Not that you’d necessarily want to, but you can’t buy a ticket to a Mets game this year. Well you can buy packages of 20 or 40 or 81 games, but the old-school a la cart single-game ticket window hasn’t opened yet, and they’re not saying when.
Speaking as someone accustomed to creating my own season ticket one game at a time, that’s unusual. Individual tickets went up for sale in the first week of December last year, and several years before that. The last time I can remember tickets going on sale this late in the year, they were playing at Shea Stadium, and we lined up by Gate D on a frigid Sunday morning. Tim Teufel was there to make it all worth it.
It’s almost as if they knew that surrendering their most popular players through trades and free agency was going to do something to demand, and now, they must hustle to make it up.
I like Bo Bichette and happy the Mets got him and not Tucker. Right handed hitter, a batting champion candidate, hits lots of doubles. I’m not entirely okay with yanking third base out from under Baty when he’d finally had a decent year, but he hits well enough to play left.
The Mets still need a pitcher. There are the top-shelf free agents like Framber Valdez but I kinda like the under-the-radar guys too. He struggled early last year with an injury but Zac Gallen has been pretty good for years. I’m also not afraid to bring in Justin Verlander or Max Scherzer again. I think the young staff could use the right veteran, a la Orel Hershiser in 1999. Besides I’ve never even heard of our pitching coach, Justin Willard. They don’t even have a mugshot of him on the official site.
As noted in the comments it will be interesting to see what number they issue to Bichette, having assigned his No. 11 already to a different incoming free agent, Jorge Polanco. I feel like the Mets are too deferential to numerical identities formed on other teams. Neither the Rangers nor Orioles nor Dodgers replicated the respective jersey numbers of Alonso, Nimmo and Diaz, though it seems like they let them pick (To be fair, Frank Robinson and Roy Campanella may have something to with it, but I digress–I’d be happy to see Bo Bichette take up something new).
Diaz by the way is tempting the baseball gods by choosing No. 3. All relievers stop being effective at some point.
Whatever you make of the bloodless decision to let him go to Baltimore without so much as a competitive offer, New York just isn’t going to be the same place without Pete Alonso as part of it. That’s what bothers me most. I saw Alonso as a guy the Phillies and Braves feared, and the fans embraced as one of theirs doing walkoff interviews with Gelbs at the stadium, a goofy, reliable slugger who came through in some huge moments and built an insurmountable lead for home runs by Guys Who Wore No. 20. All the best for the Orioles who are one of my “back-up” rooting interests, although recently my heart’s been in Toronto.
Brandon Nimmo is another guy who seemed destined to say longer. He was a good versatile hitter and on-base guy, whose 188 doubles vaulted No. 9 to second all-time. But lately I’d thought of him as the guy whose brought so much Jesusness to New York with his walk-up music.
Luke Weaver? OK I guess. He’s going to wear No. 30, according to Mets.com. As previously revealed Semian gets the No. 10 once having belonged to Ronny Mauricio–Mauricio is listed in No. 0 now. Devin Williams still doesn’t have a number with the Mets–his customary 38 belongs to Tylor Megill, so we’ll see how that works out.
There’s a lot to talk about since my last update including the City Connect unis (should have used more 7-train purple, don’t like the hats but better than I feared they’d be) the “new” black look (terrible), the new guys (the miraculous Luis Torrens and the dazzling Jose Iglesias), and the old guys (Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden, rocketed to eternity). Then there’s the whole month-of-May thing where it’s plausible the Mets might not have won any games and it seemed at times our rookie manager, whom I liked in April, was getting in over his head.
Take Jerry Grote. He’s a Met Hall of Famer who passed away in April, and the the Mets haven’t done a thing to remember him, beyond (I assume) a pregame scoreboard video. Yet there’s a patch for Grote’s longtime teammate and fellow Mets Hall of Famer Bud Harrelson there.
Promising pitching prospect Christian Scott is arriving even sooner than I would have guessed and without an obvious need for a starter (unless they cut bait on Adrian Houser or something). Clubhouse video from Florida, where Scott will start tomorrow, shows he will wear No. 45, which belonged last to Sam Coonrod (it belonged to Cole Sulser in Spring Training, only to see him turn up in 54 for his ineffective appearances).
I’m glad they are giving Scott a pitcher number to begin his career and so won’t have him looking like a clown as they’ve forced Jose Butto into with that unseemly No. 70. Butto should go to the clubhouse and demand No. 21 while its still available. He’s a good enough pitcher to pull that off.
Yesterday we saw Danny Young become the all-time Mets leader in wins by a guy wearing No. 81. If you remembered that Johneshwy Fargas was the first to wear 81, you win a prize of some kind.
So there it is. Carlos Mendoza today said he’d give up the No. 28 that reminded him of fleeting moments of youthful glory as a ballplayer so that JD Martinez will feel comfortable in his new home. Mendoza is switching to 64, which I fear is a little too undignified for a big-league manager. It also means third-base coach Mike Sarbaugh will need to find another number. 50 is theoretically available as its Phil Bickford whose been designated for assignment by the Mets to make room for Martinez on the 40.
Suspicious I say that we go and sign Ji Man Choi only hours after Daniel Vogelbach goes off the board. Both are rotund lefty sluggers who can’t be counted on as much beyond DHing and signed minor league deals (Vogelbach with Toronto). Who knows how the DH role will play out for the Mets this year. I’m not entirely sold on Mark Vientos or DJ Stewart quite yet. Not to suggest Choi is anything but a backup plan.
So you may as well junk the post below, it contained little that wasn’t contradicted by the numerical roster dropped today by the club. Here’s your Spring roster, countdown style, or count up, if you prefer.
The news here as I see it is Luis Severino taking over Drew Smith‘s No. 40, forcing Smith into 33 and membership in the three-number club. (He was also 62 you may recall). Also noting that our friend Dr. Grant Hartwig has moved down in the world, from 93 all the way to 56. Sean Manaea takes 59, Adrian Houser 35 and Harrison Bader 44.
Joey Lucchesi slipped back into the 47 jersey he’d left behind nearly two years ago and authored the best starting pitching performance of the Mets season last night in San Francisco. It continued a seemingly unlikely hot streak for the Mets who are not only on a dreaded West Coast road trip, but losing guys to injury and suspension left and right.
You’d figure a veteran like Max Scherzer could figure out a way to cheat without getting caught, but he’s out for a turn in the rotation. Tommy Hunter returned last night from the disabled list and John Curtiss was the odd man out (the extra S is for Syracuse). It looks like we’ll be seeing more starts from guys like Jose Butto, Lucchesi and TBD for the time being.
The Mets distributed their spring rosters this week. I’ve arranged this year’s clip-and-save version a little differently, calling out nonroster guys italics and coaches in blue. Non-40-man-roster guys are just occupying the jersey vs. belonging to one.
Woke up this morning to the shock that the Mets had given a 12-year contract to Carlos Correa, the free agent infielder who’d almost signed with the Giants for 13 years but for an unnamed injury concern. That solidifies 2022-23 as the most spectacular offseason the Mets have ever had and worries me a little because I’m a worrier at heart. What if things go wrong now? Will they trade Eduardo Escobar or turn him into a designated hitter? What of the young players like Brett Baty and Mark Vientos?
In addition to Correa, who looks likely to take No. 4 belonging most recently to Terrance Gore, the Mets dressed Kodai Senga in No. 34. I’m excited about him, like I’ve been with most of the imported newbies. He’s also going to be a key figure for this team.