213 Miles From Shea

Baseball in Queens! Finally!

The tri-state has had an incredibly rainy start of the week and the last two Mets games were postponed and pushed to today. This now creates a new challenge for the Mets who will play 15 games over their next 14 days. The Mets are calling up Jose Buttó to be the 27th man for the second game, which should prevent one of the current Mets starters from pitching on short rest down the road. Further the Mets signed Julio Teherán to a major league contract and Julio will slot into the rotation for an injured Tylor Megill.

The Mets officially are having one of their roughest starts to the season ever after last night’s loss. They are now 0-4, which has happened only four other times (1962, 1963, 1964 and 2005). Monday night the Mets got amazing pitching for the first nine innings of the game but could not turn any of their hits into runs. On the positive side, multiple players had extremely hard-hit lineouts, and at some point that has to start to break for the Mets.

Adrian Houser will make his Mets debut tonight. Over 23 games, 21 starts, last season he tossed 111 1/3 innings with a 4.12 ERA, 3.99 FIP, 1.392 WHIP and a 105 ERA+. According to Baseball Savant, while Houser left a lot to be desired last season in terms of missing bats (xBA 25th percentile, Chase % 20th percentile, Hard-Hit % 5th percentile) he produced a lot of ground balls (73rd percentile). If the defense is strong behind him he can be quite effective. The Tigers have the following career numbers against him:

• Javier Báez 2-10 2B, BB, 2 K
• Mark Canha 0-2, K
• Jack Flaherty 0-2
• Carson Kelly 0-1, K

Casey Mize makes his return to the mound for his first start since Tommy John surgery, which has sidelined the former number 1 overall pick since 2022 (where he made only two starts). In his only full season, 2021, he made 30 starts totaling 150 1/3 innings with a 3.71 ERA, 4.71 FIP, 1.137 WHIP and a 114 ERA+. If the Tigers are going to make a surprise run for the post-season this year, they need Casey Mize to make a triumphant return. A few Mets players have seen Mize in previous games:

• Harrison Bader 0-2
• Francisco Lindor 0-2, BB
• DJ Stewart 1-4, BB, 2 K
• Joey Wendle 1-2

Jose Buttó gets the start for the Mets in the afternoon game today. Buttó had a successful season with the Mets last year, making seven starts over nine games and 42 innings of work. During that time he had a 3.64 ERA, 4.02 FIP, 1.333 WHIP and a 117 ERA+. This includes an outing against the Tigers where he allowed one run over 2 1/3 innings last May. He also had a tremendous spring for the Mets allowing only one run from nine hits over ten innings while striking out nine batters. The Tigers have had limited at bats against Buttó:

• Akil Baddoo 0-1, K
• Andy Ibáñez 0-1
• Javier Báez 0-1
• Matt Vierling 0-3, SB
• Riley Greene 0-1, K
• Spencer Torkelson 1-1

Matt Manning will make his 2024 debut today. He made 15 starts for the Tigers last season tossing 78 innings with a 3.58 ERA, 4.81 FIP, 1.038 WHIP with a 124 ERA+ (career best). His season was interrupted last April when he fractured his foot by taking a comebacker against the Blue Jays. He returned in late June and picked up where he left off. In September he took another comebacker to the same foot, broke it again, and missed the rest of the season. Similar to Buttó, Manning just missed the last spot in the Tigers rotation and is being called up for today’s doubleheader. Casey Mize, the starter in game one, just narrowly beat Manning out for the rotation spot.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. The top of the lineup sets the tone. In Monday night’s game the top of the lineup (Nimmo, Lindor, Alonso) went 0-for-11 with two walks. Nimmo and Lindor are off to cold starts this season and Alonso had his first rough game of the season. When the top of the lineup fully turns around, the whole team will follow.
2. Reed Garrett: Reed Garrett was recalled before the start of Monday’s game with Tylor Megill landing on the injured list. Over nine games last season Garrett pitched 17 innings with a 5.82 ERA, 4.90 FIP, 1.235 WHIP and a 74 ERA+. In one game this season he pitched two innings for Syracuse allowing a hit and nothing else while striking out four batters. If there is an extended delay in the middle of today’s game or a doubleheader later this week, the Mets are going to need Garrett to eat some innings save the bullpen.
3. Roster Management: Today is going to be an early test of Carlos Mendoza’s roster management. The Mets are about to embark on a 15 game, 14 day quest. There has been only one starting pitcher for the Mets, Sean Manaea, who has thrown a pitch in the sixth inning this year. With two days off everyone in the bullpen should be available. Will there be another pitcher outside of Reed Garrett who is asked to step up and toss multiple innings today? How many starting position players play both games today?

