Just Mets

The Mets travel to Roger Dean Stadium to face-off against the Miami Marlins at 1:05 PM on Monday. Here are some of the things I am looking for this afternoon…

It’s deGrom’s turn.

Even in Spring Training, it’s no easy thing to follow up a Matt Harvey start, but if anyone is up to the task, it’s Jacob deGrom. After Harvey went 5.2 shutout innings on Sunday, allowing two hits, no walks and striking out four, deGrom is the next man up to keep the string of good Spring pitching going.

DeGrom had a sparkling start himself in his last outing, pitching five scoreless innings, allowing one baserunner on a single and striking out six, lowering his Grapefruit League ERA to 2.45.

The middle infield situation.

After news of Wilmer Flores wearing a walking boot surfaced on Sunday, the Mets were able to breathe a sigh of relief when the X-rays on the foot came back negative. Flores’ status for Opening Day is not in jeopardy, Flores told reporters, but there’s still the case of Daniel Murphy and his hamstring issue.

There’s been talk that Murphy could start the year on the disabled list, and while fans have been hoping to see Dilson Herrera potentially fill that void temporarily, it has been said that the spot, if it becomes open, will be between Ruben Tejada and 26-year-old minor leaguer Danny Muno, both of whom will start today’s game.

The lefty reliever spot is still wide open.

There are 13 games left in Spring Training, including today, and there is still no clear frontrunner to make the roster out of the left side of the bullpen. Jack Leathersich (10.38 ERA), Dario Alvarez (7.20 ERA) and Scott Rice (9.64 ERA) are all scheduled to pitch today, and while they’ve improved lately after extremely difficult starts, all of them, or at the very least one of them, are going to have to continue to step it up as the regular season looms.

The Mets bullpen is in limbo, and this is going to be a point of contention for the remainder of the Spring.

Today’s game will not be televised, but can be heard locally on WOR 710 AM or on MLB Gameday Audio.