213 Miles From Shea

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.

The game against the Marlins will probably be closer to a normal game for the Mets. Yesterday the Mets played an evening game on the road and gave most of their starters the night off. Out of the two games the Mets are playing today, this is the home game so most of the regular players will return to action here.

This is also the easier game for those in the Mets media market to tune into. This afternoon’s game against the Marlins is being broadcasted on WPIX. The Mets road game against the National is being handled by MASN. You’ll need an MLBTV subscription if you want to watch both Mets games at the same time.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. José Quintana, Opening Day Starter: The Mets named Quintana as their Opening Day starter earlier this week. So far this spring he has made three starts totaling 8 2/3 innings allowing three runs, two earned from eight hits while striking out nine batters. His last start was his best on yet holding the Nationals to only two hits and no runs in four innings. Look to see how deep the Mets let him go into this game as he starts to wind down his spring ramp-up period.
2. Francisco Álvarez: It’s a small sample size of only 25 AB’s but so far this spring Álvarez is hitting .240/.345/.985. Last season he hit .209/.284/.721. In addition to hitting for power this spring Álvarez is working walks, four of them already this spring. Let’s hope this trend continues into the regular season.
3. Mark Vientos looks to recover from a rough day. Mark Vientos had about as bad of a game as you can last night. He went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts. This came after Friday night’s game where he went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts. Before the alarm bells start to wring, we can put this in perspective. In the four games before this, Mark went 4-for-13 with two home runs and a double. Six of his 13 strikeouts in March are from the last two games. Nine of this 13 strikeouts are from three of ten games he played in.

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets had two games yesterday! First the Mets prosects beat the Nationals prospects in both franchises first ever Spring Breakout Game. The veteran Mets then dropped the nightcap to the Nationals 7-3. Houser and Fujinami allowed all seven runs on the night. It wasn’t all bad for the Mets as the offense finally got going, collecting 10 hits. Harrison Bader and Francisco Lindor both went 2-for at the plate and DJ Stewart hit his first home run of spring.

Today the Mets are sending out a lineup like they played an afternoon/evening doubleheader. Almost all of the regular position players except for Brandon Nimmo, Pete Alonso and Mark Vientos are getting the afternoon off and the rest of the lineup is rounded out with bench players and players trying to break on the roster.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. Michael Tonkin: Tonkin completed along journey back to the majors last season. The long time Twins’ pitcher last pitched in a major league game back in 2017 where he had a 5.14 ERA over 21 innings over 16 games. He then played in Japan, Mexico and Long Island. Last season he got into 45 games for the Braves, pitching 80 innings with a 4.28 ERA and 104 ERA+. He’s had a good spring this year, allowing two hits and a walk while holding opponents scoreless over 3 1/3 innings. At this point he has pitched himself into the conversation to break camp with the major league club.
2. DJ Stewart: Stewart came onto the scene in a huge way last year, hitting 11 homers over 58 games for the Mets. This spring has been the complete opposite. Before last night’s game he was 4-for-22 this spring no extra base hits. Last night went 1-for-3 hitting his first homer of the spring. Is this the start of a Stewart hot streak?
3. The King of Cold Springs. Brandon Nimmo likes to take things slow in spring. Over seven games this year spring he has gone 5-for-21 at the plate hitting .238/.273/.286, which is not very Nimmo-regular-season-like. It is very similar to his previous springs. Last year he played in only six official spring training games and hit .143/.294/.286. The year before he played in eight games and hit .192/.323/.308.

Let’s Go Mets!

Doubleheader at Clover Park! The Mets top prospects took the afternoon this afternoon in the Spring Breakout game and now the veteran players take the field for the night cap.

The Mets veterans are coming off of a tie in Jupiter, where the Mets and Cardinals each had three hits last night, but didn’t score any runs. For the Mets only Brett Baty and Zack Short collected hits. Luke Voit had the toughest night in the lineup going 0-for-3 with three strikeouts.

If the bats on both teams had a bad night, then the pitchers were feasting. José Buttó, competing with Tylor Megill for the last rotation spot, had a great outing pitching four scoreless innings while striking out three batters. Austin Adams, who is fighting for a roster spot, struck out the side in his clean inning of work. Two of the pitchers he is competing against are scheduled to pitch in tonight’s game – Sean Reid-Foley and Phil Bickford.

