Taking Stock
Don’t look now but the season opens a week from Thursday and these Mets do not look ready. Nimmo’s got a knee thing. McNeil an oblique. Alvarez swung too hard and broke his hand. Montas is out, Senga is behind schedule, Manaea has something wrong with him. Dedneil Nunez will miss more time. AJ Minter has a hip thing. Ronny Mauricio is still out.
Also, small sample size and all, but I’ve watched two spring training games including the one this afternoon and can report they suck out there. Don’t get me wrong — wins and losses during spring training aren’t the point, but how they look matters, they look bad. They look like they’re 8-12 after 20 games, which they happen to be. That’s a 65-win pace over 162. That’s not encouraging!
Hopefully these guys get their stuff together when the bell rings because the first-half struggling they do every year is getting old and hurts them at the gate, even though I’m sure at some level David Stearns has figured out an advantage to winning a wild card only and coming to the postseason with momentum.
I guess the thing to watch in these last 10 days is who winds up taking Alvarez’ spot–will it be the guy wearing No. 85 (Jackson Reetz), the dude in 97 (Chris Williams) or the one in 98 (Hayden Senger)? There’s always a trade possibility too as teams have roster crunches around now. But let’s root for Senger, a 24th round pick who not only had a double and a pickoff today but like a real person is making ends meet as a Whole Foods stock boy. He’d be the first 98 in team history.
Let’s Go Mets! Win a couple spring training games already!