213 Miles From Shea

The Mets are back! The 2024 season will finally start this afternoon as the Mets welcome the Brewers to Queens. For the second year in a row weather has interrupted the Mets plans for the home opener, causing the Mets to push the game back by a day. We watched most of the league have fun and celebrate the opening to their seasons yesterday, and now it’s finally our turn.

The Mets had a 2023 to forget. The expectations going into last season were sky high as the Mets were incredibly active signing Justin Verlander, Kodai Senga, José Quintana and David Robertson while resigning Brandon Nimmo and Edwin Díaz. Then injuries happened and the Mets season got off-track, real fast. The Mets traded a lot of the marquee players at the trade deadline and bolstered their farm system.

Understanding how last year ended is key for understanding the start of this year. The most impactful change for the Mets is having David Stearns at the helm. The Mets needed to fill out there rotation in their off-season which they did by signing Luis Severino, Sean Manaea and trading for Adrian Houser. Stearns then rebuilt bullpen depth with a flurry of major league and minor league signings. With the addition of J.D. Martinez, Stearns has built a team that can contend for a Wild Card spot. The farm system also has more than a few players in Luisangel Acuña, Drew Gilbert, Christian Scott, Dom Hamel and Mike Vasil who could all impact the Mets this season. The Mets took a weird journey to get to the point they are in right now, can they surprise baseball pundits and overperform this year?

José Quintana will make his first Opening Day start of the season. Quintana’s season got off to a scary start last spring when a benign lesion was discovered on his rib. Quintana had a long recovery period after the surgery and returned to the baseball field in late 2024. He had a strong finish to the season, starting 13 games throwing 75 2/3 innings with a 3.57 ERA, 3.52 FIP, 1.308 WHIP and a 118 ERA+. Much of his success last season came from batters not making solid contact against him. He was in the 87th percentile for Barrel% and 88th for Hard-Hit%. The Brewers have the following career numbers against him:

• Willy Adames 4-10, 2B, HR, BB, 3 K
• Jake Bauers 1-1
• William Contreras 3-4, 2B, HR
• Eric Haase 1-2
• Rhys Hoskins 3-12, HR, 5 BB, 3 K
• Joe Ross 0-2
• Gary Sánchez 0-3, BB, K
• Christian Yelich 7-32, 4 2B, BB, 8 K

The Mets bats will get their season started against Freddy Peralta. Peralta’s ERA+ has been above 110 every season since 2020, he has consistently been a good pitcher when he’s on the field. Last season was the first season where he was able to start 30 games and recorded a career high in innings pitched with 165 2/3. He had a 3.86 ERA, 3.85 FIP, 1.117 WHIP with a 112 ERA+. An area of concern for him last year was the long ball, he allowed a career high of 26 homers, and had a 1.4 HR/9 inning, a rate he hadn’t seen since 2019 (1.6, below 1.0 from 2020-22). Peralta’s first start of the season last year was also against the Mets where he shut the Mets out over six innings, hold them to two hits and three walks while striking out seven batters. The Mets have the following career numbers against him:

• Pete Alonso 1-4, 2B, BB, K
• Harrison Bader 4-16, 2B, HR, BB, 6 K
• Francisco Lindor 1-4, 3 BB, 2 K
• Starling Marte 2-10, 3B, K
• Jeff McNeil 0-4, 2 K
• Brandon Nimmo 0-5, BB, K
• Joey Wendle 0-5, 3 K

Three Things To Watch For:

1. Mets Opening Day Record: The Mets have the best Opening Day record in baseball. Last year’s win improved their record to 41-21 on the first day of the season. This is even more impressive when you consider that the Mets were 0-6 for the first six Opening Days. The Mets have won eight of their last nine Opening Days, with their last loss coming in 2019 against the Nationals.
2. New Manager, Carlos Mendoza. Carlos Mendoza will manage his first official game with the New York Mets this afternoon and this will be our first real view at his in-game managing style. Who does he talk to during the games? How does he develop players during the game? Are pitchers in the bullpen up and down? Is today just another game or does it mean more because it’s the first game? Tim Healey of Newsday had a great quick story about Mendoza as a father this week.
3. Edwin Díaz: At some point this week we are going to see Edwin’s return to Citi Field. Edwin was the soul of the team in 2022. His entrance not only made games fun, but kicked other ballparks around the league into overdrive to develop the infrastructure to take closer entrances to the next level. He has battled over the last year coming back from injury and we just can’t wait for him to step on the mound for the first time this year.