The Mets will also get to face an old friend tonight – Trevor Williams. Williams found his way to the Mets in the Báez during the 2021 season. He had a solid year-and-a-half with the Mets and is starting his second season with the Nationals. Last season he had a 5.55 ERA over 144 1/3 innings spread over 30 starts.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. Adrian Houser’s fourth outing of spring. After two solid outings to start spring, Houser hit a speed bump on March 3rd where he allowed three runs from four hits and a walk over 1 2/3 innings. His last time out was completely different, he didn’t allow any runs, hits or walks in 3 1/3 innings while striking out five batters. Here’s hoping tonight is more of the same.
2. Fringe bullpen competition. Phil Bickford and Sean Reid-Foley are on the outside looking in right now. Bickford’s first outing was rough – he allowed three runs from four hits in one inning of work. Last time out he was asked to get two outs and recorded two strikeouts. Sean Reid-Foley is having a terrific spring right now. In four innings spread across four games he has allowed no runs, no hits and one walk while striking out seven batters. The problem for Sean is a lot of pitchers are having a strong spring.
3. Mark Vientos, power hitter. The Mets have been connected to JD Davis over the last week – Mark Vientos would like to remind you that he exists. After a slow start to spring, he’s been heating up as of late. In his last four games he has gone 4-for-13 with two homers, a double and a walk. Further he has only struck out two times in that stretch.

Let’s Go Mets!

One of the best parts of spring training is seeing highly touted prospects take the field in their future threads. Prospects get into spring training games frequently, but generally there are only a few on the field at a time, they are mixed in with veterans on non-roster invitations and they get limited time in the game. If you are fan of a team and don’t live near your team’s affiliate clubs, you have to hope you are tuning into a spring training game at exact right moment to see top prospects play.

Major League Baseball wanted to make it easier to see the top prospects and debuted the Spring Breakout Showcase this year. This weekend every team is playing at least one Breakout Showcase game. Rosters are made up of all of the best prospects.

The Mets system is loaded with top prospects that are today’s roster. There are seven hitters on the roster who the Mets acquired in trades last season. One of the most exciting pitching prospects, Dom Hamel, is starting the game. The future is bright and the future is literally now on the diamond for the New York Mets.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. Hitters acquired in trades last season. Luisangel Acuña (Max Scherzer) , Ryan Clifford, Drew Gilbert (Justin Verlander), Ronald Hernandez, Marco Vargas (David Robertson) and Jeremy Rodriquez (Tommy Pham) are all on the roster today. Acuña and Gilbert have flown to the top of the Mets top prospects list. Jeremy Rodriguez landed on Fan Graphs Top 101 list as a 17-year-old. This group of hitters are electric and will play all over the Mets system this year, with a few of them having a chance to make their major league debuts in 2024. Today only though they are all on the same roster.
2. Dom Hamel. Hamel is part of a group of top pitching prospects for the Mets (Christian Scott, Mike Vasil) who could debut at some point in 2024 to bolster the Mets 2024 rotation. In 124 innings last season Hamel had a 3.85 ERA and a 1.266 WHIP. In 2022 he struck out 145 batters over 119 innings split between the St. Lucie Mets and Brooklyn on his way to winning the Mets Organization Pitcher of the Year.
3. Did you know the Mets have a two-way player? Nolan McLean was drafted by the Mets last year in the third round out of Oklahoma State University. After drafting McLean last year the Mets gave him an opportunity to pursue being a two-way player in their system. As a hitter he got into eight games going 2-for-16 with a homer while working seven walks. As a pitcher he allowed one hit and one run over two games and 3 1/3 innings of work. Now a year removed from college baseball, we expect Nolan to get a lot more playing time in minor league games.

Let’s Go Mets!

For most of the last week the Mets offense was just missing. Before last night in their last three games the Mets had a combined three runs scored from 12 hits. The wins / losses don’t matter in spring but you want to see the Mets regulars getting hits, starting rallies, flashing power, making smart plays on the base paths.

This all returned last night as the Mets beat the Astros 6-5 in a game capped off with a walk-off hit by Joe Suozzi, son of House of US Representatives Tom Suozzi. Joe saved us all from “there’s no tying in baseball” posts as both the Mets and Astros agreed that the game would end after the ninth inning if the score is tied. The key inning last night, in my opinion, was the 5th where the Mets scored four runs. It was the first time in a while the Mets regulars participated in a long rally with singles, walks and capitalizing on Astros miscues.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. José Buttó looks to continue his dominant spring. Buttó will make his fourth start of the spring today as he continues to compete for the last spot of the rotation. In three games this spring he has a 1.50 ERA over six innings while striking out six batters. In his last start he pitched three innings so if all goes well he’s probably aiming for at least four innings today. In between his outings, Tylor Megill had another good start who is Buttó’s main competition at this point.
2. Austin Adams continues to fight for a rotation spot. Adams has had an excellent start to spring. In four games and 3 2/3 innings he has allowed only two hits and no runs while striking out seven batters. In March, he struck out four of the five outs he recorded. Another good outing today and he will start to force the Mets to figure out a way to get him rostered.
3. Ice Cold Hitters: A few hitters who have been ice cold this spring are getting the start and hopefully can start to break out of their funk this afternoon. Harrison Bader is 1-for-10 this spring with one strikeout over five games this spring. Luke Voit is 2-for-20 with seven strikeouts. The Mets are banking on Harrison Bader as their everyday centerfielder. Luke Voit is fighting to get on a roster.

