Max Scherzer fires a seven inning gem, Brandon Nimmo's MRI, and are the Mets looking to sign bullpen help?

Scherzer was brilliant in a lengthy tuneup against the Astros in West Palm Beach Saturday night

What’s Up with the Mets? 🌴

• The Mets defeated the Astros 2-0 in West Palm Beach on Saturday night (Box)

• Max Scherzer was brilliant over seven innings, allowing only four hits and a walk with eight strikeouts

• Tim Locastro homered - he is now hitting .342 this spring.

• Mark Vientos drove in a run on a 1-for-2 night and made a quality play at third base

• Drew Smith and Tommy Hunter each fired scoreless innings of relief - Smith struck out three in the eighth and Hunter struck out two in the ninth

• The Mets did attend a showcase for LHP Zach Britton on Friday, but it’s still unclear if they’re interested in signing him (New York Post)

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Roster Moves 📰

• Optioned LHP Joey Lucchesi, INF Ronny Mauricio to Triple-A Syracuse

• Reassigned OF’s Jaylin Davis, Abraham Almonte to minor league camp

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Injury Updates 🏥

• Brandon Nimmo (mild knee and ankle sprain) will be reevaluated in a week after an MRI on his knee and ankle showed no structural damage on Saturday. He is considered, “week-to-week” according to Mets GM Billy Eppler

• José Quintana (bone graft surgery) had surgery to repair the lesion on his rib and has returned home to Miami for rest and recovery. He will begin mobility exercises in a week

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Today’s Game 🦩

Game 2️⃣1️⃣ of 3️⃣0️⃣

Match-up: Cardinals vs. Mets

Where: Clover Park, Port St. Lucie, Florida

Starters: TBA vs. RHP Dakota Hudson

When: 1:10 PM EDT

Where to Watch: SNY

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Some random and not so random thoughts on the Mets… ✍🏻

New York Post

Thankfully, the news on Brandon Nimmo’s ankle/knee/leg is pretty good, considering how it all looked on Friday night. It’s still unclear if he will be available for opening day, but Mets GM Billy Eppler seemed pretty confident this is a shorter-term situation for Nimmo, and something that really just requires rest and treatment before he gets back out there.

The timing is such that it puts opening day into question since it doesn’t sound like he will do any stress tests on his ankle or knee until next Friday at the earliest, which is of course within a week of opening day. And assuming he’s alright, there isn’t a lot of time for Nimmo to get back behind the wheel. But again, the MRI was clean, its just a boo boo of sorts and he should be good to go in relatively short order.

On another note…

Max Scherzer certainly provided a bit of fresh air for the Mets last night, didn’t he?

For whatever reason, I was initially surprised to see Scherzer go seven innings last night, but then I looked at the date and said, “well yeah I suppose that makes sense.” This spring is flying by for me, faster than that of previous springs. Usually, the middle of march feels like the desert of spring training, the part where you look back and can no longer see the beginning and still can’t see the end. Not this time.

Anyway, Scherzer was vintage Scherzer last night, but perhaps the most important thing to come out of it for me was that performance was reassurance that things are going to be just fine for the Mets. It won’t exactly be how they architected it, but as I wrote yesterday I still believe the staff as-constructed today won’t even resemble the way its constructed on October 1.

And I think we all needed such a reminder after the last few days, didn’t we?

I am still fascinated and intrigued as to how the Mets are going to manage the workloads of their veteran starting pitchers, especially with José Quintana now out for who knows how long, and of course the innings gap they now have to fill with Edwin Díaz only complicating the matter. There are all these formulas and permutations being thrown out there about how to get them the rest they need, whether they’ll skip starts at times or go with six starters, or both or neither since starting pitchers don’t like to have their routines thrown out of whack.

But for me, I no longer ask, “who is going to replace X?” instead asking, “how are they going to find Y number of quality innings from other people?” That way, I think the answer comes with multiple answers and they don’t necessarily have to depend on over-performance from just one or two arms.

Mind you, I don’t really have answers to any of those equations. At least not in any kind of order just yet.

Anyway, that’s it for today. I’m glad the Mets had a better day on Saturday and Scherzer was able to bring order to chaos on the diamond.

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Around the League 🚩

• Trea Turner hit a go-ahead grand slam to push Team USA over the top against Team Venezuela and reach the semifinals in the WBC tonight against Team Cuba (Video)

• José Altuve is being evaluated for a broken finger following an injury during the World Baseball Classic on Saturday (Athletic)

• LHP Nestor Cortes - who has been battling a hamstring strain this spring - made his Grapefruit League debut on Saturday (MLB.com)

• Top Yankee prospect SS Anthony Volpe is making a strong case to make the team on opening day (SNY)