Reese Kaplan -- Opening Day is Less Than 2 Weeks Away...

So the 2022 baseball season is almost upon us with the abbreviated Spring Training due to close in a few weeks with the new Opening Day scheduled for Thursday, April 7th.  It's been pretty clear since the game returned that not enough time has been done to prepare for the upcoming season, but the powers that be also understand the handicap of a shortened preseason.  The rosters expand from 26 to 28 players for the balance of the month of April.  The rationale for doing so makes sense given the short stints pitchers will handle early in the season.  It also means that fringe players and roster cuts that teams previously would execute in other years will not happen until the month of May.  There are no restrictions on the number of pitchers a team may carry.  

For the Mets this Spring Training has been most welcome to the fans but it's very clear that like many other clubs they really are not ready to begin normal quality baseball when the season's start is less than 2 weeks away.  Thus far the top three starting pitchers -- Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt -- all look ready to challenge in-their-mid-season-prime hitters but the 4th and 5th starters remain questionable.  Carlos Carrasco was lit up in an intrasquad game on Thursday and Taijuan Walker is still making a slow recovery from his off-season surgical correction.

On the offensive side of the game the only glaring issue for the team and the fans is newcomer Starling Marte's oblique injury which has kept him from swinging a bat during the exhibition games.  He did bunt and run in a minor league contest, but they don't want to risk further aggravating his oblique by letting him use full power behind the rotation of his abdomen.  

Right now the club is a little crowded with some roster decisions to be made.  No one knows if the newly crowned DH will be veteran Robinson Cano who may or may not perform like he did in 2020 if he's following the league's rules about PEDs.  The alternatives have been slugging prodigiously this Spring.  Dom Smith and J.D. Davis are certainly showing that youth and power can contribute effectively in a bat-only role.  That's a decision for Buck Showalter and Billy Eppler to make.  

If you chat with fans, many of them lament the club's unwillingness to add another hitter after the lockout ended.  Some had their hearts set on Kris Bryant.  Others wanted Kyle Schwarber.  A few yearned for Nick Castellanos.  The only bats the Mets added were fringe players on minor league contracts like Travis Jankowski and Cuban refugee Karell Paz.  That's not quite the same caliber of talent.  

Others bemoaned the Mets unwillingness or inability to land additional relief pitchers.  You all know the names of who is still out there unsigned.  The inertia from the front office seems puzzling, to say the least.  The trade market is a possibility as well, but there have been no rumors of the Mets going down this path since the recent addition of Bassitt to the starting rotation.  Having lost Aaron Loup, Jeurys Familia, Dellin Betances, Robert Gsellman and others, the club has only responded with 36-year-old journeyman Adam Ottavino and minor league free agent Chasen Shreve.  It certainly seems that this year's pen is due to be inferior to the lackluster one from 2021.  

Maybe it's too early to be this concerned about the roster membership.  However, Opening Day is coming on a bullet train and thus far the Mets seem to have left themselves with unloaded weapons.  The Phillies got better.  The Braves are the division champions.  The Nationals treaded water.  Perhaps they are better than the Marlins.  It's not the kind of 2022 "the championship is ours" kind of enthusiasm and security people were hoping to enjoy.