Let’s Go Mets!

Will the Mets play baseball tonight? Probably not!

The weather in Queens has been dreadful this week. There was heavy rain Monday morning that saturated the field before the Mets and Tigers played on a clear Monday night. It rained all day yesterday and there was a fleeting hope that the Mets and Tigers maybe could get the game in during a small window late in the evening, but that never materialized. Now the Mets repeat the same waiting process today with even worse weather. It is difficult for the Mets and Tigers to reschedule one game, let alone two, but it’s trending that way right now.

The Mets officially are having one of their roughest starts to the season ever after last night’s loss. They are now 0-4, which has happened only four other times (1962, 1963, 1964 and 2005). Monday night the Mets got amazing pitching for the first nine innings of the game but could not turn any of their hits into runs. On the positive side, multiple players had extremely hard-hit lineouts, and at some point that has to start to break for the Mets.

Adrian Houser will make his Mets debut tonight. Over 23 games, 21 starts, last season he tossed 111 1/3 innings with a 4.12 ERA, 3.99 FIP, 1.392 WHIP and a 105 ERA+. According to Baseball Savant, while Houser left a lot to be desired last season in terms of missing bats (xBA 25th percentile, Chase % 20th percentile, Hard-Hit % 5th percentile) he produced a lot of ground balls (73rd percentile). If the defense is strong behind him he can be quite effective. The Tigers have the following career numbers against him:

• Javier Báez 2-10 2B, BB, 2 K
• Mark Canha 0-2, K
• Jack Flaherty 0-2
• Carson Kelly 0-1, K

Casey Mize makes his return to the mound for his first start since Tommy John surgery, which has sidelined the former number 1 overall pick since 2022 (where he made only two starts). In his only full season, 2021, he made 30 starts totaling 150 1/3 innings with a 3.71 ERA, 4.71 FIP, 1.137 WHIP and a 114 ERA+. If the Tigers are going to make a surprise run for the post-season this year, they need Casey Mize to make a triumphant return. A few Mets players have seen Mize in previous games:

• Harrison Bader 0-2
• Francisco Lindor 0-2, BB
• DJ Stewart 1-4, BB, 2 K
• Joey Wendle 1-2

Three Things To Watch For:

1. The top of the lineup sets the tone. In Monday night’s game the top of the lineup (Nimmo, Lindor, Alonso) went 0-for-11 with two walks. Nimmo and Lindor are off to cold starts this season and Alonso had his first rough game of the season. When the top of the lineup fully turns around, the whole team will follow.
2. Reed Garrett: Reed Garrett was recalled before the start of Monday’s game with Tylor Megill landing on the injured list. Over nine games last season Garrett pitched 17 innings with a 5.82 ERA, 4.90 FIP, 1.235 WHIP and a 74 ERA+. In one game this season he pitched two innings for Syracuse allowing a hit and nothing else while striking out four batters. If there is an extended delay in the middle of today’s game or a doubleheader later this week, the Mets are going to need Garrett to eat some innings save the bullpen.
3. Early Managerial Trends: Edwin Díaz has pitched in two games so far this season, neither of them being a save situation. In Edwin’s first game, he came in while the Mets were losing – this outing made sense because Edwin was overdue at that point to get into game. He came into last night’s game with the Mets tied 0-0 in the top of the ninth. He had two good outings so non-save situations hasn’t been an issue. The Mets haven’t given him a save situation yet. Once we get farther into the season, it will be interesting to see if Edwin is brought into tie games at home in the future.

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets officially are having one of their roughest starts to the season ever after last night’s loss. They are now 0-4, which has happened only four other times (1962, 1963, 1964 and 2005). Last night the Mets got amazing pitching for the first nine innings of the game but could not turn any of their hits into runs. On the positive side, multiple players had extremely hard-hit lineouts, and at some point that has to start to break for the Mets.

