Brett Baty (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
The confetti dropping at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas following Super Bowl LVIII meant one thing: It’s baseball season. And for the Mets, so begins a spring of evaluation with an abundance of fresh faces.
The front office is new, the manager is new, three-fifths of the rotation is new, and, potentially, so is the center fielder.
Expectations are lower. This isn’t a World Series contender, at least on paper, but new president of baseball operations David Stearns remains steadfast that this is a team that should compete for a postseason berth in 2024.
Spring training will help provide a primer on just how legitimate those beliefs are.
What to watch at Mets Spring Training
The new starting rotation: There weren’t blockbuster moves like the previous two winters to bring on marquee arms for the top of the rotation. Kodai Senga enters 2024 as the ace following a second-place finish in the Rookie of the Year voting. Jose Quintana is looking to have a full season in Queens after missing half of it after undergoing rib surgery during spring training last year.
Those are the only two holdovers from last season. Luis Severino, Sean Manaea, and Adrian Houser have been brought in to round out the rotation with more than a fair share to prove to the baseball world.
Severino is coming off his worst season in which he was derailed by continuing injuries and nagging pitch-tipping issues. Manaea was demoted to the bullpen last year after a horrid start with the San Francisco Giants but got back on track at the end of the season upon reintroduction to the rotation with a new sweeper that provided brilliant early returns.
When it comes to Houser, what you see is what you get. This is a pitcher who will flirt with a low 4.00 ERA as a No. 5 starter. But if Carlos Mendoza is toying with the idea of a six-man rotation to preserve the freshness of some questionable arms, it’s an open competition between the likes of…
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