Thoughts on the Mets Opening Day Roster

So, there's quite a bit of time left for things to shake out on this front, but I thought I'd look over the Mets' Spring Training so far and see how I would construct a 25-man roster if a) I were the GM, and b) camp were ending right now. In part this is inspired by the really, really good inning Pedro Feliciano just pitched. I'll say who I'd take north with the big-league club, and also what changes I'd be expecting to make or try to make over the course of the season. Note that I'm assuming that the injuries to Kirk Nieuwenhuis, Johan Santana, and Frank Francisco will keep them off the field on Opening Day, but that the injury to Daniel Murphy will not.


Catchers:

John Buck (R)
Anthony Recker (R)

This has been the obvious Opening Day catching tandem for a long time. At some point, though, you'll predictably want to bring up Travis d'Arnaud (R) as the starting catcher. Hopefully that could involve a trade of Buck, since $6 million is a lot to pay for a back-up catcher. If so, you'd switch to d'Arnaud/Recker; otherwise, it'd be d'Arnaud/Buck.

Infielders:

Ike Davis (L)
Daniel Murphy (L)
Ruben Tejada (R)
David Wright (R)
Omar Quintanilla (L)
Justin Turner? (R)

The starting infield is set, unless Murphy's injury derails him, in which case I'd say you pull Valdespin out of the outfield and stick him at second. (Honestly, actually, you would consider trading Murphy mid-season, given Valdespin as a back-up option.) Quintanilla's the only contender for back-up shortstop, really, and I don't think Tejada's a sufficiently every-day player yet that you can afford not to have one of those. And, I dunno, current Mets management seems very high on Turner, and I have to admit that I do think his high-leverage numbers aren't entirely an illusion. As a utility/versatility/pinch-hitter type, he might be better than the likes of Zach Lutz or Josh Satin, but I'm not sure about that by any stretch of the imagination.

Outfielders:

Lucas Duda (L)
Jordany Valdespin (L)
Marlon Byrd (R)
Collin Cowgill (R)
Mike Baxter (L)

I think Jordany played solid enough defense last year in center that I'd like to see him there, as long as Murphy is still on the team, Duda is still on the team, and neither Kirk Nieuwenhuis nor Matt den Dekker are hitting well enough to justify holding that spot. Cowgill deserves, I'd say, a shot at platoon-level playing time, at the very least. Byrd's looked good so far, and there really aren't other tolerable options in right field as starters. Baxter's a very good pinch-hitter and defensive replacement type (replacing Duda, typically, I daresay). And as for Duda himself, well... He's looked decent during the spring, particularly after his gawd-awful start, which was reputed to be due to the continued influence of his off-season wrist injury. He's not a great option defensively, but will probably be less awful in left than he was in right. If he's mashing, he's part of a trade to a team looking for a 1B/DH type. If he isn't, at some point you need to get rid of him, 'cause a non-slugging Lucas Duda, Outfielder is an enormous liability. If either Nieuwenhuis or den Dekker show anything remotely impressive in AAA during the early part of the season, I'd very much want to give one of them the CF job.

Starting Pitchers:

Jon Niese (L)
Matt Harvey (R)
Shaun Marcum (R)
Dillon Gee (R)
Jeremy Hefner (R)

Santana's looking like he won't be ready for Opening Day: good for Jon Niese! There's not a lot of doubt about this rotation, once you account for the fact that we'll be swapping Hefner out for Johan once he's healthy. Hefner's a perfect guy to have around for a spot start or two early in the season. If the team isn't in contention, at some point we'll be looking to trade Johan and/or Marcum, and replace him/them with Zack Wheeler and, if multiple are needed, one of Jenrry Mejia, Collin McHugh, etc. If the team is in contention, well, you might still want to call Wheeler up at some point, and it might be a wee bit tricky who he'd be replacing. I feel a lot less sentimental loyalty to Marcum than to Santana, and if both are pitching well Johan will be pitching better, so you'd assume you'd want to go with Johan/Niese/Harvey/Gee/Wheeler in that situation.

Relief Pitchers:

Bobby Parnell (R)
Brandon Lyon (R)
Josh Edgin (L)
LaTroy Hawkins (R)
Scott Atchison (R)
Greg Burke (R)
Pedro Feliciano (L)

I've always liked Parnell as closer. Lyon has a Major League deal; he'll be the set-up guy. Edgin is the best lefty weapon on the team, and probably a part of the team's future. Hawkins and Atchison are veterans who've looked good so far; no reason not to give them a shot, since we know they can be good when healthy. Burke gives you the side-arming righty option, which is nice. Feliciano spent a period of about five years doing his job as well as anyone in baseball (i.e. a 3.09 ERA over an average of 82 appearances and 60 innings pitched per year, holding lefties to ridiculously pathetic numbers). He also looks healthy and competent so far; it'd be great to have Perpetual Pedro back, though one assumes he won't have any 92 appearances this year. He struck out a righty on a great change-up just now.

Honestly, I'm not sure this team would be so bad. That could, honestly, be a pretty good bullpen; it's a solid starting 5; the infield and catcher spots look good (once you bring up d'Arnaud); and there are a number of parts in the outfield that could be decent. There are a number of possibilities to trade away pieces who won't be contributing in the future if the team isn't contending (or even if it is, actually), and just enough pieces all around that it's not implausible the team could contend, at least for the second Wild Card spot.