Terry Collins held his first press conference of the season today in Port St. Lucie as the Mets prepare for their first workout of the season tomorrow for the pitchers and catchers. The tagline line from the press conference will be this quote, “I want that swagger!” He went on to say he wants the Mets to start the season with confidence because “we’re good.”
Here are the notes from everything else he said:
1. Collins wants Rafael Montero, Sean Gilmartin, and Robert Gsellman to get some starts early on in Grapefruit League action. Said they will slowly work in the top five guys early on, wants to ease them in after the longer season in 2015. He also talked to John Smoltz to get an idea about how he should ease his pitchers in after making it to the World Series.
2. When he was asked what happened to Juan Lagares in 2015, he said he didn’t know but that he showed up to camp in unbelievable shape. Juan has been working out with former teammate Jose Reyes at the Long Island Sports Complex in Freeport, NY. Went on to say he wasn’t sure how he was going to work in at bats for Lagares and Alejandro De Aza in the suddenly crowded Mets outfield.
3. Ruben Tejada is in camp already in is in the best and is in the best shape in the last four years according to Collins. In other infield news, Wilmer Flores will be the primary backup to Lucas Duda at first base.
4. Matt Reynolds will get some exposure to the outfield during the spring. Makes sense given that Gavin Cecchini should be playing shortstop everyday at Triple-A Las Vegas. I would expect that we see him play some third base as well. Collins also mentioned wanting to see Ty Kelly in the outfield, the Mets signed the utility player to a minor league deal this offseason.
5. On the catching front and learning new positions Collins said that Travis d’Arnaud will be the primary catcher but not sure yet if that means 4 or 5 games a week behind the dish. Kevin Plawecki will see some time at first base this spring where he does have some minor league and college experience. He said that d’Arnaud will also carry a first baseman’s glove.
6. Noah Syndergaard held a presser afterwards and said that he wanted to pitch one of the first two games against the Kansas City Royals. Collins said Thor could be off the charts.
In former Met news, Bobby Parnell has signed a minor league deal with the Detroit Tigers with an invite to big league camp according to Anthony French of the Free Press.
