The Mets return to the diamond tonight after only their second off day this spring. It was a busy weekend for the Mets who played five games over the course of three days. The Mets will now play straight through the rest of the spring with no days off until the two-day break before Opening Day. This final stretch is when spring training starts to feel more like a dress rehearsal for the regular season. Batters will get longer starts. As starters go deeper into games, relievers will start to be used in their normal innings. Some relievers will be brought in for specific situations (like one or two out with multiple runners on).
The big news today is Jeff McNeil returns to action, which means the Mets are sending out a lineup that looks pretty close, if not identical, to their Opening Day lineup. The only difference may be the order as Jeff McNeil is batting cleanup today.
Three Things To Watch For:
- Jeff McNeil’s Return: McNeil’s spring training was derailed at the start of the month due to bicep soreness. Since then he’s slowly progressing to get to game strength and finally reached that mark over the weekend after a minor league game where he went 2-for-3 at the plate, played five innings at second and had a strikeout. Todd Zeile during Sunday’s Mets broadcast talked about how the strikeout might be a good sign – you want your bicep to feel good after good swings and bad swings. Anyway with McNeil’s return we can finally start to starting rosters in the final week that look like the Mets actual Opening Day roster.
- The Mets will go as far as the back third of the lineup lets them. Let’s assume, and this is a dangerous thing to do, that the last three batters in the lineup are Brett Baty, Mark Vientos and Harrison Bader when the first real lineup is posted at the end of March. These are the three bats that are key for the Mets having a season better than the pundits are expecting. Does Brett Baty make the next step? Can Mark Vientos’ exit velocity numbers translate into homers consistently. Does Harrison Bader return to his 2020 and 2021 form at the plate?
- Was it the haircut? Sean Manaea had a rough first outing with the Mets allowing seven hits over 2 2/3 innings that translated into three runs. He then got a haircut for the first time in years. In his next outing pitched four innings allowing two hits and three walks but no runs while striking out five.
Let’s Go Mets!
