catcher on the depth chart is 3-for-9 over five games with a double, home run and four runs scored. Torrens showed us in 2025 that he is one of best back up catchers in game. Chris Williams is in an open battle with Kevin Parada, Jakson Reetz and Hayden Senger for the third catching spot.

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets are looking for this season’s Jose Iglesias! The Mets don’t have a ton of depth up the middle with fielders who can play second base and at shortstop.

In November the Mets brought in Donovan Walton to try to fill that vacancy. Walton was originally drafted by the Mets in 2012 but did not sign with the Mets. He enrolled at Oklahoma and was drafted in 2015 by the Brewers, but still did not sign. In 2016 the Mariners became the winners of the Walton sweepstakes, drafting him in the fifth round.

Walton has had a few cups of coffee with the Mariners and the Giants between 2019 and 2024, totaling 70 games hitting .174/.227/.305 with a 49 OPS+. He’s coming off a successful 2024 minor league campaign where he hit .306/.380/.441 (.821 OPS) over 99 games played. That’s pretty good!

Going into the spring it was difficult to see a path for Walton to make the major league team, outside of a taxi squad. The Mets had Nick Madrigal as the super utility player. Behind him was Brett Baty and Luisangel Acuña. Madrigal’s injury moves everyone up the depth chart, including Donovan Walton.

As of writing Walton is 2-for-11 over four spring training games with a double and one strikeout. If he can hit closer to what he did with Sacramento (Giant’s Triple A team, not the future home of the Athletics), then we’ll probably see him with the major league team at some point this season.

The Mets were firing on all cylinders in Saturday’s win against the Rays – the Mets third win in a row! Now the Mets look to get a winning record for the first time this spring since the first day of spring.

This weekend the Mets traveled to the west coast of Florida, playing against a pair of teams they normally don’t get to face in March. After today’s game the Mets will play their next nine games against the Marlins, Cardinals, Astros and Nationals.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. Paul Blackburn’s second start. The Mets have an opening or two in the rotation due to the injuries to Sean Manaea and Frankie Montas. Paul Blackburn is one of a few pitchers competing for those two spots. Over the last couple of days we’ve seen the younger pitchers in camp (Brandon Sproat and Blade Tidwell) dominate in their starts. Blackburn pitched a clean inning in his first game, striking out one batter and allowing no hits and no walks. How far does he go into this game?
2. Rico Garcia. According to Saturday’s game notes, Garcia is scheduled to make his third appearance in spring this afternoon for the Mets. Garcia is in camp on an NRI deal. In his first two games he allowed two hits and struck out three batters while not allowing any runs to score. Garcia had a successful 2024 for the Nationals in Rochester, posting a 3.94 ERA over 61 2/3 innings. If he puts up similar numbers for Syracuse this season, we’ll see him in Queens at some point.
3. A New Face in Town. Walker Buehler held the Mets scoreless over four innings in the NLCS. It was not fun (assuming you, like me, are a Mets fan, reading a spring training game chat article about the Mets). He was a major signing for the Boston Red Sox this year who are looking to challenge the Yankees and the Orioles for the AL East. For the Mets bats, this presents a second straight day to get some reps in against a serious starting pitcher.

Let’s Go Mets!

Luke Ritter has garnered a lot of attention over the last two seasons. He was drafted in 2019 of Wichita and played in 68 games for Brooklyn that season, hitting .245/.351/.371 with only four homers.

It’s the season after the draft where numbers for prospects start to pop, but thanks to the pandemic, there was no minor league baseball. In 2021 he went to high A and hit .232/.311/.436 over 73 games with 14 home runs. Ritter had a fairly average 2022 season hitting .204/.311/.361 with 15 home runs across Binghamton and Syracuse.

In 2023 Ritter finally started to turn some heads. He started the year back down in Binghamton and had a .958 OPS over 43 games. He then got promoted back to Syracuse and had a .808 OPS over 64 games – both of these were career highs in the minor league. In total he hit 27 home runs while slashing .244/.372/.496.

Then last season he just went on a tear, hitting .257/.369/.480 with 26 home runs over 134 games for Syracuse. His power last year coincided at the same time when the Mets offense was faltering. There was noise across social media to call up Luke. His play earned him a spot on Team USA for the Premier12 tournament this past off-season where he hit 5-for-20 with two doubles and a home run.

Ritter has shown in the minors that he has some pop. There are just a lot of players in front of him on the depth chart. On the major league level there is Pete Alonso, Mark Vientos and Jesse Winker. Ritter is also competing against Joey Meneses and Jared Young. Young has the upper hand right now because he is on the 40-man roster.

Spring hasn’t had a great start to spring so far, going 0-for-10 across five games with three strikeouts. To move up the depth chart, he has to show that 2023 and 2024 were not flukes. He has a solid chance of being called up at some point this summer, especially because he’s 28-years old and the Mets are going to need to determine what they have in Ritter. If he goes on a streak again this spring, he may push out other bench players.

For the first time this spring the Mets are going to play a west Florida opponent! The Mets are taking a weekend trip to the other side of Florida to play the Rays today and the Red Sox tomorrow – giving us a break from the Marlins, Nationals, Astros and Cardinals on the east Floridan coast.

