On Wednesday, the Mets took on the Miami Marlins in Jupiter, FL, and unfortunately, they journeyed back to Port St. Lucie with a loss. However, this is spring training – who really cares about wins and losses?  What people do care about is individual player performance. Who stood out? On Wednesday, there were a few players who shined. Let’s dive into two of them.

Pete Alonso

After a long, drawn-out contract negotiation, the Polar Bear is back with the orange and blue, and he’s gotten off to a hot start this spring.  In three games played thus far, he’s had eight plate appearances, and he has gotten on base in seven of them. 

Pete has only grounded out once. Aside from that, he has walked five times and smacked two doubles, driving in three runs, good for a slash line of .667/.875/1.333, with an OPS of 2.208. That OPS slots him in with the highest OPS on the team thus far in the spring. Now, of course, we’re only five games in – This sample size is minute, but, if that isn’t a good sign, I’m not sure what is.

Additionally, his eye at the plate has looked phenomenal, which is on par with his upward trending BB% over the last three years, growing from 9.4% in 2021 to 10.1% in 2024. 

Génesis Cabrera

Much of the news on yesterday’s pitching will focus on Paul Blackburn, for his perfect inning of work on just seven pitches, all of which he threw for strikes.

Blackburn did have a fantastic outing, but he was followed up by another great performance. Génesis Cabrera, a veteran reliever entering his age-28 season, pitched a perfect inning of work as well, striking out two of the three batters he faced.

Cabrera, who the Mets signed to a Minor League contract back in April, has been hard at work within the Mets pitching lab, relying heavily on his slider which now holds a 110 proStuff+ rating. 

He has struggled with control in the past. In 62.1 IP with the Blue Jays in 2024, Cabrera pitched to a 4.16 BB/9, sitting at a measly 17th percentile of qualified pitchers in the majors. However, if he can hone in that control, he and his fastball, topping out at 95 MPH, could be a formidable lefty weapon, with a chance to break into the Mets’ bullpen by Opening Day. A strong bullpen is what this team desperately needs, given the injuries to their starting rotation.