Don’t look now but the season opens a week from Thursday and these Mets do not look ready. Nimmo’s got a knee thing. McNeil an oblique. Alvarez swung too hard and broke his hand. Montas is out, Senga is behind schedule, Manaea has something wrong with him. Dedneil Nunez will miss more time. AJ Minter has a hip thing. Ronny Mauricio is still out.
Also, small sample size and all, but I’ve watched two spring training games including the one this afternoon and can report they suck out there. Don’t get me wrong — wins and losses during spring training aren’t the point, but how they look matters, they look bad. They look like they’re 8-12 after 20 games, which they happen to be. That’s a 65-win pace over 162. That’s not encouraging!
Hopefully these guys get their stuff together when the bell rings because the first-half struggling they do every year is getting old and hurts them at the gate, even though I’m sure at some level David Stearns has figured out an advantage to winning a wild card only and coming to the postseason with momentum.
I guess the thing to watch in these last 10 days is who winds up taking Alvarez’ spot–will it be the guy wearing No. 85 (Jackson Reetz), the dude in 97 (Chris Williams) or the one in 98 (Hayden Senger)? There’s always a trade possibility too as teams have roster crunches around now. But let’s root for Senger, a 24th round pick who not only had a double and a pickoff today but like a real person is making ends meet as a Whole Foods stock boy. He’d be the first 98 in team history.
Let’s Go Mets! Win a couple spring training games already!
Now to numbers. Brett Baty whose 22 went to Juan Soto, revealed he’d be wearing No. 7 this year. I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to see that number in circulation again — although 8 would better. Seven had been unissued since Marcus Stroman took it upon himself to shelve it in 2019.
Other numbers for new guys on the 40-man roster: Jose Siri wearing 19, which I believe is pulling even with 6 as the most-issued number in team history (I’ll check on that). Infielder Jared Young (who?) in 29; and Jose Azocar in 30.
I don’t need to tell you David Wright was an all-time Met great. Fielded his position well. Hit for power and average. Could take a walk. Clutch? You bet. Well spoken. Model citizen. Dad was a cop. Met stock through and through draft pick who grew up rooting for the Tides, never played for another team and acquired as a compensation draft pick for just the kind of fleeting mercenary he wasn’t, the one-and-done Mike Hampton. Tore up the team record books to lead all-time in hits, runs scored, plate appearances, doubles, walks, total bases and runs batted in. Got along great with the press. .296 batting average, same as Mike Piazza as a Met.
Griffin Canning is the newest Met. He was signed to a 1-year deal the other day and will be given a chance to make the starting rotation, which is what he’s been given in Anaheim thus far in his career but really hasn’t run with it consistently.
So it seems that in addition to more money ever paid to any player in any sport ever, Juan Soto gets possession of No. 22 written into his contract. Rules in the new CBA state players aren’t supposed to switch numbers without alerting the league office well in advance or by acquiring the inventory of materials bearing that combination of name and number, so there’s a further outlay Steve Cohen must make to erase the retail existence of Brett Baty.
I hope Pete Alonso is back. I like him! I know he’s limited–he basically does one thing well and he didn’t do that as well as he should have last year. Who knows what will happen.
No instead it’s Luisangel Acuna getting the call (and the start!) today, playing shortstop instead of Francisco Lindor whose consecutive-game streak is ending. I don’t believe Acuna is here for injury but to pinch run. Given he OPSed all of .654 in triple A its not the bat you want out there.
As I’d 
And who’s to say they can’t? Mark Vientos, whom I’d once dismissed as a discount-store Giancarlo Stanton, is hitting for average and power; Francisco Lindor is having an MVP year and the role-players and reserves are all doing their jobs. The scrap-heap starting rotation has also been good and the bullpen after a few turns of the soil has also come through most nights. And don’t look now but Carlos Mendoza is a manager of the year candidate even after that awful start.
Pablo Reyes was the only new callup when rosters expanded (they don’t expand like they used to). He was issued No. 26.
Until he broke out with three hits last night, I was worried about Nimmo who wasn’t even sprinting to first on walks with the same gusto. And if you stayed up late last night you also saw Paul Blackburn make his debut, wearing No. 58 and ringing up his WHIP score with guys on base every inning. He persevered though, with the help of a couple DPs and generally wasn’t hit hard.
The other night it was Huascar Brazoban making his Mets debut, wearing R.A. Dickey’s former 43. Tyler Zuber has been assigned No. 54 but is still in the minors.
One way the Mets made room for the new guys was cashing out Jake Diekman and Adrian Houser, trading Josh Walker to Pittsburgh and Cole Sulser to Tampa Bay and releasing Ty Adcock. Will Adam Ottavino survive the pending return of Sean Reid-Foley and Reed Garrett?