With the calendar flipping to March the Mets now have less
than a month to decide on the fate of various ballplayers either breaking their
backs, necks and other parts to come north with the team, or those unfortunate
few who have broken other body parts and are attempting to come back from
injury. Right now there are a number of
players not yet performing at full capacity.
With the season about to start on March 26th at CitiField,
there are some on-the-mend folks who may relish some additional time in the
warmth of Port St. Lucie rather than the frigid early Spring climate in New
York.
Right now if you were penciling in the Opening Day roster
some folks are already written in ink, including:
- Pete Alonso
- Robinson Cano
- Amed Rosario
- Jeff McNeil
- Wilson Ramos
- Dominic Smith
- Brandon Nimmo
- Jake Marisnick
- Michael Conforto
- Luis Guillorme
Then you have the pitchers who will be seated on a jet to La
Guardia Airport:
- Jacob deGrom
- Noah Syndergaard
- Marcus Stroman
- Rick Porcello
- Steven Matz
- Michael Wacha
- Edwin Diaz
- Jeurys Familia
- Justin Wilson
- Brad Brach
- Seth Lugo (his broken pinkie toe and Yoenis Cespedes home runs notwithstanding)
- Robert Gsellman
As I count, that’s 10 position players and 12 pitchers. That’s 4 under the new 26-man roster for the
season. You’d think one of those players
would be a pitcher and three more would be position players.
On the pitcher side, it’s really a matter of seeing whether
or not Dellin Betances is ready to play or not.
They certainly are not paying him north of $10 million to sit on his
butt. Given the two types of injuries
last year, it’s understandable being cautious, but he’s got to get some action
sooner or later. If he’s not deemed
ready, then someone from the 40-man roster such as Stephen Gonsalves, Walker
Lockett, Corey Oswalt, Jacob Rhame or Daniel Zamora. Drew Smith is in injury rehab himself or he’d
be at the front of the pack. Others like
Frankyn Kilome, Thomas Szapucki and David Peterson need a bit more rehab time
and/or seasoning.
On the position side it’s quite a bit murkier. Backup catcher Tomas Nido is not setting
anyone’s heart aflutter with his bat.
Rene Rivera is a proven commodity of mediocre power hitting and decent
catching. There’s been some noise about
reaching out to Russell Martin, but the cash-frozen Mets are not likely going
to want to add money to the payroll while simultaneously shopping for a buyer
to purchase the team (and the SNY network).
After the catcher issue is addressed, they need another
infielder. Brace-wearing Jed Lowrie
doesn’t look any closer to being ready this year than last. NRIs like Eduardo Nunez who is a career .276
hitter with great baserunning speed, but he’s coming off an abysmal year with
Boston which is why he is on the minor league squad. JD Davis is a big question mark considering
his shoulder injury.
Yoenis Cespedes
looks like he would be fine if the game only called for a guy to face a
pitching machine, but unfortunately it requires both straight-ahead and
side-to-side running. There’s a great
cost saving to the Mets to keep Cespedes in the land of wild boars for the
start of the season, so I have my doubts he’s coming north.
7 comments:
Which of the flotilla of guys outside the top 22 will make the squad? Many of the contenders have not impressed so far.
JDD's shoulder has no structural damage, and he's expected back in a few days. He and the backup catcher will fill 2 of the 4 spots.
Given the March/April schedule which includes 3 off-days in the 1st 2 weeks, and the possibility of the #6 SP going to the pen, we can go with 12 Ps if Betances needs EXST time.
Nunez should get a spot early on, leaving one open spot until Betances or Yo is ready.
Nido, probably our best defensive Catcher is out of options, so we can't send him upstate unless he clears waivers. I believe that Rivera is here on a MnL deal, so he can start off upstate. If we sign Martin, I expect him to do the same, given his lack of ST time. That buys some time for Nido.
All in all, we're well covered.
With a SS who hasn't had a hit all year, and a homerless 1Bman who is barely hitting .100, we may be doomed. DOOMED! 😯
Gloom and doom, until Pete goes BOOM!
I still have Guillorme's name in pencil.
Two Cents
NYM
Here's my own lineup for Opening Day
1B Peter Alonso, 2B Robinson Cano, SS Amed Rosario, LF JD Davis, CF Brandon Nimmo, RF Michael Conforto, C Wilson Ramos
Bench
Dominic Smith, Patrick Mazeika, E. Nunez, Marisnick, Cordell
SP
deGrom, Syndergaard, Stroman, Porcello, Wacha (or Peterson or both)
RP
Wilson, Brach, Blackham, Zamora or Shreve, Diaz, Familia, Betances
NYK
I think Leon Rose has a major rebuild on his hands with just two starting players from the 2019/20 season (Julius Randle and AJ Barrett) back and starting only.
For the 2020/21 bench, there are decent enough options available in: Brazdeikis, Dotson, Portis, Payton, Robinson, and possibly Wooten. Mitchell Robinson could obviously start at the center position, but he's more of a flyer/dunker than what most NBA teams have which are bump and grinders underneath. Knicks don't have that type center here anywhere. Mitchell's game does not necessarily bode well with these type centers, not yet. Therefore, the NYK will need to add a big man center monster more to compliment Robinson's game off the bench, which is nothing short of sensational.
One of the problems with the current NYK, is that they still take way too many three's with absolutely no one established in position underneath to rebound for second shots. The team also appears to lack above average floor-intelligent players with vision of the entire court. The rush down the court and give the ball away way too many times. And finally, the last quarter of the game is always a Knick suit fold. They simply do not know how to close-out games and play shrewdly in the fourth quarter. Plus, players like Randle, Barrett, and Robinson can be already game overplayed heading into the crucial fourth quarter because the team lacks the player personnel to rest them adequately throughout the game. Meaning that whoever built this team heading into the 2019/20 season, really did not do a very convincing job with player personnel.
Summation: A substantial rebuild in the off season using draft picks and maybe one or two new younger veteran starters. Just bringing in four veteran guards from other teams every season, only to see none workout well here is simply not the way to go again. Hopefully no seriously declining old players with injury charts (like Carmelo Anthony, Kyrie Irving, Deandre Jordan, or Kevin Durant) will find their way here to MSG either. Use the Nets as to your reasons why.
This has got to be an intelligent man's rebuild or it will not work. But do not despair because Leon Rose is in the house now, and Spike Lee's seat is spit bare. Nice try Spike! Enjoy the Nets game! LOL
Oh crap
Forget McNeil on 3B, didn't I.
See, I have cheap AI after all!
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