Let’s Go Mets!

We made it! The last spring training game of the season! After today the games will count, the stats will count and the Mets will play more than the six teams they’ve been playing on repeat for the last month.

The Mets split the results for their split-squad Sunday yesterday, beating the Nationals at home 10-1 and losing to the Marlins on the road 5-1. That means at worst the Mets will finish spring training with a 15-14 record and at best a 16-13 record. It’s been a mixed bag for Mets in their final tune-ups before Opening Day. Quintana and Megill both struggled in their last starts while Severino was lights out.

Today’s lineup is probably going to be the Opening Day lineup, and the lineup for the first ten days of the season until J.D. Martinez is ready to go. Newly minted, although not cemented, DH, DJ Stewart, is getting the start.

If you pay attention to teams outside of the Mets you may be wondering, “Hey, weren’t the Yankees in Mexico City yesterday? How’d they get back to Tampa that fast?”. The Yankees are playing with split-squad rosters over two countries right now. Half the team will be playing in game two tonight in Mexico City, the other half get to play the Mets.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. Sean Manaea’s last spring start: Sean Manaea is currently lined up to start the third game of the regular season next Sunday. Over three major league spring training games, Sean has pitched 11 2/3 innings allowing four runs, leading to a 3.09 ERA with 14 strikeouts. Sean’s spring started off rough, allowing three runs from seven hits over 2 2/3 innings. Since then he has pitched nine innings allowing only one run from six hits. We are hoping to see more of the same today.
2. Jeff McNeil: Today is Jeff McNeil’s last chance to record a base hit before the start of the season. McNeil started spring training late this year due to a bicep injury and has only been in four official spring training games (his least since 2015 where he only got one official spring at bat). Over his four games this year he has gone 0-for-11 at the plate with three walks. More alarming is five strikeouts in this small-sample size. Here’s hoping he ends spring with a hit and can buck the strikeout trend today.
3. Starling Marte: Marte had a great day at the plate yesterday going 2-for-4, including a double with two runs scored. It was his first double of the spring and only his 6th and 7th hit overall. If there ever was a time to get hot, it’s right now before the games count for real.

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets look to complete their all-NL East Sunday with a trip to Jupiter to take on the Miami Marlins. This is a good time to just quickly reminisce about 2023. The Mets and Marlins matched up a lot throughout spring training, that’s normal. They also played the Marlins in two of their first three series of the year. So on the last day of Spring Training, when they faced the Marlins, it started a stretch of eight games against the Marlins over the next 11 games the Mets would play.

Now back to 2024. After a spring of playing the Marlins sometimes multiple times per week, after today the Mets won’t see the Marlins again until late May. The Marlins have had a lot of injury concerns to their rotation, this could be a different looking squad when the Mets and Marlins see each other again when it counts.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. Tylor Megill, in the starting rotation again. In 2022 Tylor Megill was the Opening Day starter for the Mets with deGrom and Scherzer both out due to injury. Last season he made the Opening Day rotation with the Verlander injury. This year he’s on the rotation due to Senga’s injury. Megill has looked great this spring, especially due to his new American Sport pitch. Over five games and 15 2/3 innings, he has allowed 12 hits and four walks to become six runs (3.45 ERA) while striking out 16 batters. Is this the season where Megill finally puts it all together?
2. Zack Short, newest roster addition. Zack Short found out this morning that he is going north with the team at the end of the week. He earned this spot thanks to his strong spring and versatility playing at second, third and short this spring. He went 10-for-36 at the plate scoring seven runs and also worked seven walks (.395 OBP).
3. It’s apparently a big prospect day. The Mets have Gilbert, Clifford and Ramírez all getting starts today. Out of the three named players, Drew Gilbert is the closest to the major leagues with a serious chance of making the team at some point this season. Ryan Clifford came over in the same trade and he’s looking for his first official Mets spring training hit today. The hype around Ramírez melted away last season – can he bring it back?

Let’s Go Mets!