The real story of tonight’s game is the weather. It’s been raining for most of the day across the tri-state area and it rained yesterday morning as well. The ground saturation ultimately might be what makes tonight’s game difficult to play. Even if the rain is light enough to play through, can the ground drain it? As the night goes on the rain should get lighter, but then overnight the weather will pick up again. Tomorrow should be just as, if not more, rainy. Will the Mets get a day off tonight? A day off tomorrow?

Adrian Houser will make his Mets debut tonight. Over 23 games, 21 starts, last season he tossed 111 1/3 innings with a 4.12 ERA, 3.99 FIP, 1.392 WHIP and a 105 ERA+. According to Baseball Savant, while Houser left a lot to be desired last season in terms of missing bats (xBA 25th percentile, Chase % 20th percentile, Hard-Hit % 5th percentile) he produced a lot of ground balls (73rd percentile). If the defense is strong behind him he can be quite effective. The Tigers have the following career numbers against him:

• Javier Báez 2-10 2B, BB, 2 K
• Mark Canha 0-2, K
• Jack Flaherty 0-2
• Carson Kelly 0-1, K

Casey Mize makes his return to the mound for his first start since Tommy John surgery, which has sidelined the former number 1 overall pick since 2022 (where he made only two starts). In his only full season, 2021, he made 30 starts totaling 150 1/3 innings with a 3.71 ERA, 4.71 FIP, 1.137 WHIP and a 114 ERA+. If the Tigers are going to make a surprise run for the post-season this year, they need Casey Mize to make a triumphant return. A few Mets players have seen Mize in previous games:

• Harrison Bader 0-2
• Francisco Lindor 0-2, BB
• DJ Stewart 1-4, BB, 2 K
• Joey Wendle 1-2

Three Things To Watch For:

1. The top of the lineup sets the tone. In Monday night’s game the top of the lineup (Nimmo, Lindor, Alonso) went 0-for-11 with two walks. Nimmo and Lindor are off to cold starts this season and Alonso had his first rough game of the season. When the top of the lineup fully turns around, the whole team will follow.
2. Reed Garrett: Reed Garrett was recalled before the start of Monday’s game with Tylor Megill landing on the injured list. Over nine games last season Garrett pitched 17 innings with a 5.82 ERA, 4.90 FIP, 1.235 WHIP and a 74 ERA+. In one game this season he pitched two innings for Syracuse allowing a hit and nothing else while striking out four batters. If there is an extended delay in the middle of today’s game or a doubleheader later this week, the Mets are going to need Garrett to eat some innings save the bullpen.
3. Early Managerial Trends: Edwin Díaz has pitched in two games so far this season, neither of them being a save situation. In Edwin’s first game, he came in while the Mets were losing – this outing made sense because Edwin was overdue at that point to get into game. He came into last night’s game with the Mets tied 0-0 in the top of the ninth. He had two good outings so non-save situations hasn’t been an issue. The Mets haven’t given him a save situation yet. Once we get farther into the season, it will be interesting to see if Edwin is brought into tie games at home in the future.

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets are still looking for their first win of the season tonight as they welcome the Tigers to Citi Field. The Brewers swept the Mets Opening Weekend. Overall it looked like the Mets were just slightly off. Friday they struck out a ton and had loud / hard hit outs. Saturday the Mets showed fight and clawed back, but the pitching put them too deep in the hole. Yesterday was more like Friday – hard hit outs and missed chances.

The Brewers have had the Mets number over the last couple of seasons and maybe the Mets just need to face a team not from Wisconsin – in comes the Detroit Tigers! The Tigers had the opposite weekend of the Mets as they swept their first three games against the Chicago White Sox.

New week, new month, new opponent, let’s go!

