Spring Training is over - time for roster decisions!
Plus, thoughts on the pitching staff, and the open questions with Opening Day coming on Thursday
What’s Up with the Mets? 🌴
The Mets were walked off by the Marlins 4-3 in their final Spring Training game on Sunday (box)
David Peterson allowed one run over five innings in his final tune-up before his 2026 debut next Saturday against the Pirates
Bo Bichette had an RBI double, Brett Baty and RBI single, and Jorge Polanco a sac fly to account for the team’s scoring in the fourth inning
Nolan McLean and Sean Manaea will pitch in an intrasquad scrimmage in Port St. Lucie tomorrow before the club heads to New York
Carson Benge said after Sunday’s game he still doesn’t know if he made the team
Clay Holmes and Kodai Senga will remain in Port St. Lucie this week to throw in minor league games this week - they will pitch against the Cardinals in St. Louis next week
The Mets informed Craig Kimbrel he will not make the team out of camp - Carlos Mendoza said Kimbrel is interested in staying but will first weigh external options before making a final decision
Injury Updates 🏥
OF Mike Tauchman will require surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his knee, an injury he sustained during Saturday’s Grapefruit League game
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Today’s Game 🏝️
The Mets will play in an intrasquad game today in Port St. Lucie - they play their first regular season on Thursday afternoon against the Pirates.
Thoughts on looming roster decisions, the pitching staff and the Mets positional wild card ✍️
All things considered, the Mets can only be very happy with the way camp turned out.
Aside from the hamate injury to Francisco Lindor at the beginning of camp and this untimely meniscus tear in Mike Tauchman’s knee, the Mets had a very successful and educational six-week stint in Port St. Lucie.
They stayed relatively healthy, although this situation with Tauchman throws the plans for the back of the roster for a loop, as Drew detailed in yesterday’s newsletter. Lindor is okay, he looks normal, and he got the reps he needed to re-assure everyone he would be ready for Thursday. The team played very good defense all spring even as Bo Bichette and Jorge Polanco worked through the expected growing pains on the corners. They made a lot of contact at the plate, and generally played the brand of baseball they’re designed to play, given the current construction of the roster.
The Mets have an interesting decision coming this week, now that they know Tauchman is out for the foreseeable future. They have to decide if they want to carry a fifth outfielder, and if they do, that could involve Jared Young (I am just expecting Carson Benge to make the team in all of this). If they opt for four outfielders, that could give Vidal Brujan renewed hope of making the team as a switch-hitting— albeit a light-hitting— natural backup to Francisco Lindor.
I also think the Mets made the most competitive decision possible when they formulated their initial rotation, which is a five-man rotation that includes everyone you’d expect minus Sean Manaea. In the past, I firmly believe they would’ve included Manaea somehow despite his concerning metrics this spring and the diminished velocity. But, he was outpitched by literally everyone in this rotation, especially Kodai Senga who was very impressive from day one in camp, and the club is putting the name on the front of the jersey before the dollars owed to Manaea at the beginning.
They’re going to need Manaea in the rotation at some point, and they’re going to need him to be somewhere in between what he was last year and what he was in 2024 when his name is called for the rotation. That could very well be in mid-April - he would be the easiest option to insert into the rotation as a sixth starter on April 12, mostly because he’s the easiest to remove from the rotation without making a roster move.
A lot of people have asked me if the Mets can simply bite the bullet and cut Manaea. I don’t think they’re there in all fairness, and even if the Mets are putting the club before the contract, it is bad baseball business to eat $50 million and pay him to play elsewhere, even if this owner doesn’t concern himself with such issues as much as others might. He does deserve an opportunity to get this right and show he has value to this pitching staff in some capacity. Granted, $25 million a year (with money deferred) is a lot to pay for a long reliever and spot starter, but that’s the price of admission when teams dole out free agent contracts to players in their mid-30s.
We will see if Manaea can re-discover himself again in the same way he did in mid-2024.
The addition of Freddy Peralta unquestionably enabled the Mets to make this decision with Manaea and feel comfortable doing so. He was going to bump someone no matter what, whether that was in a five-man or a six-man scenario.
It will be Peralta, David Peterson, and Nolan McLean next weekend against the Pirates, with Clay Holmes and Kodai Senga followed by Peralta in the series in St. Louis.
Senga will be fascinating to watch out of the gate. He looked nothing short of fantastic all spring. Granted, it’s only Spring Training, but his fastball and ghost fork were good, he seemed to be much more comfortable mechanically, and those are the things that should translate to the regular season, presumably anyway. What the results are in a more competitive setting remains to be seen, but we’ve all seen what Senga can be when he’s healthy and in rhythm, neither of which were the case between 2024 and 2025. And, if he can even be a mid-rotation starter for this club and give them 25 starts this season, the Mets will be in great shape from a pitching perspective, if I were to wager.
As for the rest of the group, if you were able to watch Sunday’s spring finale against Miami, you got a little taste of what the Mets top of the lineup is capable of doing this season. It’s well balanced on both sides of the plate, it’s less swing and miss with the addition of Polanco and Bichette, and there should be fewer team-wide slumps, more agile and more capable with runners in scoring position with their lower whiff rates.
The wild card in all of this will be Luis Robert Jr. The Mets would have you believe his lower half injuries were prohibitive for him over the last couple of years, and I buy that to an extent. And when you don’t play, your skills erode.
The question is, have they eroded to a point where his bat is no longer major league capable, or is there a formula the Mets have found to keep him both healthy and productive, even if that means he’s a five-game-per-week player? We can all see the potential with him, but right now, that’s all it is considering his .660 OPS and 210 total games played since the start of the 2024 season.
And that potential is unquestionably tantalizing. He is an uber-talented player, and a defensive whiz in center field. But how much can he be out there realistically if the Mets intend to keep him healthy?
That might be where Tyrone Taylor comes into play, who is a less-is-more player on this roster and far more valuable in a part-time role than a full-time role. Like Robert, Taylor is a defensive whiz and is a great alternative from a run prevention perspective to Robert, or pretty much anyone in their outfield configuration.
There’s more of course including but not limited to how will the Mets deploy Brett Baty, who had another great camp and is expected to assume a super-utility role at first, second, maybe some third, as well as some outfield play? How will Devin Williams fare after a roller coaster 2025 season across town? Will the Mets extend Peralta? Do they actually want to, or do they want to instead gamble on next winter’s biggest free agent prize in Tarik Skubal? Is the clock ticking for Mark Vientos?
All in all, there are a lot of fascinating stories which are about to unfold with the Mets between their outfield log jam, their array of starting pitchers, and their corner infield permutations. It should be fun and interesting starting on Thursday.
Around the League 🚩
The Phillies and LHP Cristopher Sánchez agreed to a new six-year contract extension worth $107 million
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said they will begin the season with a four-man rotation, one that excludes RHP Luis Gil (MLB.com)
The Cubs will carry former Met Michael Conforto on their Opening Day roster (Athletic)
Btw, just checked and looks like Acuna will begin the year as the Sox' starting center fielder. Sounds like he's finally getting his chance. Good luck. Jett Williams has been sent to AAA.
Hard for me to believe that a reasonable person would favor cutting Manea. He hasn't been terrible, injuries happen, and while the starting depth looks good, it's unproven. I'll be following Tong, Scott, and Wenninger closely.