The Mets are coming off of a great game where they recorded seven runs on 13 hits and shut out the Nationals over nine innings. Juan Soto hit his second home run of spring, Pete Alonso had his third double, and Francisco Lindor recorded two hits. Brandon Sproat and Moreno dazzled on the mound. The vibes are good!

Three Things To Watch For:

1. Blade Tidwell’s time. Sproat and Tidwell are competing to become mainstays in the Mets rotation at some point this year. Early injuries this spring to Montas and Manaea have created more openings for all the starters in camp. Sproat looked great on Friday striking out a batter and allowing nothing else over two innings. Tidwell is looking to rebound from his first spring training start where he allowed three runs from four hits and a walk over two innings. Even though the results weren’t good, his fastball averaged 96 mph in his last starter and his sinker was at 95 mph with a 40.0% Whiff%.
2. Mets hitters against Shane McClanahan. The Mets are going to face two, true starting pitchers over the weekend. First up is Shane who has made it to the All-Star game two seasons in a row. Over his three big league seasons he has had a 118, 144 and 128 ERA+. Baseball Reference keeps track of the pitcher quality that hitters face, with a 10 being an MLB pitcher, 8 being an AAA arm, 7 AA arm, etc. Juan Soto’s opponent quality has been a 7.5 this spring. Brett Baty’s has been a 6.9. Today’s a great day to see great stuff!
3. Bench Battle. There was always going to be a battle for the last bench spot on the Mets that would come down to Brett Baty or Luisangel Acuña. With the injury to Nick Madigral, there is a path for both, even though it becomes a question how to get ample playing time for both. The question now is who could become the super utility player that becomes the x-factor the Mets this season. Acuña is 2-for-10 this spring with a stolen base and two runs scored over four games. Baty has been on fire going 6-for-11 with a double, two homers and four runs scored.

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets welcome a long-time foe to camp as a new teammate! Joey Meneses signed a deal with the Mets in late November after a three year stint with the Nationals.

Joey originally signed with the Braves back in 2011 and never broke into the majors with them. He became a free agent in 2017, signed with the Phillies before the 2018 season, signed a contract with the Red Sox a couple of years after and signed with the Nationals in 2022.

He made his Major League debut at 30-years old with the Nationals, against the Mets after the 2022 trade deadline tear down of the Nationals roster. He got his first hit, a home run, in that game and went on to have an excellent rookie season hitting .324/.367/.563 with a 164 OPS+ and 1.0 WAR. He played a full season in 2023 and was by most metrics almost exactly league average hitting .275/.321/.401 with a 100 OPS+ and a 0.5 WAR. Last season was first down season in the majors with his OPS dropping to .593, OPS+ to 70 and a -0.5 WAR.

Meneses had some visa issues which has delayed his arrival to Mets camp. Things have been cleared and the first thing he did was face Brandon Sproat in live batting practice. Sproat went on to strikeout Meneses in three pitches, but we also just saw what Sproat did to the Nationals, so maybe this is just Sproat’s thing (picking on current and former National players).

Meneses will be competing to be the back up first basemen on the Mets. The main person in front of him right now on the depth chart is Jared Young, who has seen a lot of early action this spring. Beyond Young there is Pete Alonso, Mark Vientos and Jesse Winker. There’s a lot that Joey needs to cut through.

Now that Joey is here, we’ll be looking to see how much playing time he gets, if he’s hitting more like his 2022, 2023 self and honestly if he wants to stay with the Mets after spring training if he doesn’t get a roster spot. Meneses gives the Mets valuable depth that is very familiar with the NL East, and we’re hoping he has a great camp!

Huge day for Mets fans today – we can actually watch today’s game!

After several days on the road with limited coverage of the Mets, and yesterday’s home game that had no TV or radio coverage, the Mets will be back on our TV sets this afternoon as they take on the Nationals.

The Mets finally got their second win of the spring on Thursday, staying undefeated at home this season. Brett Baty had a huge, two-run homer, his second of the spring (and the only Met with two homers). Clay Holmes had another terrific start and top prospect Ryan Clifford had his first home run of the season. Today the Mets look to another top prospect – Brandon Sproat, as he makes his spring debut.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. Brandon Sproat Time! Brandon Sproat enters 2025 as #61 prospect in Baseball America, #39 in Baseball Prospectus and #46 on MLB Pipeline. The three-time drafted, twice by the Mets, pitcher is competing right now for an eventual 2025 call up. Sproat turned heads in Binghamton in 2024 with a 2.45 ERA over 62 1/3 innings with a 11.1 K/9. He is the player to watch this afternoon.
2. José Buttó: Buttó had a clean inning his last time out, no hits, no walks, no anything. He was a massive part of the Mets bullpen last season. The Mets current plans are to keep him in the bullpen. This afternoon, we’ll look to see if stays at one inning of relief or do the Mets stretch him to two.
3. Brandon Nimmo’s first start! Brandon Nimmo is in the lineup today! Nimmo is coming off a year where he battled through injuries but still played in over 150 games with an OPS+ of 107. He hit over 20 home runs for a second season in a row and is still one of the most important bats in the Mets lineup. A major question this season is – where does he hit? Lindor and Soto have the 1 and 2 spots locked up. Alonso makes the most sense after Soto. So is Brandon Nimmo the cleanup hitter? We see that version of Nimmo today!

