The New York Mets’ stars will be split up for Saturday’s split-squad games. Only four of the Mets’ everyday players will play in SNY’s game.
The New York Mets open spring training with two split-squad games on Saturday. They’ll play one game on the road against the St. Louis Cardinals and another at home against the Miami Marlins. The home game will be televised on SNY.
Anthony DiComo of MLB.com has released parts of the Mets planned lineups for the games.
The Mets will open their Grapefruit League schedule with a split squad tomorrow. Marcus Stroman, Brandon Nimmo, J.D. Davis, Amed Rosario, Rene Rivera are among those going on the road.
Rick Porcello, Pete Alonso, Michael Conforto, Jeff McNeil and Wilson Ramos will stay in PSL.
— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) February 21, 2020
Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil, Michael Conforto and Wilson Ramos will appear in the televised home game. While, Brandon Nimmo, J.D. Davis, and Amed Rosario will be on the road.
There are a few players who are notably missing from this list. Yoenis Cespedes is not expected to play in either game. He’s still working back from his double heel surgery, and there’s no timetable for his return.
Robinson Cano‘s name didn’t appear, either. It’s possible that the Mets are looking to give him less work in spring due to his age. It would be easy to see why the Mets would want Cano to have a lighter workload before the season.
It’s also possible that Cano’s name was just left off because the Mets don’t know what they want to do with him yet, or just didn’t pass that info onto DiComo. It’s very unlikely that it has anything to do with his health or any other issue that would cause him to miss time.
Don’t expect the players that do play to get much time. The Mets have a ton of players who need playing time. The starters will likely only play around three innings.
Like with any other sport’s preseason teams don’t want to risk injury to their starters. They also want to see what they have in their young players and backups.
It should be a fun time for Mets fans to get acquainted with players they might not know.
