The Mets long winter is over! The Mets will suit up for a 7-inning spring training game today! It’s been an exciting winter for the Mets with a new owner and a lot of roster turnover. And today we’ll get to see (sort of, no SNY coverage for this game) some of the new faces on the Mets and some players playing for positions on the depth chart.
Francisco Lindor will make his Mets debut today. That’s the absolute headline for today’s game. The four time All-Star and 2 time Gold Glove winner is a career .285/.346/.488/.833 hitter with a 28.7 WAR since 2015. Hopefully the face of the Mets for the next decade, we are all excited to see what he does this season, even in a meaningless spring training game.
The pitcher selection tomorrow is exciting in a different way. All six that have been announced are fighting for an active roster spot. Some are familiar names, being in the Mets system for a while. Others are brand new.
Harol Gonzalez has been with the Mets since 2014 (he was 19). In 2019 he had a 3.14 ERA in Binghamton over 97.1 innings and a 2.68 ERA over 40.1 innings in Syracuse. He would have been in Syracuse in 2020. He’ll open the game for the Mets. He’ll be followed by Sean Reid Foley, Ryley Gilliam, Trevor Hildenberger, Stephen Tarpley and Thomas Szapucki.
Sean was acquired by the Mets in the the Steven Matz trade and has had some major league experience. In 6.2 innings last year he allowed 1 earned run, 3 runs total from 3 hits while walking 6 and striking out 6. It was first time in the majors used primarily as a reliever. Overall in the majors he has a 4.40 ERA over 71.2 innings with a 5.20 FIP, 1.605 WHIP and 101 ERA+. Ryley Gilliam is an exciting addition to camp – he’s done well pretty much at every level except Syracuse (only 9.1 innings). Trevor Hildenberger is looking to find his way back to the majors. He had a success in his rookie season in 2017 but hasn’t really seen it since.
At the end of the day, the Mets are finally playing baseball and we are so excited to watch them play!
