It’s that time of year again! The New York Mets are back! David Stearns, the president of baseball operations, had a fantastic off-season with the additions of Juan Soto, AJ Minter, Clay Holmes, and Frankie Montas. He also brought back Pete Alonso, Sean Manaea, and Ryne Stanek. With the season starting just a few days ago, let’s go over the Mets lineup, rotation, and bullpen.
Firstly, we’ll go over the Mets starting lineup and fielders. Starting off with their catchers, the Mets will be entering this 2025 season with their 2024 catching duo of Francisco Álvarez, as starter, and Luis Torrens as backup. However, Álvarez will be out for the first 6-8 weeks of the season, making Torrens the temporary starter. Hayden Senger, from the Mets system, will be the temporary backup catcher. The Mets starting lineup will look something like this:
Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto, Pete Alonso, Mark Vientos, Brandon Nimmo, Jesse Winker/Starling Marte, Luis Torrens, Luisangel Acuña/Brett Baty, Tyrone Taylor/Jose Siri
This lineup is one of the deeper lineups in baseball, allowing for a lot of flexibility. While most of their infield is pretty set in stone, with Alonso at 1B, Lindor at SS, and Vientos at 3B, they have a few question marks with 2B. McNeil, the Mets veteran 2B, will be out with an injury to start the season. It seems as though Baty and Acuña will be competing for the role, at the beginning of the season. Alonso will be chasing the Mets’ home run franchise record, being just 26 home runs away from tying it, and 27 away from breaking it. In their outfield, however, they have many players available to fill in the three spots. Nimmo, Winker, Soto, Marte, Taylor, and Siri can all play positions in the outfield. It’s very likely that Winker and Marte will just play at DH this season, though. Nimmo and Soto will be the starting LF and RF, with Taylor and Siri likely switching on and off every other game at CF.
The Mets starting rotation will look a bit different this year. Kodai Senga will return as the Mets’ ace, after being injured for most of last season. He had a solid spring training, and will start his season versus Miami. Sean Manaea agreed to a multi-year contract, to remain with the Mets. Him and Senga could be a very strong 1-2 punch. He did, unfortunately, get injured in spring training, but he will hopefully be back soon into April. As many Mets reporters have confirmed, the injury seems to be short-term. David Peterson, after having a career season last year, is still under contract and will slot into the Mets #3 spot. Clay Holmes will also be a starter, after opening the season for them. Tylor Megill will slot into the #5 role. Due to Frankie Montas’ unfortunate injury, which may keep him out long-term, Griffin Canning, after a solid spring training, will take the 6th spot in the rotation. This rotation does have a few question marks, and relies on a lot of things working in the Mets favor, however, the Mets rotation (going into last season) was also heavily criticized, and that rotation worked out very well for them. This year’s rotation, going into spring training, is actually even stronger than last, so there’s real reason to believe in Stearns and the Mets’ pitching lab. If Holmes doesn’t work out, he can always just return to the bullpen, where he has been a solid reliever. At this moment, the Mets starting rotation looks a lot like: 1) Kodai Senga, 2) Sean Manaea (when back), 3) David Peterson, 4) Clay Holmes, 5) Tylor Megill, 6) Griffin Canning.
The Mets bullpen, a clear weak point in the team last season, is one of their strongest going into this season. With the signings of AJ Minter and Ryne Stanek, the Mets bullpen has depth that this organization hasn’t seen in a while. Reed Garrett, José Buttó, and Dedniel Núñez are all coming off of solid seasons. Edwin Díaz will also be even stronger this season, after working through returning from his knee injury, last season. When healthy and on his game, he’s one of the most elite closers in baseball. Due to Núñez not being ready for Opening Day, Max Kranick and Huascar Brazobán will be joining the Mets bullpen. Both had very strong spring trainings. This bullpen will allow for the relief pitchers to have rest days, so everyone is healthy and ready-to-go come postseason time.
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The Mets have their eyes on one singular goal: winning a World Series. Nothing other than that result will suffice, for this team. While they’re in a tough league, and the strongest division in the NL, they’re a top team in baseball. The Dodgers, Braves, and Phillies, will be tough competition for the Mets, but last season proved that when they believe in themselves they can win… a lot.
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