Some Rapid-Fire Pre-Opening Day Mets Thoughts
It feels like Christmas Eve for baseball fans, and I've got a ton of quick Mets musings to share ahead of Thursday's season opener...
Editor’s Note - This is just the start of our 2025 Major League Baseball Preview content roll-out.
Granted, I wanted to get a lot of this stuff out earlier, but I see no harm in pumping out things across the weekend even as the regular season gets underway.
Also, keep an eye out later today for a huge MLB 2025 Predictions Roundtable, featuring some of the best baseball writers and minds on Substack. I’ll be publishing that tonight at some point.
Happy Baseball Season!
Opening Day is just one day away!
As we prepare for the return of Major League Baseball, I thought now would be the perfect time to talk some New York Mets.
I am lucky enough to cover the Mets for a couple of different outlets, and hopes and expectations are certainly high for 2025.
That’s just what happens when you reach the NLCS and then go out and sign a superstar hitter in Juan Soto to a record-breaking deal.
As such, there is a ton of tangible excitement hovering over this ballclub as we edge closer and closer to Thursday.
So, to that end, I wanted to empty the mental notebook and share a bunch of thoughts about this team prior to the Mets opening up their 2025 regular season in Houston against the Astros on Thursday.
Let’s go…
⚾️ This sounds obvious to say - because, well it is - but Francisco Lindor can’t afford one of his traditional April slow starts. And nor can the Mets. This team, with all of their World Series aspirations, need a fast start and will have to avoid digging themselves out of the kind of gaping hold they found themselves in at the end of May last year. Especially if they want to keep pace with the juggernaut Dodgers. Key to that happening is Lindor, who isn’t exactly known for getting off to hot starts. For instance, he started last year 1-for-31 - hitting just .197/.273/.355.
That can’t happen again in 2025.
Granted, the fact that Lindor hit just .200/.273/.250/.523 with no home runs in spring training hardly inspires confidence. All we can hope is that the kind of timing issues that so often plague Lindor and cause the train to fall off the tracks in the early stages of the season are resolved and figured out come Thursday in Houston.
Because, if not, and if Lindor does find himself mired in another all-time slump to start the year, then that will only increase the pressure on Juan Soto and the rest of the lineup to deliver from the get-go.
Lindor excelled as a leadoff hitter in 2024, and that success was a real driving force behind the Mets turning things around and orchestrating a remarkable run all the way to the NLCS. And, if this team want to go a step further this year and reach the World Series, then having Lindor dialed in and producing from the get-go will be paramount.
⚾️ I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am to see Soto in a Mets jersey in a game that actually matters. The superstar hitter raked in spring training, and I think he’s going to put together an MVP level season in Queens. He’s electric to watch.
⚾️ Max Kranick and Hayden Senger are both really cool stories. The kind of feel-good tales that helps to keep spring training interesting.
Senger - as detailed in this excellent story on MLB.com - has spent past offseasons stocking shelves at a Whole Foods. Now, after years of hard work and waiting, the 27-year-old will finally get his chance in the big leagues. Senger looks set to make the Opening Day roster as the backup catcher to Luis Torrens with Francisco Alvarez on the IL. It is a tremendous story, but Senger is also here on merit. He showed a lot of good things throughout spring training, especially defensively. He also flashed signs of offensive promise, hitting a home run and a double with two RBIs in the spring. If Senger can provide above-average defensive skills behind the plate, while coming up with the occasional big hit at the plate, then the blow of starting the year without Alvarez should be softened somewhat.
As for Kranick, the 27-year-old has also endured a rocky road to the bigs having undergone Tommy John Surgery before being DFA’d by the Pirates. After being claimed by the Mets in 2024, the righty didn’t make the team out of camp.
However, that disappointment has only served to motivate Kranick this spring, who now looks set to make the Opening Day roster. He was dominant throughout spring training, striking out 15 while allowing just two earned runs on nine hits with one walk across 12.1 innings. His fastball and slider have emerged as potential lethal weapons, and Kranick has shown that he could morph into a multi-inning reliever for this team. Don’t be surprised if he becomes somewhat of a secret weapon for the Mets in 2025.
⚾️ I’m still deciding on where I think the Mets will finish in the NL East in 2025. Ultimately, it is going to be a three-horse race for first place and it should be a fascinating one to watch play out.
