No, not the confrontation between the one-time reserve infielder and goofball teammate Rey Ordonez.
Luis Ayala is indeed in uniform No. 56. Not clear is what jersey they give to Juan Lopez, identified on the Mets’ roster as the “bullpen pitcher” — as low a rung of coachdom I will recognize here. So like they tell terrified passengers on the subway: If You See Something, Say Something.
Eddie Kunz was demoted to make room for Ayala, you probably knew that already too.
As we’d been expecting to see, hitting coach Howard Johnson has cashiered No. 52 and returned to the No. 20 jersey he last wore as a Met player 15 years ago. Bullpen coach Guy Conti in the meantime switches from 56 to 52, allowing bullpen pitcher Juan Lopez to take 56. We hadn’t nailed down Lopez previously.
Bullpen catcher Dave Racaniello in the meantime was spotted wearing54, as noted below, and catching instructor Sandy Alomar Jr. has slipped into No. 90. These changes have been added to the handyclip-n-save Spring Training Roster above. Many thanks to Bryan, David, Chris and other commenters for the updates.
Big thanks also to MetsGrrl for pointing out how difficult it was to get in touch — turns out I’d mistakenly “turned off” the contact link. Duh.
