Sunday, February 23, 2025 • 1:05 PM
CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches • West Palm Beaches, FL
RHP Ty Adcock (0-0, -.–) vs. LHP Shinnosuke Ogasawara (0-0, -.–)
MASN

What a start for the 2025 New York Mets on Saturday! Juan Soto hit a home run in first spring at-bat as a Met. Clay Holmes tossed three perfect innings in his first start. Not to mention, fans almost broke the attendance record at Clover Park which was set in 2015 (missed by only 50 fans).

Sunday the Mets hit the road in their first split-squad action of 2025. There are a lot of innings today to be filled by a mix of 40-man roster arms, players on non-roster invitee contracts, and probably few more invited over from minor-league camp. Players traveling on the road today will make the first of eight trips to West Palm Beach this spring, the home of both the Washington Nationals and the Houston Astros.

Mets Lineup

  1. Tyrone Taylor, CF
  2. Francisco Alvarez, DH
  3. Jesse Winker, LF
  4. Luis de Los Santos, 3B
  5. Nick Madrigal, SS
  6. Ryan Clifford, 1B
  7. Jett Williams, 2B
  8. Luke Ritter, RF
  9. Jackson Reetz, C

SP – Ty Adcock

Nationals Lineup

  1. CJ Abrams, SS
  2. Dylan Crews, RF
  3. Nate Lowe, 1B
  4. Josh Bell, DH
  5. Paul De Jong, 3B
  6. Luis Garcia Jr., 2B
  7. Stone Garrett, LF
  8. Riley Adamas, C
  9. Jacob Young, CF

SP – Shinnosuke Ogasawara

Ryan Clifford, Photo by Ed Delany of Metsmerized

Three Things To Watch For

  1. Ty Adcock’s First Spring Start. The Mets acquired Ty Adcock in 2024 and he got into a few games, allowing seven runs over 4 1/3 innings. Adcock is in camp on a non-roster invitee deal trying to find a way onto the 40-man roster and into the bullpen. He has a mid-90 mph fastball but major league hitters are squaring it up well. Over 33 fastballs thrown in 2024, he allowed three homers. In 2023, he allowed four homers off 116 fastballs.
  2. Is it too early to scout opposing players? The Nationals (and by default, the Mets) will get their first look at Shinnosuke Ogasawara this afternoon, the first Japanese player to sign a contract free-agent contract directly out of Japan with the Nationals. Last season, with Chunichi, he tossed 144 1/3 innings with a 3.12 ERA and 1.199 WHIP. He has a low-90 mph fastball, good control, and mixes speed over a large arsenal of pitches. The Nationals reported earlier this week that he’ll probably be limited to one inning in his debut and then do more work in the bullpen after.
  3. Position Player Prospects. There are few position player prospects making their spring debuts for the Mets this afternoon. Ryan Clifford, acquired with Drew Gilbert in the Justin Verlander trade, will look to build off of his 2024 where he smacked 19 homers over 129 games with a .793 OPS (and .372 OBP). Jett Williams is one the top prospects overall in the Mets’ system and has been listed as a top-100 prospect in baseball by Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus for three-straight seasons.

Photo by Ed Delaney, MMO

Sunday, February 23, 2024 • 1:10 PM
Clover Park • Port St. Lucie, FL
RHP Sandy Alcántara (0-0, -.–) vs. RHP Max Kranick (0-0, -.–)
SNY

As mentioned earlier, Saturday’s home crowd at Clover Park (7,394) just missed the record set in 2015 (7,444). Expect to see more scouts this afternoon, or just more attention by baseball professionals because of who the Mets are facing. Sandy Alcántara is making the trip to St. Lucie with the Marlins, pitching for the first time since Tommy John kept him out of baseball for all of 2024. This is a great opportunity for the Mets bats to get some reps against one of the best arms in baseball.

Mets Lineup

  1. Luisangel Acuña – SS
  2. Mark Vientos – 3B
  3. Brett Baty – DH
  4. Jose Siri – CF
  5. Luis Torrens – C
  6. Jared Young – 1B
  7. Donovan Walton – 2B
  8. Alex Ramírez – RF
  9. Nick Morabito – LF

SP – Max Kranik

Marlins Lineup

  1. Dane Myers – CF
  2. Jesús Sánchez – DH
  3. Jonah Bride – 1B
  4. Connor Norby – 3B
  5. Kyle Stowers – LF
  6. Liam Hicks – C
  7. Albert Almora Jr. – RF
  8. Javier Sanoja – 2B
  9. Max Acosta – SS

SP – Sandy Alcántara

Three Things To Watch For

  1. Max Kranik: The Marlins starter isn’t the only pitcher making a comeback from Tommy John. Max Kranik had the surgery in 2022 and hasn’t pitched in the majors since. He ended the season on the Mets’ wild card roster, just in case the Mets needed a pitcher for long relief. He’s coming off of a successful season in the minors where he pitched 70 2/3 innings between St. Lucie (Single-A), Binghamton (Double-A), and Syracuse (Triple-A) with a 3.82 ERA and 1.288 WHIP. Kranik is on the 40-man roster and will be battling for a bullpen spot, spot starter, or long relief option this spring.
  2. Sandy Alcántara: The Marlins’ ace will finally return to the mound this afternoon after missing all of 2024 recovering from Tommy John surgery. In 2022, he was a Cy Young award winning, 8.0 WAR pitcher. with a 2.28 ERA over 228 2/3 innings including six complete games. There’s going to be a lot of eyes on his performance this afternoon.
  3. Hey Siri. The Mets new center fielder makes his Mets spring debut this afternoon. Jose Siri has some serious pop and is a defensive wizard in the outfield. In 2024, he had a Baseball Reference defensive wins above replacement of 1.6. If he can marginally improve with the bat, he could become an x-factor for the 2025 Mets.