As a lifetime baseball fan, there is something about the first trip to the ballpark each year that stirs the emotions. I had the opportunity to visit spring training last week for three games and really enjoyed the warm weather (I’m from New York), the crack of the bat, and the pop of the leather that evokes fond memories of past baseball seasons.
As usual, I had a keen eye for what was happening on the field to see if I could find insight into how the team would evolve as they prepare for opening day. Today I will share some insights into what I saw.
Day 1- Friday at the Cardinals: The Mets put together an impressive run-producing show, winning 14-3.
Pitching
Freddy Peralta’s first start of the spring didn’t disappoint as he threw three flawless innings. Devin Williams was almost perfect in his inning, except for one mistake that was crushed into the batter’s eye over the 410 mark in center. Good time to get that one out of his system.
The most interesting was the three inning outing from Justin Hagenman. If you recall, Hagenman was the guy that had the most time on the shuttle last year, bouncing from Syracuse to Queens several times to provide some long relief and spot starts to offset an ailing pitching staff. This is the spring that Hagenman needs to make the case to stay in Queens. The case is going poorly. His pitches were hit very hard, even when they resulted in outs. The line said 3IP, 4H, 2ER but it looked worse. The interesting part was that he was not pulled. The new pitching coaches may have been looking for signs that he could figure it out, but after three troubled innings and reaching a pitch count, his day was over. He can’t afford any more days like that.
Hitting
MJ Melendez showed why the Mets should give him a close look, as he knocked two pitches over the opposite field fence from the DH slot.
AJ Ewing showed why he is an exciting prospect. In his first at-bat, he manufactured a run by beating out an infield chopper, stealing second, scurrying to third when the throw got away, and scoring on a groundout. His next at-bat was a home run. In just a few innings, he was 2-2 with three runs scored and two RBI.
Defense
The box score showed zero errors. Carson Benge showed great reaction time in right, diving forward to snag a slicing line drive. Christian Arroyo played a solid third base.
Day 2- Saturday home against the Nationals: The Mets dropped a close 3-2 ballgame but had rallies in the 8th and 9th with chances to win it.
Pitching
The Mets had their first formal look at Tobias Myers in game action. Tobias was the additional player in the Peralta trade that is expected to give the team many innings as either a SP5 or a long reliever. Myers looked pretty good in his start, giving up two hits and one earned run in three innings. He fanned four and walked one. On a sample of one, he lived up to expectations. There is much more to see.
Two pitchers that did not live up to expectations were Craig Kimbrel (1 IP, 1H, 2BB, 1ER) and Adbert Alzolay (1 IP, 2H 1ER, 0BB, 1K). They both have been dominant closers in their past, but did not look the part here in the early spring. Kimbrel was hit pretty hard. Although there are no statcast metrics for the game, the sound of the bat hitting pitches he delivered told me he is not missing barrels. Alzolay also gave up a few well-struck balls, but the two things that were a little disappointing was a wild pitch allowing a runner to move to third with no outs and a stolen base that was entirely on the pitcher. It is still early with time to clean things up, but these two veterans are vying for late inning set-up positions where there is no margin for mistakes or barreled-up hits.
Hitting
There wasn’t too much hitting in this game to write about, but I saw much better contact from Brett Baty and Ji Hwan Bae than in prior games. Mark Vientos also hit the ball hard, with two balls to the warning track that don’t show in the box score. Nick Morabito had an RBI double that should have plated two runs if not for a very conservative call by new third base coach Tim Leiper that held back Antonio Jimenez from scoring.
Defense
In a season about run prevention, there were definitely some plays worth mentioning. On the positive side, Ronny Mauricio made a nice charging throw to the plate on an infield ground ball where the player on third was running on contact.
On the negative side, Brett Baty’s progress as a first baseman is slow. He has not yet developed the instincts to move towards the bag on ground balls that are well within range of the second baseman. This gives him less time to set up. He also does not instinctively position his feet for a possible stretch. Both of these subtle mistakes could cost the team outs on close plays. Look for him to improve with more in-game experience.
Also on the negative side, the third base play was not crisp. Bo Bichette failed to glove a ball to his right that he should have gotten to and Jacob Reimer showed very limited range to his left. Both balls are fielded by the average major league third baseman.
Other
Ryan Clifford came up in the eighth inning with a runner on and a chance to put the team ahead with one swing. Although he didn’t knock one out of the park, I loved the chant echoing from the stands throughout his at-bat: “Big Red Dog, Big Red Dog!” I think that can stick if he comes through with some heroics.
Day 3 - Sunday home against the Astros: The Mets prevailed 4-3 on a walk-off base hit by Yonathan Henriquez.
Pitching
The second start of the pre-season by Clay Holmes was a rough one for him, but not of his own doing. He had to throw 31pitches in the first inning, but 21 of them were strikes. The defense let him down with a communication failure in the middle infield that botched a double play. He didn't help his cause by allowing a stolen base by Altuve who was 60 feet to second before the ball left Holmes' hand. Other than that inning, Holmes was good and the Mets were happy to see him throw over 60 pitches without tiring.
Jack Wenninger got a shot (actually two shots) but struggled with his control. I still think he is a lock to make the big leagues in either late 2026 or 2027, but this was not his day. 1.2 IP 1H 5BB 2 ER is a shaky line, but he is mentally tough enough to recover.
Max turner pitched the ninth and smoked three consecutive batters, drawing a roar from the crowd.
Hitting
The team had some hard hits, which was encouraging. A tough wind kept some balls in the park that normally would have left. However, Chris Suero came up in the seventh with the Mets down one and hit a line drive to left field that was struck so well that the wind couldn't stop it to tie the game. Yonathan Henriquez walked it off with a base hit in the ninth.
Defense
Let's just say there was a lot of learning going on out there. Bad communication between Semien and Brujan on a tailor made double play ball and a strange "who got it" play in right center made it look like opening day is far, far away.
Other
I am awestruck by the precision of the ABS. Calls were challenged that ended up being 0.4" off the strike zone. There was one call where the ball had a single seam inside the strike zone. I have to hand it to the umpires, who were that close to getting it right.
I still have not seen Jorge Polanco in a Mets game this year. The rumor is that he is on the back fields taking a crash course on fielding first base. We are nine games into the pre-season and he has no reps. This is beginning to concern me because the same in-game experiences that Baty struggled with Saturday are the learning tools that Polanco needs. Meanwhile, there is a revolving door of players manning first for a couple innings apiece. More to say on this later in the week.
Overall, it was a great weekend to watch spring training baseball. The Mets are fully engaged in their evaluations of players across the board, and results will not be known until mid-to-late March. My observations are based on a small sample size so use them to inform, not to predict.
