Photo by Ed Delany/MMO
There are two great things about baseball in February. First, it’s baseball, and that’s pretty neat on its own. Second, the results don’t matter and you can actually define “winning” however you want. In other words, the Mets lost both games they played yesterday in the traditional sense, but there were legitimate reasons to be excited.
Luis Guillorme made his first fantastic defensive play of Spring, hopefully increasing chatter that he should be on the bench in Queens at the end of March. Rick Porcello didn’t self-destruct and the two hits he gave up were soft. The Mets starters in the home game knocked in three runs in the first inning with hard hit balls.
Plenty to be excited about. And the Mets have their first chance today to get a traditional win as they welcome the Cardinals to St. Lucie.
The big story for the Mets today is the first spring start of Steven Matz. There have been some whispers that Matz/Porcello/Wacha are all fighting for the 4th and 5th spot of the rotation. I think that’s a bit overblown and the 4th spot in the rotation is really Matz’s to lose rather than directly compete for.
He’s coming off of his second straight season of making 30 starts with a 4.21 ERA, 4.60 FIP, 1.341 WHIP and a 96 ERA+. His ERA+ is his best recorded in a season since his 118 in 2016. He finished his last 17 games, 15 starts of the season with a 3.61 ERA (he had a 4.95 before that).
Mets Lineup:
- Amed Rosario (DH)
- Andres Gimenez
- J.D. Davis
- Matt Adams
- Jake Marisnick
- Tomas Nido
- Luis Guillorme
- Ryan Cordell
- Tim Tebow
- Steven Matz
Across both Mets games yesterday there was an unusually high amount of starters playing (because of the split squad and being the first day of spring). Today’s lineup feels like a more normal first week of Spring Training games set. Some interesting notes, Guillorme is seeing time at second today. After playing the entire game yesterday as a DH, non-roster invitee Matt Adams is getting some time in the field. J.D. Davis is getting time at third.
After Matz today the Mets have no other lefties available to pitch. We could possibly see the spring debuts of Brad Brach, Jeurys Familia, Tyler Bashlor, Robert Gsellman and Nick Rumbelow today. Familia is trying to put his last year behind him and Brach will be pitching to hold onto his bullpen shot.
Other interesting names listed include Kilome, acquired in the Cabrera trade with the Phillies a couple of seasons ago and Whalen, who recently returned to the Mets (he was traded away with Gant for Uribe more than a couple of seasons ago).
Lets Go Mets! Check 213 Miles From Shea for more Mets insights! We are in midst of looking at 2020 projections for different Mets hitters.
