The roster is taking shape!

Morning Dose: Monday, March 24

☀️ Good Morning:

59 players suited up for at least one game with the Mets last season. 37 of those were pitchers. 12 took the ball in the first inning. Eight roamed the outfield. 18 grabbed a bat and a helmet to pinch-hit. 14 acted as pinch runners.

Neither Mark Vientos nor Jose Iglesias, two of the heroes of a magical 2024 season, were on the Opening Day roster.

Only one hurler who started the season in the bullpen ended up in the bullpen come playoff time.

The baseball season is a marathon. The roster changes nearly every day. If not the active or 40-man roster, the lineups and pitching permutations are rarely the same from night-to-night.

Yet, no roster gets more attention than the one on Opening Day. We spend months talking about it during the offseason. Its announcement is a ceremonious moment.

With the first pitch of the 2025 season mere days away, we have a pretty good idea of how the Mets’ roster will look after this weekend.

☕️ Grab your coffee for your morning dose of Mets Fix!

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♺ The rotation takes shape

The initial starting rotation appears to be set:

• Game 1 at Houston: Clay Holmes

• Game 2 at Houston: Tylor Megill

• Game 3 at Houston: Griffin Canning

• Game 4 at Miami: David Peterson

• Game 5 at Miami: Kodai Senga

Who had Holmes, Megill and Canning as the first three out of the gate on their 2025 Mets Bingo card?

That’s what you get with both Sean Manaea and Frankie Montas starting the season on the IL, and with a slight twist to accommodate match-ups and ramp ups.

Preferring to avoid a left-handed starter against a righty-heavy Astros lineup, Peterson will be held back for the series in Miami, and Senga will take the extra time to make his first start when the calendar flips to April.

🍎 Any surprises? If you’ve been reading this newsletter everyday, nothing about the rotation should surprise you. Paul Blackburn, who has the requisite service time to refuse a minor-league assignment, will move to the bullpen.

Of the healthy starters, with the exception of Max Kranick (who only started one spring game), the Mets are running with the five who performed the best. It’s still a milestone for Megill, who came into camp determined to make the rotation despite not having an obvious path.

“Megill earned it,” manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters over the weekend. “He came into camp on a mission and he went out there and earned it. He did a lot of things we were asking, and it started with throwing strikes and attacking hitters and he did that during spring. His stuff is elite. He earned it.”

🤔 What’s the deal with Senga? The enigma on the staff remains so. Everything would suggest he is healthy. But his ramp up has been slower than the other starters. He will be held to a pitch count of about 75 pitches to start the year, according to Newsday.

• Looking Back: It was a rough 2024 campaign for Senga. He missed the first several months of the 2024 season due to a capsule strain in his throwing shoulder, only to return to a calf injury that put him back on the IL. He later suffered from triceps soreness.