It is a busy day in Mets land as the organization with have two split-squad games happening simultaneously. Half the team will stay in Port St. Lucie against the Marlines while the other half with travel to West Palm Beach to face the Nationals.

Each game will feature several important everyday players. Specifically, the Opening Day starter in José Quintana versus Miami and a pitcher who has likely seized a rotation spot given his stellar spring in Tylor Megill. The games are both televised (one in-market and one out-of-market) and are projected to start five minutes apart.

Tylor Megill. Jim Rassol-USA TODAY Sports

Mets vs. Nationals 

Sunday, March 17, 2024 • 1:05 PM
CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches • West Palm Beach, FL
RHP Tylor Megill (1-2, 1.50) vs. LHP MacKenzie Gore (0-0, 1.69)
MLB TV (MASN)

The spring training schedule has been slightly different this year compared to previous years. So far this spring, the New York Mets have had way more evening games and no split-squad days. The latter point changes today as the Mets have their first of two Sundays in a row playing two split-squad games.

Most of the Mets starters stayed in St. Lucie this morning, but a few of them are making the trek to West Palm beach including Pete Alonso and Brett Baty. They’ll get to face MacKenzie Gore who is starting his second season with the Nationals. Gore was a key part of the blockbuster trade that sent Juan Soto to the Padres back in 2022.

Out of the two games the Mets play today, this is the more difficult one to follow if you live in the Mets media market. The game is being broadcasted by MASN (the Orioles and Nationals regional sports network) and can be watched in the New York area on MLBTV.

Mets Lineup

  1. DJ Stewart RF
  2. Trayce Thompson CF
  3. Pete Alonso 1B
  4. Brett Baty 3B
  5. Luke Voit DH
  6. Omar Narváez C
  7. Joey Wendle SS
  8. Zack Short 2B
  9. Ben Gamel LF

Nationals Lineup:

  1. CJ Abrams SS
  2. Lane Thomas RF
  3. Jesse Winker LF
  4. Joey Meneses DH
  5. Joey Gallo 1B
  6. Eddie Rosario CF
  7. Nick Senzel 3B
  8. Luis García Jr. 2B
  9. Drew Millas C

Game Notes

Other than Megill, Austin Adams and Adam Ottavino are slated to pitch.

Minor leaguers who made the trip to West Palm Beach are RHP Joshua Cornielly, Hunter Parsons, Jordan Geber, and Diosmerky Taveras.

Three Things To Watch For

    1. Tylor Megill continues to battle for the last rotation spot. José Buttó continued his strong spring his last time out, so now it’s Megills time to impress again. Last spring training, it was the fourth and fifth spring training starts last year that gave Megill difficulties. He dominated in his last start, his fourth start, allowing one run from three hits over four innings of work. He’s now allowed only two runs in 12 innings this spring, and one of those was from the very first inning he tossed.
    2. Pete Alonso: Alonso is off to a good start this spring, hitting .250/.368/.594 over 32 at-bats spread across 13 games. He only has two home runs so far but has ripped five doubles and has already walked six times (for comparison, he has hit six walks two other times in spring training). He’s the engine of the Mets’ offense.
    3. Ben Gamel: Gamel has had a quiet spring training for the Mets so far going 3-for-18 over 10 games with a double and eight strikeouts. Gamel signed as a free agent this offseason and is trying to get onto the 40-man roster. In 2022, he saw a lot of playing time with the Pirates where he slashed .232/.324/.369 with a 97 OPS+ over 115 games.

José Quintana. Photo by Ed Delany of Metsmerized

Marlins vs. Mets

Sunday, March 17, 2024 • 1:10 PM
Clover Field • Port St Lucie, FL
LHP Luis Palacios (0-1, 4.50) vs. LHP José Quintana (0-1, 2.08)
WPIX

The game against the Marlins will probably be closer to a normal game for the Mets. Yesterday the Mets played an evening game on the road and gave most of their starters the night off. Out of the two games the Mets are playing today, this is the home game so most of the regular players will return to action here.

This is also the easier game for those in the Mets media market to tune into. This afternoon’s game against the Marlins is being broadcasted on WPIX.

Mets Lineup

  1. Brandon Nimmo LF
  2. Francisco Lindor SS
  3. Francisco Álvarez C
  4. Tyrone Taylor RF
  5. Starling Marte DH
  6. Mark Vientos 3B
  7. Ji Man Choi 1B
  8. Jose Iglesias 2B
  9. Harrison Bader CF

Marlins Lineup

  1. Jon Berti 3B
  2. Dane Myers CF
  3. Jesus Sánchez LF
  4. Avisaíl García RF
  5. Christian Bethancourt C
  6. Trey Mancini 1B
  7. Nick Fortes DH
  8. Tristan Gray SS
  9. Javier Sanoja 2B

Game Notes

Outside of Quintana, other pitchers expected to play today are Phil Bickford, Brooks Raley, Drew Smith, and Edwin Díaz.

Specifically, Díaz is expected to pitch the sixth inning after Quintana who is expected to either go five frames or 75 pitches, whichever comes first.

Three Things To Watch For

  1. José Quintana, Opening Day starter: The Mets named Quintana as their Opening Day starter earlier this week. So far this spring he has made three starts totaling 8 2/3 innings allowing three runs (two earned) via eight hits while striking out nine batters. His last start was his best on yet holding the Nationals to only two hits and no runs across four innings.
  2. Francisco Álvarez: It’s a small sample size of only 25 at-bats but so far this spring Álvarez is slashing .240/.345/.985. Last season, he hit .209/.284/.721. In addition to hitting for power this spring, Álvarez is working walks, four of them already.
  3. Mark Vientos looks to recover from a rough day. Mark Vientos had about as bad of a game as you can Saturday night. He went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts. This came after Friday night’s game where he went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts. Before the alarm bells start to ring, we can put this in perspective. In the four games before this, Mark went 4-for-13 with two home runs and a double. Six of his 13 strikeouts in March are from the last two games. Nine of this 13 strikeouts are from three of ten games he played in.