PORT ST. LUCIE — Even in an abbreviated spring training, the Mets’ biggest strength was hard to miss.
Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Marcus Stroman, Steven Matz, Rick Porcello and Michael Wacha looked every bit the part of a big-time rotation capable of keeping the team in NL East title contention.
“I was really impressed with their starting pitchers,” a National League scout said. “They looked ready for the season.”
On Tuesday the Mets closed Clover Park to baseball workouts, the final padlock on a spring curtailed by the spread of the COVID-19 virus. In recent days players had been allowed to work out on the fields, clinging to the hope the season might resume in April.
Now, that delay will last into late-May or beyond, following a recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that gatherings of 50 people or more over the next eight weeks be postponed or canceled. MLB will adhere to that recommendation.
Unresolved before the scuttling of the exhibition season last week was the composition of the Mets’ rotation, as Matz and Wacha — the two pitchers most likely battling for a spot — were both performing at a high level.
Another talent evaluator mentioned Jeurys Familia when asked about the most positive thing seen this spring from the Mets.
“I just loved the way he went about things, lost the weight, worked on stuff,” the talent evaluator said.
Familia lost 30 pounds in the offseason and during camp cited that shedding of weight for helping keep his delivery consistent. The right-handed reliever was among the Mets’ biggest disappointments last season, pitching to a 5.70 ERA in 66 appearances after rejoining the team on a three-year contract worth $30 million.
On the flip side, the Mets’ biggest weakness was hard to miss this spring, especially as Yoenis Cespedes hadn’t progressed to the point of playing in a Grapefruit League game after missing the last 1 ½ seasons, following surgery on both heels and multiple ankle fractures sustained during an encounter with a wild boar on his ranch.
“I’m a little worried about their outfield situation,” the NL scout said, noting Cespedes’ ongoing rehab and the fact Brandon Nimmo missed most of last season with a bulging disk in his neck.
In addition, Michael Conforto sustained an oblique strain in the final week of exhibition games.
“That is three guys you have concerns about and [Jake] Marisnick has never been considered an everyday guy,” the scout said. He’s more like a fourth good outfielder.
“Asking J.D. Davis to be an outfielder is kind of unfair because it’s not a natural position for him, so if you have leads and go into the seventh or eighth inning, he’s not the kind of guy you want out there protecting a one-run lead. To me their outfield is a big question mark.”
Even so, the delay to start the season could benefit the Mets in giving Cespedes and Conforto time to heel from their injuries. The same goes for Dellin Betances, who had appeared in two Grapefruit League games (in which his full velocity hadn’t returned) after spending much of camp strengthening his left Achilles. The veteran reliever tore that tendon last September.
“I am a little concerned about Betances, we have seen this before, and you just hope he gets his arm strength back and he might benefit from this time off as well,” the NL scout said. “But I’m bullish on the Mets to be in the mix with the other teams in the division.”