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets claimed Luis De Los Santos from the Blue Jays in early November to provide infield depth. De Los Santos has been in the Blue Jays system since 2016 and finally made it to the majors this season.

Over 13 games with the Blue Jays, De Los Santos hit .172/.226/.241 with a 34 OPS+. Over that short time, he played at third, first and in left field. He had a pretty solid batting line in Buffalo, hitting .260/.375/.441 which is a pretty sizeable bump from from his career minor league line of .250/.312/.385. He’s played in the minors for eight years and when he takes the field this season, it will be his 600th minor league game played. Because of the chunk of time he’s played, he’s racked up 543 hits.

The Mets claimed De Los Santos for additional infield depth. In the last calendar year, between the majors, minors and Dominican winter ball, De Los Santos has played first, second, third, short and left field. He still has options left and he gives the Mets quite a bit of roster flexibility to get an additional glove on the bench when needed.

As of writing (2/27), he has already played in four spring training games in the first week of games, so the Mets are giving him a real look. There are a lot of players in front of him right now on the depth chart, but given his ability to play a bunch of positions and his options situation, he’ll be called up at some point this season. This spring we will watch for:

• Is his bat close to replacement level?
• How is his defense across the infield? Do the Mets lean to playing him more at one position than any others?

After spring training, I’m curious to see how the Mets play him defensively in the minors. He was mostly at third and short last season, do the Mets keep him there?

The Mets are undefeated in spring training games at home this year, winning one game and tying another. The Mets have lost all four games on the road this spring.

After several days on the road the Mets come back home to Clover Park this afternoon and hopefully that’s enough to push the Mets into the win column. The big story in this afternoon’s game is the return of Clay Holmes to the mound for the Mets. In his spring debut Holmes pitched three perfect innings with three strikeouts. Since his debut the Mets found out that Sean Manaea will start the list on the injured list, moving Holmes up the depth chart for the Mets, possibly competing for an Opening Day Start.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. How deep into the game does Holmes go? In his first game Holmes went the entire three innings that he was scheduled for and looked great, how deep do the Mets have him go the second time through? He is the only pitcher on the Mets to have pitched three innings so far. The Mets also will have to start worrying about exposure to the Astros soon. If Holmes lines up for the first season of the year, he will face the Astros, a team that he could still face again this spring before the start of the season.
2. Duck Power. The Mets traded for Tyler Zuber at the trade deadline last year. Zuber found his way back to baseball after a stint with the Long Island Ducks last year where he had an ERA of 1.59 over six games. This led to the Rays signing him before being traded to the Mets. Tim Healey wrote a nice profile about Zuber this week it was revealed that Zuber also adopted a duck! In his first spring training game he allowed no runs from one hit and three walks while striking out one batter.
3. Brett Baty. Baty has seized opportunities so far this spring. Over three games he is 5-for-8 at the plate with a double and a homer. With Nick Madrigal’s injury, there is an opening for significant major league playing time for Baty. Is this his spring?

Let’s Go Mets!

Ryan Clifford came over to the Mets in the Justin Verlander trade in 2023. At the end of the 2024 season, MLB.com had Drew Gilbert, also acquired in the Verlander trade, and Clifford as ranked #3 and #4 in the Mets system.

Clifford was drafted right out of high school and immediately put up an .815 OPS over his first 25 games in the Astros system. He started 2023 in A ball and hit an absurd .337/.488/.457. When he got bumped to high A the power really started to click and although his OPS dropped from .944 to .903, he started to hit home runs, knocking 16 out over 58 games.

Things got rough for Clifford right after the trade to the Mets. For the rest of the season he hit .188/.307.376 over 32 games in the same league he was playing in with the Astros. This continued in the start of 2024 where he hit .216/.412/.304 with his second tour with the St. Lucie Mets. The Mets promoted him to Binghamton for the last 99 games of the season and Clifford to a strong step back to the numbers he was putting up in the Houston system. He hit .231/.359/.457 with 18 homers.

Clifford has a lot of pop as a 1B/OF and is only 20 years old. When he was in Binghamton last season he was 3.7 years younger than the average player. His second half showed so much promise that some fans were wondering if he could be a 2025 solution for the Mets if they failed to sign Pete Alonso. It’s pretty clear that Clifford needs at least one more year in the minors. A successful 2025 may factor in the Mets decisions about Pete Alonso after this season.

We are still watching for Ryan Clifford to take steps forward right now. How does fair this spring against major league pitchers and players trying to break camp with the team? Specifically we want to see:

• His power continue to develop
• Getting on base. Clifford has had a high OBP (.378) across the minors despite only hitting .245 – that’s because he works the count. He had 95 walks over 130 games last season.
• Dropping strikeouts. Clifford struck out 140 times over 115 games in 2023. In 2025 he struck out 160 times over 130 games