Today is the latest in the season I’ve seen the Mets do a split-squad game day. Half the Mets will be home against the National this afternoon while the other half are going to be with the Marlins. Today’s game against the Nationals is the last game in St. Lucie before the Mets head up north. Tomorrow they will make the trip across the state to Tampa and will go to Queens from there.

The lineup in St. Lucie today is so close to the Mets probable starting lineup. The only change is Tyrone Taylor starting in center instead of Harrison Bader. This lineup also includes DJ Stewart who may be the Mets starting DH for the first week or so of the season until J.D. Martinez is ready (in case you missed it, the Mets optioned Mark Vientos earlier this morning).

Three Things To Watch For:

1. Luis Severino’s last tune up. Luis Severino is currently scheduled to start the Mets second game of the season next Saturday at Citi Field. He has had a tremendous spring where he has pitched nine innings in major league games allowing one run from five hits while striking out eight and walking no one. A healthy, effective Severino will be huge for the Mets this season as they try to find a way into the playoffs.
2. DJ Stewart’s last audition. Stewart did not exactly get a vote of confidence in the press conference this morning. He’s clearly on the roster until the Mets can bring up J.D. Martinez, but Stearns also said the Mets are still open to making a roster change based on players available out of the organization. Stewart has had a lackluster spring, going 6-for-35 at the plate with a homer, but worked enough walks that despite a .171 batting average, he does a .326 on base percentage.
3. Still looking for a spring hit. Jeff McNeil had a late start to spring training this season coming back from a bicep injury. Over three games McNeil is 0-for-7 with three walks. Jeff has maximum two games left to record a hit before the start of the season.

Let’s Go Mets!

There are four spring training games left before the start of the regular season. If the Mets win today’s game, they will guarantee that they cannot end spring training with a losing record – not that it matters anyway.

Yesterday the Mets lost to the Yankees 5-3 in Tampa. Mark Vientos had the highlight of the game hitting an early two-run bomb. It was a team leading fifth home run of the spring. With the J.D. Martinez signing, the Vientos is no longer the starting DH for the ball club. Martinez may start the season in the minors to ramp up baseball activities, so there’s a chance Vientos is the Opening Day DH. His playing time in the coming days is something to keep an eye on.

With José Quintana on the hill this afternoon, there’s a lot of Opening Day rehearsal energy at the ballpark. We are so close to meaningful games!

Three Things To Watch For:

1. José Quintana, Opening Day Starter. There’s a lot going on for Quintana right now! Quintana became an American citizen this week after passing his naturalization test in Miami. He talked about his experience with reporters including how one of his major concerns, after waiting half a year to get the appointment, was missing time in the regular season to travel to Miami to take the test. Focusing on today, Quintana has his final tune up before his big Opening Day start in Queens. Over four games this spring he has allowed nine runs, only six earned, in 13 innings while striking out 12 batters.
2. Mark Vientos: Mark Vientos hit his fifth homer of spring in yesterday’s game. His spring has been punctuated with moments of power between small stretches where he has racked up strikeouts. He has 18 strikeouts over 54 at bats, but they are clumped. For example, six happened on back to back days. The result has been a low .250 OBP with a high .537 SLG. As spring winds down we are hoping he can work on increasing his OBP clip without sacrificing power.
3. Jiman Choi: Choi can become a free agent tomorrow if the Mets do not add him to the 40-man roster. He is 6-for-35 this spring spread over 15 games. His OBP his 120 points higher than his batting average as he has also worked six walks this spring. Since the Martinez signing, it is more difficult, but not impossible, to see a path forward for Choi on the Mets roster.

Let’s Go Mets!

For the second day in a row the Mets hit the road and play a team that is not named the Cardinals, Astros, Marlins or Nationals as they head across to Florida to take on the Yankees in Tampa.

Yesterday was a pretty good day in Mets land. The Mets beat the Tigers 10-5, hitting three home runs. Harrison Bader had his second homerun of the spring, raising his spring OPS to .859. Brett Baty hit his third home run of spring. Zack Short had a grand slam to put the game out of reach for the Tigers.

