Spring is finally here, which means it is baseball season.  Teams are wrapping up spring training and hoping to be at their top form heading into Opening Day.  For the Mets, they will be returning many players from last year’s squad and the pitching rotation is receiving a lot of attention.

The Mets rotation for the first week will be Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey, Robert Gsellman, and Zack Wheeler.  This will be the 5 man rotation as of the first week because Steven Matz is out for 3 weeks from elbow soreness.  Wheeler will need to stay healthy the whole season because Mets fans know how injuries have plagued him.  The pitchers are all back this year, as Harvey, deGrom, and Wheeler all had surgery.  Seth Lugo will also compete for time against Wheeler and Gsellman.  When Matz gets back, this could be one of the most dangerous rotations in the MLB.  Matz will eventually return and take the 4 spot, which then leaves the 5 open.  This will be a competition between Gsellman, Lugo, and Wheeler.  One thing that is for sure is that if this pitching rotation can stay healthy, they will be a tough team to hit against.  

The Mets struggled at getting runs late in the season last year and were shutout in the Wildcard game against the Giants.  The Mets should have a pretty solid fielding team and this starts with the infield.  Wilmer Flores and Lucas Duda will compete for the spot at 1B and probably split time.  Duda is back from injury last year and will hope to have better hitting than in previous years.  Wilmer Flores seemed to adjust being moved to 1st last year (he was previously a shortstop), and his hitting was slumping as well last year.  The Mets also have Flores listed as a 3rd baseman.  At 2nd base will be Neil Walker coming back from injury and Mets fans are certainly happy about this.  Walker is a good hitter and fielder, and he will have a solid backup behind him in T.J. Rivera.  Asdrubal Cabrera is the only actual listed shortstop on the team, however, Flores and Jose Reyes can play the position as well.  Cabrera can hit better than Reyes and Flores but is not as fast as Reyes, so this could be an interesting competition.  However, that is very unlikely and Mets fans should expect Cabrera to play shortstop.  This brings us to 3rd base, the spot in which the Mets have struggled to find a reliable starter to play in the past years.  David Wright is back from injury, but everyone is wondering how long that will last, as he is aging and recovering from spinal stenosis.  Jose Reyes might have to play 3B if Wright gets hurt again.  Wilmer Flores could also play 3B in an emergency situation, but he seems to be primarily playing at 1B.  Another interesting position battle will be at cathcer. Travis d’Arnaud and Rene Rivera will most likely split time, but reports have been coming out that d’Arnaud is nowhere near as good as he was in previous years. In reality, Rivera will probably start with d’Arnaud backing up.  

The Mets outfield could also be one of the best in the MLB with its great hitters and outstanding fielders.  The Mets are still struggling to figure out who will play where because there are so many options.  In RF, Curtis Granderson and the 2nd year Mets player Jay Bruce will split time.  Analysts are questioning Granderson as he gets older, but he is showing no signs of slowing down.  Bruce was the Mets’ big trade last year but failed to deliver big.  This could be an interesting spot to watch.  Granderson could also play CF if needed.  The Mets have Juan Lagares listed as the only CF, but Yoenis Cespedes could also play there.  Lagares is one of the best defensive outfielders in the MLB, but Cespedes can clobber the ball when batting.  In LF, there are Michael Conforto, Yoenis Cespedes, and Brandon Nimmo.  Cespedes should win this spot out and the expected outfield would be Cespedes in left, Lagares in center with Granderson and Bruce splitting time in right.

“We have one of the best pitching staffs in the MLB and our fielders are good.  It all comes down to the hitting, and if they can deliver and stay healthy, this squad can be very good,” said freshman Mets fan Alessandro Giono.

If the Mets stay healthy they will have tough decisions deciding the lineup each day, but every team wants to have a problem like this where there are too many good players to easily decide who should play.  This season should be promising.