Let’s Go Mets!

If patterns hold true, the Mets should lose today’s game.

After winning the first game of spring, the Mets lost four games in a row, then won four in a row, then lost four in a row, then won four games in a row. Currently they have lost three in a row. Is tonight the night they finally break this streaking trend?

Quintana had the best game of any Met last night, going four innings allowing two hits and no runs. He had basically zero offense behind him with the Mets mustering up two singles (Nimmo, Short) and only two walks on their way to losing 4-1.

The Mets have an opportunity to get some cuts in today against some of the best pitchers in the league. Cristian Javier is scheduled to start for the Astros. Later in the game both Josh Hader and Ryan Pressly should both pitch an inning.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. How deep does Luis Severino go today? This will be Severino’s third start of spring and the Mets are about two weeks away from Opening Day. In his first outing Severino allowed no hits and no runs over two innings of work. In his second outing he allowed three hits and no runs over three innings of work (while striking out four batters). From a workload perspective, the extra inning of work only cost Severino nine additional pitches (30 pitches start one, 39 pitches start two).
2. Fujinami Bounceback! In his last outing Fujinami allowed two runs, one earned, from three hits in one inning of work. According to MLB.com’s Gameday, his fastest pitch in that outing was 97.4 mph. In his first outing he didn’t throw any fastballs at all. Is today the day we see the triple digit heat?
3. Bats please. The Mets slogan this year, “Baseball hits different here” may have been misinterpreted by the players. The Mets offense has just been absent for the better part of a week. In their last five games the Mets have scored three runs or less and they’ve scored a total of three runs during their current three game losing streak. The Mets have also collected only 12 hits in the last three games, an average of four a game. Winning and losing doesn’t matter in spring, but players consistently making solid contact and connecting for hits does. Here’s hoping the pendulum starts to swing the other way tonight.

Let’s Go Mets!

The results of yesterday’s game do not matter. They never matter for spring training games but they especially didn’t matter last night. Edwin Díaz  made his return to the mound for the first time in about a year and was electric. He struck out the side using his mix of pitches and looked great. You can just feel the vibes rebuilding around this Mets club with Edwin back on the mound.

The Mets look to keep the vibes going tonight as they travel to West Palm Beach to play another spring training night game. As always with road games, it’s a coin flip if there will be televised coverage. Tonight there is no televised coverage, but the game will have a radio broadcast via the local Nationals radio station. So if you access to MLB Gameday Audio, or live in the greater DC area, you can tune into tonight’s game! The Nationals alternate between an FM and AM signal, tonight they are going FM, so even though the game is at night, the signal won’t travel that far.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. José Quintana’s third start of spring. In the third start we see pitchers aiming to go for 60+ pitches, generally around four innings of work if everything goes alright. Quintana’s first start of spring was rocky, allowing two runs from two hits and three walks over 1 2/3 innings. His last start was crisp, allowing one run from four hits and no walks while striking out six batters of over three innings. If Quintana can go more than four innings tonight, he’ll double his total work for the spring. It’s possible because his last time out he went 54 pitches so maybe his maximum is a bit different than others. Quintana right now could be the Mets Opening Day Starter.
2. Joey Lucchesi’s spring debut. Joey was supposed to make his spring debut last week against the Astros but the game got rained out. With pitchers on tight schedules, his debut got pushed all the way to today. Joey had a pretty good year for the Mets last season making nine starts and pitching 46 2/3 innings with a 2.89 ERA, 4.22 FIP, 1.307 WHIP and a 147 ERA+. At the end of the season he became part of the Mets six-man rotation where he had a 1.93 ERA, 3.63 FIP over three starts and 18 2/3 innings. He’s competing for the last rotation spot against two pitchers who have had dominant springs (Tylor Megill and José Buttó)
3. Ji-Man Choi looks to continue his hot start to spring. Choi has collected 5 hits in 14 AB’s this spring including two doubles and a homer. He has also worked four walks in his eight games this spring leading to a .500 OBP. If Choi keeps getting on base at the rate he is, he’s going to force a conversation about how the Mets can find a roster spot for him.