The Phillies are largely as they were last year, while the Braves will get back both Spencer Strider and Ronald Acuña Jr. this season. That’s absolutely huge for Atlanta. I also think the Braves will benefit from a number of their big guns enjoying bounce-back years, while I think the Phillies know their window is closing, so now is the time to strike.
Therefore, as talented as they are, the Mets aren’t going to have an easy or straightforward path to winning the NL East. And, ultimately, I think the Braves will end up winning the division. I just really like that roster and, as of right now, I do believe they are the second best team in the NL behind the Dodgers. However, I think the Mets will surpass 90 wins and will end up finishing second in the division, and third in the National League. After all, that lineup is one of the best in baseball. It is just the starting rotation that gives me some pause.
I’m wrong most of the time when it comes to predictions so, ultimately, we’ll see how it all shakes out. But this Mets team has a boatload of talent - especially offensively - the bullpen is vastly improved, and I’m confident the front office will be aggressive in adding an impact starter and another bat at the Trade Deadline, if needed.
I’ll have full MLB 2025 predictions coming later today, as well as on Thursday, by the way.
⚾️ I still think that Francisco Alvarez will be the biggest X-Factor offensively for the Mets this year, even though he will miss the first 6-8 weeks of the regular season. Granted, nobody knows how long it will take for Alvarez to ramp back up when he’s healthy. However, there is a lot of baseball to be played and there will be plenty of time for Alvarez to settle into a groove and really establish himself as a huge power bat in the middle of that lineup.
If Alvarez can absolutely rake and hit between 25-30 home runs in 2025, that will give this lineup the kind of power and depth it needs to really hang with the Dodgers and go deep in the playoffs.
⚾️ I am really, really, really rooting for Brett Baty in 2025. The infielder will start Opening Day as the Mets’ second baseman after a torrid spring. He hit .353/.441/.745/.1.186 with four home runs, six doubles, one triple, eight walks and 11 RBIs in camp. In other words; he grabbed his opportunity with both hands and ran with it.
Of course, Baty has been here before. He also entered 2024 with a lot of hope and promise, only to flame out and lose the third base job to Mark Vientos. Baty ended up spending the rest of the year at Triple-A. And therein lies the biggest rub with Baty - he’s yet to really put it all together in the major leagues. Baty has made a habit of crushing major league pitching, yet he struggles to hit a barn door as soon as the quality on the mound increases. As such, you can’t blame anyone for having doubts over how real Baty’s spring training explosion really was.
The true test will start in Houston on Thursday. If Baty is able to raise his game once things get real this weekend, and if he’s able to produce consistently, then maybe, just maybe, the Mets will have found their answer at second base. If the opposite happens, though, and Baty endures yet more struggles at the big league level, then I struggle to see the 25-year-old getting another chance with the Mets.
So, it goes without saying that I’m really rooting for Baty to get off to a monster start in Houston this weekend.
⚾️ I love what Clay Holmes has shown this spring - two earned runs allowed on seven hits with 23 strikeouts across 19.1 innings - but expecting him to not wear down at some point in his first season as a starter is being beyond optimistic. Going from 60 or so innings in 2024 to potentially pitching anywhere between 150-180 this year is a gargantuan jump. I have my concerns on that.
⚾️ My 2025 Mets bold prediction? Jeff McNeil and Starling Marte are both off the team by the time we get to the postseason. Furthermore, I think Dylan Cease and Brandon Sproat end up becoming valuable pieces of the rotation.
I’m not sold on Frankie Montas - and I’m not sure how much he will be able to give after missing so much time - and I need to see Kodai Senga stay on the field and remain healthy. There’s just too many question marks hovering over this starting rotation, and I predict that a big-time trade for Cease will be needed by the time we get to late summer.
Cease has the stuff, the upside and the quality needed to become the true ace the Mets will need if they want to embark on another deep postseason run.
Although, with that said, I don’t buy into the notion that it is World Series or bust for the Mets in 2025. Soto is signed for 15 years, and there is still work to be done when it comes to the roster. I don’t think it is a failure if this team doesn’t win it all this year, but they need to at least get close and show they are capable of going toe-to-toe with the Dodgers.
As I said up top, there will be way more preview content getting pumped out over the next day or so, as well as over the weekend, so keep an eye on your inbox to make sure you don’t miss a single thing.
Happy Opening Day Eve - Baseball is so nearly back!