Spring training will have different feel for Mets, MLB
The Mets' Starling Marte scores on a double by Francisco Lindor in the sixth inning of a game against the Dodgers at Citi Field on Sept. 1, 2022. Credit: Newsday/Thomas A. Ferrara
After several years of pandemic- and lockout-induced weirdness, spring training will be closer to normal this time — but not completely normal.
The Mets have begun to assemble in Port St. Lucie, Florida, with the first official pitchers-and-catchers workout scheduled for Tuesday and the first full-squad workout coming Feb. 20. That is when they’ll start to navigate the latest twists: getting used to MLB’s new rules and getting by with a significant swath of their roster departing for the World Baseball Classic.
Oh, and making sure all of the formerly injured players no longer are hampered.
“That’s my initial thing: Seeing where they are physically,” manager Buck Showalter said recently.
At the top of that list is rightfielder Starling Marte, who in November had surgery on a core muscle that bothered him for much of last season.
The Mets said in their news release at the time of the operation that Marte was “expected to be without restriction” come camp. Their language of late has been more careful.
“We feel good about where he is,” general manager Billy Eppler said late last month.
Will Marte be limited?
“That question, we can say that everybody is on a progression,” Eppler said. “The best way that I can answer that is get our hands on the player, see how he’s moving around, see how he feels in the early stages when he reports, then set a progression accordingly. Every player . . . we have progressions in how we want to bring them along. But we’ll see how Starling is when we get our hands on him.”
As Showalter put it, “So far, so good.”
Other players coming off surgery include third baseman Brett Baty (torn ligament in his right/throwing thumb) and catcher Francisco Alvarez (cartilage damage in his right ankle). Both prospects, who appear unlikely to crack the season-opening roster, reported to camp early and have been doing baseball activities.
Like every other team, the Mets will have to spend part of their practice time adjusting to and game-planning for the new rules: a pitch clock, limits on infield defensive shifts and slightly larger bases.
“It’s funny walking around the fields the last few days, seeing the different bases,” said Showalter, who left Port St. Lucie for a one-day stop in New York for an awards dinner last week. “When you’ve been around bases your whole life, you notice that they’re bigger.”
He called the pitch clock — 15 seconds with the bases empty, 20 seconds with runners on — “the big one.” That will take getting used to for pitchers, of course, but also hitters who need to get into the box and coaches/players relaying signs.
“It’s got a chance to be good for the game,” Showalter said, referring to MLB’s hope that it leads to quicker games. “Our guys have been working on it a lot. We’ve got, hopefully, ways to show them what is coming so they can prepare for it. There will be some glitches . . . Everything will speed up.”
With their preseason prep already more than perfunctory, the Mets will want to be productive early in camp because they will be without Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil, Francisco Lindor, Eduardo Escobar, Omar Narvaez, Jose Quintana, Edwin Diaz, Adam Ottavino, Brooks Raley and Elieser Hernandez for part of it.
Those players will leave in early March to join their WBC teams, hard-earned opportunities to represent their countries in the first edition of the international tournament since 2017.
The WBC, which will not use the new rules, goes from March 8-21. Anyone playing through the championship game would return to the Mets with four or five games left in the Grapefruit League schedule.
Although Showalter would rather not have so many important players join a team other than the Mets, missing first-stringers means extra exhibition action for those lower on the depth chart. The likes of Alvarez, Baty and shortstop Ronny Mauricio will get more extended looks with the major-league coaching staff than they would otherwise.
“There’s a positive out of it,” Showalter said. “I told them to bring both unis, [road] gray and [home] white. They’re going to get a lot of playing time. So we’ll get a good look at them.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