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets have two outfielders left in camp competing for the final outfield spot on the roster – Ben Gamel and Trayce Thompson. The disadvantage that both outfielders have is that they are not on the 40-man roster yet.

Ben Gamel has been in the game for a while. He was drafted by the Yankees in 2010 and made his major league debut back in 2016. He was traded at the end of August in 2016 to the Mariners who traded him to the Brewers in 2018. This is where you probably know him from. After that he spent time with Cleveland, Pittsburg and most recently the Padres.

Gamel saw consistent playing time from 2017 to 2022 with his OPS+ ranging from 85 to 106. He had an OPS+ of 100 or slightly more three times over those five years. He’s a solid, average level player, which is what a lot of baseball teams need.

Last year he just couldn’t latch on to a team, despite hitting in the minors. Across the Rays and Padres system he hit .286/.402/.498 in AAA. In his cup of coffee with the Padres he had only three hits in 15 trips to the plate. He’s not exactly lighting it up this year in Mets camp either going 3-for-15 with a double and a walk while striking out six times.

It is difficult right now to see how Gamel fits with the Mets major league squad. Similar to what we said yesterday about Taylor Kohlwey, the Mets tend to dip into their reserves a lot and some how found time for Rafael Ortega to play 47 games last season. If Gamel stays with the Mets organization after camp breaks, he will probably, eventually find his way for at least a few at bats with the Mets this year.

The Mets four game winning streak was snapped yesterday, continuing a pattern for the Mets of losing four in a row, then winning four, then losing four, then winning four. Can they buck the trend and win tonight?

Have you noticed that the Mets are playing more night spring training games this year? Tonight starts the first of three night games in a row this week and five of their next six games are at night. It’s not just a Mets thing too as two of the five games are on the road. This is an interesting development this spring and definitely makes spring training games, that are televised, easier to watch.

Tonight’s scheduled pitchers feels like a normal game for the Mets as we head deeper into spring training. Tylor Megill, Edwin Díaz, Brooks Raley and Drew Smith are all scheduled to pitch tonight. Díaz obviously headlines the group of pitchers, making his first appearance since his injury last year.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. Edwin Díaz: Díaz makes his long awaited return to the mound tonight, and we couldn’t be more excited. Díaz became the best reliever in baseball in 2022 and was a huge reason why the Mets won 101 games. He tore his petellar tendon celebrating after a massive win for Puerto Rico in last year’s World Baseball Classic. He worked incredibly hard throughout the 2023 season and while there was a small chance the Mets could have brought him back for an outing or two at the end of September last year, the Mets correctly played it safe not rushing Díaz. His energy is the soul of this team and we are so excited to see him on the mound again.
2. The critical spring start for Tylor Megill? Megill has looked fantastic so far this spring, allowing only one run over eight innings and three outings while striking out 13 batters. So far his only rough inning was his first inning this spring. Last season in his first three starts Megill allowed only one run over 8 1/3 innings. In his last two spring starts he allowed nine runs. Also, do we even see Megill’s new pitch today or does Megill start to hide it as he faces another NL East team?
3. Mark Vientos: After March 7th’s game, Vientos was hitting .143/.182/.286. In the two games since he has gone 3-for-7 with a double and a homer. If he can do this one more game in a row, Vientos will officially be on a hot streak.

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets had three outfielders in camp this year competing for a roster spot: Ben Gamel, Taylor Kohlwey and Trayce Thompson. So far this spring Trayce Thompson has been the most impressive.

A couple of days ago Taylor Kohlwey was reassigned to minor league camp, which isn’t incredibly surprising. This spring Taylor has gone 2-for-11 over seven games, both hit singles, with a walk and a sacrifice.

Taylor Kohlwey was drafted by the Padres in the 21st round back in 2016. He finally made his major league debut with the Padres last year where he went 2-for-13 in five games, both hits were singles. He was effective in the minors last season hitting .276/.390/.437 over 516 trips to the plate. Overall in the minor leagues he has hit .282/.371/.418 over seven seasons. He has shown that he can hit in the minors, it just didn’t translate in his quick trip to the majors last year, or his spring training this year.

For the Mets Taylor provides outfield depth. Injuries happen and there will be a point in the season where the Mets will need to call someone up to fill in for a couple of days. Taylor provides the depth to not have to push a top prospect up for a short term injury. Remember the 2023 Mets had Rafael Ortega play in 47 games last year.