Sean Manaea makes his Mets debut tonight. Last season he pitched in 37 games including ten starts where he totaling 117 2/3 innings with a 4.44 ERA, 3.90 FIP, 1.241 WHIP and a 95 ERA+. Manaea’s season took off last year in late July. From July 29th to the end of the season, he pitched in 14 games (51 2/3 innings) with a 2.61 ERA. He faced the Tigers near the start of the season and allowed two runs from four hits over 3 1/3 innings wile striking out four. The Tigers have the following career numbers against him:

• Javier Báez 2-5, 2B, BB, 2 K
• Mark Canha 0-5
• Riley Greene 2-5, 3B, K
• Andy Ibáñez  1-5
• Carson Kelly 2-18, 2B, HR, BB, 4 K
• Jake Rogers 0-1
• Spencer Tokelson 0-1, K
• Gio Urshela 1-8, HR, BB, 3 K
• Matt Vierling 1-2

The Mets bats will look to establish some consistency in 2024 against Reese Olson. In his first season last year, Olson pitched in 21 games making 18 starts with 103 2/3 innings of work with a 3.99 ERA, 4.01 FIP, 1.119 WHIP and a 111 ERA+. Reese Olson threw a mid-90’s fastball about half the time last year and relied on his slider the most as his secondary pitch. About 20% of time last season he would also toss a changeup and a curve. The only person on the Mets roster to face him in a major league game is Joey Wendle (0-for-3).

Three Things To Watch For:

1. Francisco Alvarez is off to a hot start. Over three games this season Alvarez is 5-for-10 with a double and a homer. He’s leading the Mets in hits (Alonso has four, Marte three, Baty two, everyone else has one or zero) and has been the most consistent hitter for the Mets this season. Let’s keep this going into week two!
2. Have to get the Mets core players going. Pete Alonso and Francisco Alvarez are carrying the Mets offense right now. Francisco Lindor, Jeff McNeil and and Brandon Nimmo combined are 3-for-36 with no extra base hits. Nimmo uncharacteristically has zero walks and five strikeouts already. If two of these three batters can turn it around tonight it will be a much happier night in Queens.
3. Watch out for these Tigers. The Detroit Tigers have a lot of young talent on their roster in Colt Keith, Spencer Torkelson, Riley Greene and Park Meadows. The AL Central is fairly open this year and if you type “AL Central Predictions” into google, most baseball pundits are predicting the Guardians and Twins to take the crown. If the young hitters on the Tigers take the next step, the Tigers could end up surprising a lot of people. Hopefully that doesn’t happen this week though.

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets will try to avoid being swept this afternoon as they take on the Brewers for the third and final game of the series. The Mets offense finally woke up yesterday and scored six runs thanks to three homers (Alvarez, Baty, and Alonso) but it wasn’t enough to overcome the seven runs the Brewers piled on throughout the game.

Despite the outcome, there is a lot to positive about from yesterday’s game. Edwin Díaz saw his first game action of the year and allowed a hit and nothing else over one inning of work. He also on tossed 18 pitches in his outing. Alvarez had just a tremendous game going 3-for-4 at the plate. The Marte party continued with with him getting on base three times and scoring twice.

The Rhys Hoskins situation only got worse for the Mets yesterday as he responded to Friday’s scuffle with a 3-for-4 day at the plate with four RBI’s. Not great and hopefully after today the Mets don’t have to worry about him until the end of the season.

Tylor Megill looks to right the ship today for the Mets as he debut’s his American spork for the first time in an actual, major league baseball game. Over 25 starts last year he tossed 126 1/3 innings with a 4.70 ERA, 4.96 FIP, 1.575 WHIP and a 90 ERA+. By ERA+ it was his best season in the majors. The Mets rotation is the weakest part of the team going into the season and desperately needs players to step up, can Megill be the person?

The Brewers have the following career numbers against Megill:

• Willy Adames 2-8, 2B, HR, 3 K
• William Contreras 0-6, BB, K
• Rhys Hoskins 0-4, K
• Gary Sánchez 0-3, K
• Christian Yelich 3-6, 2B, 2 HR, BB, 3 K

The Mets bats will look to keep yesterday’s hit parade going against Colin Rea this afternoon. Rea pitched in 26 games last year including 22 starts totaling 124 1/3 innings with a 4.55 ERA, 4.90 FIP, 1.187 WHIP and a 95 ERA+. This includes one start against the Mets where he held the Mets to one run from three hits over 6 1/3 innings while striking out three. The Mets have the following career numbers against Rea:

• Pete Alonso 0-3
• Francisco Alvarez 0-2
• Harrison Bader 0-1
• Brett Baty 1-1, BB
• Francisco Lindor 1-3, K
• Starling Marte 1-6, K
• Jeff McNeil 0-2
• Omar Narváez 0-2
• Brandon Nimmo 0-3, K

