I think it’s safe to say that this is my final 2015 Opening Day Roster Projection of the preseason. Yep, that’s right, there will be no more of my roster projections for you to kick around anymore after this.
Starting Lineup
1. CF Juan Lagares
2. RF Curtis Granderson
3. 3B David Wright
4. 1B Lucas Duda
5. LF Michael Cuddyer
6. SS Wilmer Flores
7. C Travis d’Arnaud
8. 2B Daniel Muno
It certainly looks like Daniel Murphy will begin the season on the DL, and from what I’m hearing from Mets beat writers the team prefers to let Matt Reynolds begin the season at Las Vegas. Why you may ask? The only thing I could come up with is that they don’t trust that Terry Collins would play him everyday, and that he ends up getting the Wilmer Flores treatment, riding the bench while Ruben Tejada gets the lion’s share of the playing time. Being they view Muno as a future utility player anyway, they’ll go with him. But it’s not like he didn’t earn it, Muno had just as good a Spring as Reynolds.
Juan Lagares will be your leadoff hitter or else villagers will flock to Citi Field carrying torches and pitchforks. Lagares, my choice for Mets Breakout Player of the Year, is taking more walks, laying off balls out of the zone, driving the ball with more power, and utilizing his speed more than ever. All the things some said he’d never do.
Bench Warmers
C Anthony Recker
OF Kirk Nieuwenhuis
OF John Mayberry, Jr.
IF Ruben Tejada
IF Eric Campbell
It’s the same five players I projected a day after we acquired Mayberry. New York native Johnny Monell gave Recker a good challenge, but it was never gonna happen. Matt den Dekker is now out of the picture, and as for Campbell, Soup had a great spring.
Starting Rotation
1. RHP Jacob deGrom
2. RHP Matt Harvey
3. LHP Jon Niese
4. RHP Bartolo Colon
5. RHP Dillon Gee
I know, I know, we all want to see Montero in there, but Collins is fixated on Gee even if the front office isn’t. In fact, how’s this for where Sandy is leaning: “Gee may have the experience, but Montero has the upside.” Then you have him saying it’s Terry’s decision. Bummer, dude…
Bullpen
CLS Jenrry Mejia
RHP Jeurys Familia
RHP Carlos Torres
RHP Rafael Montero
LHP Alex Torres
LHP Jerry Blevins
LHP Sean Gilmartin
With Vic Black likely to open the season on the DL, the Mets intend to go with three left-handers for the first week of the season. After that, we’ll see how it goes. The biggest loser is RHP Buddy Carlyle who went from a bullpen lock to a Sand Trooper in Vegas in a matter of minutes, but it will be comforting to know we’ll have him in case we need him. Bobby Parnell will open the season on the DL, but is expected back around April 15. I think by then that Gee will be traded, opening up a spot for Montero in the rotation and Parnell in the bullpen.
By the way, Mr. North Jersey posted the following in one of our threads:
If you are trying to get a sense of where in the lineup the Mets have batted the most this Spring so far. The top for each spot breaks down as follows.
1 Slot: Juan Lagares (17 Times)
2 Slot: Curtis Granderson (11 Times)
3 Slot: David Wright (12 Times)
4 Slot: Michael Cuddyer (9 Times)
5 Slot: Kirk Nieuwenhuis (7 Times)
6 Slot: Wilmer Flores (6 Times)
7 Slot: Travis d’Arnaud (4 Times)
8 Slot: Matt den Dekker (4 Times)
Six more days!
