It is hard to believe that Opening Day 2023 is in a week and the New York Mets once again have sky-high expectations! The Mets will look to improve on their 101-win season from a year ago. Still, it will be more challenging without close Edwin Diaz and other strong teams in the division such as the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies. Both teams beefed up this offseason so the Mets have a fight ahead of themselves in the NL East.
With New York looking to get back into the postseason and potentially reach owner’s Steve Cohen timeline of a World Series title, here is a prediction of the Mets 2023 Opening Day roster.
Starting Pitchers: RHP Max Scherzer, RHP Justin Verlander, RHP Kodia Senga, RHP Carlos Carrasco, LHP David Peterson.
The Mets rotation has a chance to be really good despite Jacob deGrom leaving in free agency for the Texas Rangers. Their top two pitchers in their rotation have won six combined CY Young Awards and have not shown that father time is catching up on them. Also, Kodia Senga who will be making his major league debut looked awfully impressive this spring. Carrasco as well is looking to build off his 15-win season and with the absence of lefty Jose Quintana who will begin the year on the IL, David Peterson has a really great opportunity to prove to the Mets he belongs in their rotation.
Relief Pitchers: Closer David Roberston, RHP Adam Ottavino, RHP, Drew Smith, RHP Tommy Hunter, LHP Joey Lucchesi, RHP Jeff Brigham, RHP, John Curtiss
The Mets bullpen is a major question with injuries seeming to pile up, especially with Edwin Diza being down for the entire season. It seems like David Robertson will be the Mets new closer which is a good thing since he’s been a closer for the majority of his career, but Buck Showalter always likes to change things around. The bullpen will have a lot of questions this season.
Projected Lineup:
- CF-Brandon Nimmo
- RF-Starling Marte
- SS-Francisco Lindor
- 1B-Pete Alonso
- 2B-Jeff McNeil
- DH-Daniel Vogelbach
- LF-Mark Canha
- 3B-Eduardo Escobar
- C-Omar Narvaez
Bench: Tommy Pham, Luis Guillorme, Darin Ruf, Danny Mendick
This seems like the ideal lineup and bench for the Mets. It’s very unlikely the Mets will add Brett Baty to their Opening Day roster despite him having a really nice spring. They have a good and deep bench full of speed, hitting, and veteran players that can step up in any situation.