A couple of hours after the game the Mets announced that they signed J.D. Martinez to a one-year, ending a long search for a DH. Martinez completely changes the Mets lineup and finally provides Pete Alonso with significant protection. The Martinez signing now makes it more difficult for DJ Stewart and Jiman Choi to break with the team out of camp. The signing also makes finding playing time for Mark Vientos difficult.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. Tyler Stuart gets a start! Tyler Stuart last pitched in a major spring training game for the Mets on February 26. He tossed two innings allowing a hit, a walk and nothing else. Stuart was drafted by the Mets in the 6th round back in 2022 out of the University of Southern Mississippi. He had had a tremendous year last season making 21 starts between Brooklyn and Binghamton tossing 110 2/3 innings with a 2.20 ERA.
2. Zack Short: Short doubled his RBI’s this spring in one at bat yesterday after hitting a grand slam. He’s hitting .303/.410/.485 over 15 games and 33 AB’s. Is his strong spring enough to grab one of the last bench spots on the team? With the Martinez signing, there’s probably room for only one of Mark Vientos, DJ Stewart, Jiman Choi and Zack Short on the team.
3. Brett Baty continues his recent surge. Baty has hit home runs now in consecutive starts. All of his homers have come in the month of March and this month alone he is hitting .294/.385/.588. He has hits in nine of eleven games he’s played in this month. Let’s keep the momentum going into the regular season!

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets are getting on a roll as they wrap their spring training schedule. The Mets have won four of their last five spring training games and depending on how you look at the split-squad situation last Sunday, they are either on a two or three game winning streak right now.

The big story in yesterday’s game was Christian Scott. The Mets prospect got the start as the Mets are starting to hide their starters from major league games in the final week of the season (which is normal!). Scott pitched four innings allowing one run from two hits and struck out seven batters. The Mets will continue sending out their top prospects as Dom Hamel gets the start in today’s game!

There are some familiar and interesting names in the other dugout to pay attention to as well. For the second time this spring the Mets will face off against an old friend in Mark Canha. The Tigers also have two of their top prospects in the lineup today – Colt Keith and Parker Meadows.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. Dom Hamel’s big start! We last saw Hamel during the Mets Spring Breakout game where he started off the game pitching two innings allowing one run from two hits and a walk while striking out two batters. Hamel burst on the Mets scene back in 2022 when he posted a 3.25 ERA over 119 innings across St. Lucie and Brooklyn. He followed it up with a 3.85 ERA over 124 innings in Binghamton last year. There is a significant chance that Dom makes his major league debut at some point this season.
2. Brett Baty: Baty went 1-for-3 at the plate Tuesday working a walk and hitting his second home run of the spring. Overall this spring he is 10-for-41 hitting .244/.311/.415. The line is a far cry from his line in 2023 that hyped up the fan base (.325/.460/.425), but his current batting line is being weighed down by his slow start. If you look at only March, he’s hitting .290/.371/.516 with all of his extra base hits happening in the last 20 days. Let’s keep this momentum going!
3. Francisco Álvarez’s Arm: The hype around Álvarez is usually about his bat, but we need to talk about his arm. He threw out Herrera on Tuesday trying to steal second base. This spring he has already caught eight batters stealing (take these numbers with grain of salt as they also include catching batters at home and it’s spring training). Last spring, in eight games as a catcher, he didn’t catch anyone stealing. Last season he caught 15 batters stealing. This is something to keep an eye on this season.

Let’s Go Mets!

Across the world, the (RESULT OF GAME) opened the 2024 season in the first ever Korea Series. We have less than a week of spring training games left before the Mets head up north. You can already see the signs of things starting to wind down at camp. The Mets made another round of roster cuts yesterday, everyone left with the team is in a position battle. The lineup in yesterday’s game had all of the batters (although not necessarily in that order) we expect to see on Opening Day. The Mets sent starting pitchers Luis Severino and José Buttó to start minor leagues games, which is common at this point of the year – we are so close!

This is the part of spring where momentum becomes important. The Mets split the results for their split-squad game on Sunday and won last night 3-1 behind a strong start from Sean Manaea. Francisco Álvarez and Brett Baty’s bats carried the team. Let’s keep the vibes going this afternoon!

