Your friendly reminder that Juan Soto is a New York Met
Clay Holmes allows an earned run for the first time all spring. Plus, some pre-Opening Day appreciation of Juan Soto.
What’s up with the Mets? 🌴
The Mets lost again on Saturday night, falling to the Nationals by a 4-1 score (box)
RHP Clay Holmes allowed his first runs of Spring Training, surrendering two runs over 4.1 innings pitched with a pair of strikeouts
DH Brandon Nimmo returned to the lineup after dealing with a knee injury and went 0-for-3 with a walk
The Mets will have the second-most nationally televised games during the 2025 regular season, one shy of the Dodgers (BrooksGate)
Mets minor league catcher Hayden Senger, who spends his offseasons working at Whole Foods, could finally make the Opening Day roster (MLB.com)
Today’s Game 🗓️
Match-up: Mets (8-11) vs. Astros (12-9)
Where: Clover Park — Port St. Lucie, FL
Starters: RHP Tylor Megill (0-1, 1.35 ERA) vs. LHP Steven Okert (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
When: 1:10 PM EDT
Where to Watch: WPIX, MLB Network
The luster still hasn’t worn off of Juan Soto ✍️
At any point in the course of your week, do you ever just sit back and randomly remember that Juan Soto is a New York Met?
It’s been three months since Soto agreed to sign a record deal with the organization, cementing that his next 15 years will be spent in Flushing, and yet that excitement and, at times, disbelief still hasn’t worn off.
As much as I have come to dislike Spring Training over the years, I find myself getting locked in when Soto comes up to the plate in any game and if I miss a broadcast, I’m always going back to rewatch the highlights of his at-bats. The games mean absolutely nothing and good or bad his stats mean absolutely nothing, yet that excitement and anticipation still courses through my veins this March.
Soto began his Mets (exhibition) career about as good as you could possibly imagine, crushing a home run to center field in his first at-bat wearing orange and blue. Since then, the 26-year-old outfielder has continued to crush at the plate as he’s batting .385 with four home runs and a 1.371 OPS over his first 26 at-bats of Grapefruit League play.
The man has yet to play an actual game of significance for this club and he’s already given fans glimpses of the star power and razzle dazzle that comes with a superstar of this caliber. Not only has the star hitter been raking throughout the spring campaign, but it was just last week where he answered the “overrated” jeers from one particular fan by hitting a home run… to that same fan (who dropped the ball, by the way!)
Soto continued to give Mets fans a glimpse of what’s to come with a loud performance in Friday night’s contest against the Cardinals when he went 2-for-3 with another home run (his fourth of the spring), a pair of RBI and a sliding catch to boot. But don’t tell Yankees fans that last part.
The hype is real, and for good reason. Not only is the still budding Soto coming off of the best season of his big league career, but Fangraphs projects him to hit .279/.423/.529 with 35 home runs, a 168 wRC+ and a 6.5 fWAR with the Mets this season.
Spring Training often drags on for far too long with sloppy games, minimal telecasts and far too many injuries. It can be hard to get overly excited once the shine of those first couple of games wears off. But when your franchise has a player the caliber of a Juan Soto, it changes everything. It makes these seemingly never-ending weeks of Spring Training still feel exciting and worth watching.
Sometimes its just cool to sit back and remember that this guy really is a New York Met. He picked us, and he’s going to be here for a long, long time.
Opening Day can’t get here fast enough.
Around the League 🚩
Dodgers DH/RHP Shohei Ohtani crushed a two-run home run in an exhibition game vs. the Yomiuri Giants in Tokyo, Japan
Pirates RHP Paul Skenes was named the club’s Opening Day starter, while young C Henry Davis clubbed a grand slam in Pittsburgh’s 15-5 win vs the Orioles
Braves LHP Chris Sale continued to look sharp this spring with a nine strikeout performance in the club’s 7-3 win against the Red Sox
Marlins OF Jesús Sánchez will miss at least four weeks after suffering a left oblique strain in a game last Thursday
What a great time to be alive
I think Fangraphs may be just a wee bit on the low side with their Soto projections. 😆
I'm getting excited. There are always going to be challenges, and I'm anticipating something of a slow start since we're not coming in 100 percent healthy, but I'm loving what this organization is doing and the team they've constructed.
We're going to have one heck of a fun year. #LGM 🍎