Ed Delany/MMO
Baseball box scores come back in our lives today!
The Mets kick off spring training this afternoon by hosting the Braves in St. Lucie. The more notable starting pitchers on the club will start seeing the mound tomorrow, today the Mets will peak into what depth options lie beyond (maybe hopefully but not getting too excited – instead of) Jason Vargas.
Mets Lineup:
- Jeff McNeil (L) LF
- Juan Lagares (R) CF
- Robinson Cano (L) DH
- Michael Conforto (L) RF
- J.D. Davis (R) 3B
- Pete Alonso (R) 1B
- Amed Rosario (R) SS
- Devin Mesoraco (R) C
- Arismendy Alcantara (S) 2B
Braves Lineup
- Charlie Culberson (R) 2B
- Johan Camargo (S) SS
- Adam Duvall (R) LF
- Austin Riley (R) 3B
- Rafael Ortega (L) RF
- Alex Jackson (R) C
- Cristian Pache (R) CF
- Greyson Jenista (L) DH
- Drew Lugbauer (L) 1B
Starting Pitcher: Walker Lockett
At the start of January the Mets traded Kevin Plawecki to the Indians for Walker Lockett and Sam Haggerty. It was the second time this off-season that Lockett was traded. Back on November 20th, he was traded from the Padres to Cleveland for Ignacio Feliz.
Drafted in 2012, Walker made his major league debut last season for the Padres where he went 0-3 over 4 games (3 starts) totaling 15.0 innings posting a 9.60 ERA, 7.03 FIP, 2.133 WHIP and a 7.2 K/9. In the minors he was a career 4.15 ERA pitcher over 7 seasons posting a 1.291 WHIP. Baseball Reference listed Walker as the #28 prospect in the Padres system back in 2017 (that book had Fernando Tatis Jr as the Padres #17 prospect) giving him a grade of 40 and medium risk.
Things To Watch For In No Particular Order:
- This will be our first look at Jeff McNeil in the outfield. After delaying his call up for weeks last year because they didn’t want to play Jeff out of position, the Mets with a glut of new infielders on the team will be forced to play Jeff out of position.
- At second base is Alcantara. Although the Mets have a ton of infielders in camp on the roster and on NRI’s, Alcantara is neither, signing a minor league deal at the start of February. He’s a former prospect for the Cubs, but never could quite figure out major league pitching. There’s a good write up on him here.
- The Mets have a ton of catchers in major league camp (Ramos, d’Arnaud, Nido, Mesoraco, Sanchez, Mazeika and Plaia). Mesoraco is on an NRI and has the best chance from the 4 NRI catchers to make the roster.
- According to DiComo Hector Santiago will be pitching after Lockett. Santiago has quite a bit of major league experience and is in camp on an NRI. Since he’s not on the 40-man yet, this could be a hurdle for Santiago as he has to leap over 40-man pitchers Oswalt and Lockett to become starting depth. We wrote a profile on him a couple of weeks ago here, he’s coming off a season where tossed 102.0 innings with a 4.41 ERA, 5.12 FIP, 6.37 DRA, and a 1.52 WHIP. These are all increases from his career line of a 4.05 ERA, 4.86 FIP, 5.74 DRA and 1.37 WHIP.
- This will also be the Mets first look at J.D. Davis, a questionable trade that sent away intriguing prospects Luis Santana and Ross Adolph. The Davis trade was even more confusing when Lowrie was signed the following week. But with the Lowrie injury, an opening has appeared for Davis. I imagine that he’ll be directly competing with TJ Rivera among others.
We are just so excited to have Mets baseball back in our lives today! We don’t care if the games are meaningless and we don’t care if by the 3rd inning it’s all players we have to search up online.
What are you looking forward to today?
Check 213 Miles From Shea for more Mets insights! Tomorrow morning we are publishing our last part in a 20+ article series introducing every player in Mets camp on a Non-Roster Invitation.
