Photo by Ed Delany of Metsmerized

Tuesday, March 7, 2023 • 6:05 PM
The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches • West Palm Beach, Florida
RHP Carlos Carrasco (0-1, 9.00) vs. LHP Framber Valdez (1-0, 0.00)
KBME 790 AM

Hello! It’s been a while! Between the day off on Monday and the Mets playing the late game tonight, the Mets haven’t played baseball for nearly 48 hours.

Since the Mets last played we got news that José Quintana suffered a stress fracture in his rib cage earlier in the week. These types of injuries potentially take a long time (possibly months) to heal from. It’s a great thing the Mets didn’t trade Carlos Carrasco as his role just got even more important for this upcoming season. This also means the health David Peterson just got a lot more important, too.

Mets Lineup

Opposing Lineup

Game Notes

This is the Mets’ first game without their talent that is playing in the World Baseball Classic. Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil, Francisco Lindor, Edwin Diaz, Adam Ottavino, Brooks Raley and more won’t participate in Grapefruit League play for about two weeks. The young bucks (and ideally Brandon Nimmo and Starling Marte) will get more playing time.

Three Things To Watch For

  1. Where Did Everyone Go? The Mets have nine major leaguers and five minor leaguers in the the WBC. With all countries playing in the first round of the tournament Mets camp just got a lot lighter. We should see a string of prospects getting an extended look for the rest of the week.
  2. Cookie Keeps It In The Park: In his first start of the spring Carlos Carrasco allowed two runs from two hits including a homer while walking one and striking out a batter. Obviously this is a very small sample size. The major difference Carrasco had in 2021 vs 2022 was his HR/9. He went from a 2.0 to 1.0 between the two seasons, and it was the reason he was way more successful last season. So we are hoping to see no homers today.
  3. The Return of Darin Ruf: The Mets traded four players, including J.D. Davis and Thomas Szapucki for Darin Ruf last season at the deadline. The plan was that Ruf and Vogelbach would become a DH super platoon. That did not happen. Ruf went from hitting .216/328/.373 with the Giants to hitting .152/.216/.197 with the Mets. The young kids this spring have been tearing the cover off of the ball – could Ruf be in a position battle?

Let’s go Mets!