Three Things To Watch For:

1. Christian’s Scott big start: Christian Scott gets the start today. So far the Mets prospect has only been in one official spring training game allowing one run over one inning of work, so potentially this could be the first extended look in an official spring training game for him. If you were unaware, Scott had a terrific year last year in the minors making 19 starts pitching 87 2/3 innings with a 2.57 ERA. There is a high chance we see him make his major league debut this year.
2. Ji-Man Choi: Choi will be allowed to walk away from his major league deal if he is not added to a major league roster soon. Over 12 games this spring Choi is hitting .222/.364/.497 where has walked six times and struck out seven times.
3. Joey Wendle’s quiet spring: It’s a small-sample size, but Wendle has put together a good spring with the Mets. He is 7-for-15 over six games so far with two runs scored. The only thing missing from his spring so far is power – all seven of his hits have been singles.

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets return to the diamond tonight after only their second off day this spring. It was a busy weekend for the Mets who played five games over the course of three days. The Mets will now play straight through the rest of the spring with no days off until the two-day break before Opening Day. This final stretch is when spring training starts to feel more like a dress rehearsal for the regular season. Batters will get longer starts. As starters go deeper into games, relievers will start to be used in their normal innings. Some relievers will be brought in for specific situations (like one or two out with multiple runners on).

The big news today is Jeff McNeil returns to action, which means the Mets are sending out a lineup that looks pretty close, if not identical, to their Opening Day lineup. The only difference may be the order as Jeff McNeil is batting cleanup today.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. Jeff McNeil’s Return: McNeil’s spring training was derailed at the start of the month due to bicep soreness. Since then he’s slowly progressing to get to game strength and finally reached that mark over the weekend after a minor league game where he went 2-for-3 at the plate, played five innings at second and had a strikeout. Todd Zeile during Sunday’s Mets broadcast talked about how the strikeout might be a good sign – you want your bicep to feel good after good swings and bad swings. Anyway with McNeil’s return we can finally start to starting rosters in the final week that look like the Mets actual Opening Day roster.
2. The Mets will go as far as the back third of the lineup lets them. Let’s assume, and this is a dangerous thing to do, that the last three batters in the lineup are Brett Baty, Mark Vientos and Harrison Bader when the first real lineup is posted at the end of March. These are the three bats that are key for the Mets having a season better than the pundits are expecting. Does Brett Baty make the next step? Can Mark Vientos’ exit velocity numbers translate into homers consistently. Does Harrison Bader return to his 2020 and 2021 form at the plate?
3. Was it the haircut? Sean Manaea had a rough first outing with the Mets allowing seven hits over 2 2/3 innings that translated into three runs. He then got a haircut for the first time in years. In his next outing pitched four innings allowing two hits and three walks but no runs while striking out five.

Let’s Go Mets!

The spring training schedule has been slightly different this year compared to previous years. So far this spring the Mets have had way more evening games and no split-squad days. The latter point changes today as the Mets have their first of two Sundays in a row playing two split-squad games.

Most of the Mets starters stayed in St. Lucie this morning, but a few of them are making the trek to West Palm beach including Pete Alonso and Brett Baty. They’ll get to face MacKenzie Gore who is starting his second season with the Nationals. Gore was a key part of the blockbuster trade that sent Juan Soto to the Padres back in 2022.

Out of the two games the Mets play today, this is the more difficult one to follow if you live in the Mets media market. The game is being broadcasted by MASN (the Orioles and Nationals regional sports network) and can be watched in the New York area on MLBTV.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. Tylor Megill continues to battle for the last rotation spot: José Buttó continued his strong spring his last time out, so now it’s Tylor’s time to impress again. Before his last spring start, we commented about how it was his fourth and fifth spring training start last year that gave Tylor difficulties. He dominated in his last start, his fourth start, allowing one run from three hits over four innings of work. He’s now allowed only two runs in 12 innings this spring, and one of those was from the very first inning he tossed.
2. Pete Alonso: Alonso is off to a good start this spring, hitting .250/.368/.594 over 32 at bats spread across 13 games. He only has two homers so far but has ripped five doubles and has already walked six times (for comparison, he has hit six walks two other times in spring training). He’s the engine of the Mets offense and we are starting to get to the point of spring where you want your big hitters to gain momentum to carry them into the start of the regular season.
3. Ben Gamel: Gamel has had a quiet spring training for the Mets so far going 3-for-18 over 10 games with a double and eight strikeouts. Gamel signed as a free agent this off-season and is trying to get onto the 40-man roster. In 2022 he saw a lot of playing time with the Pirates where he hit .232/.324/.369 with a 97 OPS+ over 115 games.

Let’s Go Mets!