Three Things To Watch For:

1. 500 Career RBI’s for Pete Alonso. Yesterday Pete Alonso hit a solo homer in the ninth inning to bring the Mets within one. That RBI was number 499 in his career. In terms of career Mets numbers, Alonso is tenth on the list. Cleon Jones and José Reyes are tied for eight on the list at 521.
2. Brooks Raley will probably get work today. Brooks Raley is the only pitcher in the Mets bullpen who has not been used in a game yet this season, and it seems like right now that Carlos Mendoza is trying to make sure that everyone gets some time on the field this weekend. Tonkin has thrown the most pitches at 33 followed by Ottavino at 24. Everyone else has thrown less than 20 pitches.
3. Cutting back on strikeouts. The Mets had 10 strikeouts and one hit in their first game of the season. Yesterday they had six strikeouts and 12 hits. Brandon Nimmo and DJ Stewart both have the same alarming stat jumping off box scores. They both have four strikeouts over the first two games, two in each game so far. Hopefully they break this trend today.

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets and Brewers square up for game two of the season this afternoon at Citi Field. We hope it’s not a literally squaring up after the fireworks yesterday between Jeff McNeil and Rhys Hoskins after Hoskins had a late slide into second that knocked McNeil down.

The Mets got a fairly solid day of pitching, keeping eight hits to only three runs. The bats were another story as the Mets only mustered up one hit, a rocket solo-homer by Starling Marte. The Mets overall seemed a bit off at the plate yesterday and hopefully today they can back on the right path.

Luis Severino officially makes his Mets debut today. The former Yankee has shown flashes of brilliance over his career. In 2017 he had an absurdly high ERA+ of 152 over 31 starts. As recently as 2022 he had an ERA+ of 124. Last season was a different story for Severino. Over 19 games and 89 1/3 innings he had a 6.65 ERA, 6.14 FIP, 1.646 WHIP and a 65 ERA+. It has been widely discussed that he was tipping pitches last year. His last start last year was against the Brewers where he allowed two runs from four hits over four innings of work while striking out five batters. The Brewers have the following career numbers against him:

• Willy Adames 2-8, HR, BB, 3 K
• Jake Bauers 3-6, 2B, HR, BB, 3 K
• William Contreras 0-2, K
• Sal Frelick 0-2, K
• Rhys Hoskins 0-3, 2 K
• Andruw Monasterio 0-1
• Brice Turang 1-2, K
• Christian Yelich 1-2, K

It’s an afternoon of team debut’s today! DL Hall makes his Brewers debut. The young lefty was traded with Joey Ortiz in the Corbin Burns trade with the Orioles this past winter. Hall debuted for the Orioles in 2022 and has mostly been used as a reliever in the major leagues. Last season over 18 games, 19 1/3 innings with a 3.26 ERA, 3.00 FIP, 1.190 WHIP and a 129 ERA+. He was used as a reliever and a starter in the minors last year, totaling 52 innings with a 3.98 ERA.

This will be DL Hall’s first time pitching against the Mets and the only person on the Mets roster who has seen Hall in a major league game is Zack Short who is 2-for-2 against Hall with a home run.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. Jeff, Rhys and Tempers. After Rhys slid into Rhys yesterday, benches and bullpens emptied. There was no actual fight though. Rhys and the Mets have a history that peaked when Rhys Hoskins took 34 seconds to go around the bases after hitting a home run in 2019. Both players will be amped for today’s game and as we know from years of watch Jeff and Rhys, their baseline energy is already “amped”.
2. Marte Party! Starling Marte is the x-factor for the 2024 New York Mets. If Marte returns to his 2022 version the Mets lineup is going to be dangerous. He hit a missile of a homer yesterday and could have more RBI’s later in the game if Jackson Chourio didn’t make an amazing play in the outfield.
3. Strikeouts. Freddy Peralta was dealing yesterday and he got the Mets to rack up eight strikeouts over six innings. The Mets finished with ten strikeouts on the day with Brandon Nimmo, DJ Stewart, Francisco Alvarez and Brett Baty each having two each. Stewart, Alvarez and Baty hit back-to-back-to-back in the linep, that’s a lot of strikeouts concentrated in a small space.

Let’s Go Mets!

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!