Starling Marte will make his Grapefruit League debut for Mets on Friday
Starling Marte will make his Grapefruit League debut on Friday. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Starling Marte will make his Grapefruit League debut Friday and Brandon Nimmo should follow shortly thereafter, manager Buck Showalter said Wednesday.
The Mets aren’t worried about either outfielder being ready for the start of the season March 30.
“No. No. Especially those two guys. Especially with the track record they have of their preparation,” Showalter said. “We got a lot of games left. Sometimes we have our clock from last year (when the lockout severely shortened spring training). There wasn’t much margin for error last year. We’re in a good spot with him.”
Regarding Nimmo, Showalter said he will make his spring training debut “hopefully the weekend. Hopefully.” His buildup to exhibition games has been slow by design, Nimmo has said repeatedly recently.
Marte has been behind because he had double groin surgery in November. What impact that operation will have on the rest of his preseason or what kind of player he’ll be moving forward is “unknown right now,” Showalter said.
“He’s gotta play in a game first before we can (evaluate) any of that,” he said. “But he’s done everything we could possibly put him through. He’s been wanting to play for a couple of days now . . . We’ve taken every possible precaution you could take, almost to a fault.”
Popular guy
Mark Vientos did several interviews (including at least one in Spanish) with media members covering Nicaragua’s WBC team, which came to Clover Park for an exhibition against the Mets on Wednesday.
Vientos said he considered playing for the Central American country — his mother was born there — but figured he’d be better off continuing to try to establish himself in Mets camp.
Spring scenes
Max Scherzer hit his desired pitch count (68 after being cleared for 65) in a 2-0 loss to Nicaragua. He planned on four innings but had to settle for three plus one batter because he hadn’t been efficient enough.
The quirky part: The Mets had a .000 fielding percentage behind him.
Scherzer recorded all nine outs via strikeout and allowed a homer to Jaylin Davis. The only other two balls in play resulted in errors by Vientos and Luis Guillorme.
“It’s weird,” Scherzer said. “Anything can happen in spring.”
Facing a team using zero major-leaguers, the Mets (who had one regular in the lineup) mustered just one hit, an infield single from Ronny Mauricio that could’ve been ruled an error. Near the end, the raucous, pro-Nicaragua crowd at Clover Park cheered each out.
Extra bases
The Mets will start Venezuelan righthander Jose Butto in their contest against Venezuela’s WBC squad on Thursday. Showalter said he wondered whether Butto might pitch well if he is motivated by not being picked for the national team . . . Mookie Wilson, in camp as a guest instructor, last year started a catering business called “Legacy Catering,” specializing in southern food. He said he does some of the cooking himself and all the recipes are passed down from his mother. It is based in South Carolina but is “100% mobile,” Wilson said . . . The Mets revealed their promotional/giveaways schedule. Among the highlights: a Howie Rose “sound” bobblehead (May 31), a Starling Marte Black Panther bobblehead (June 26), a Mr. Met as Indiana Jones bobblehead (June 27) and Mets basketball/soccer/football/hockey jerseys.
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.
