Short Mets camp would be challenge
Buck Showalter’s introduction to his team will have to wait.
The new Mets manager is anxious to become acquainted with the players he’s been hired to oversee, but under MLB’s lockout policy isn’t allowed such contact. Team employees aren’t even supposed to discuss players with the media during the lockout — Showalter briefly slipped in that regard Tuesday, before catching himself.
Pitching coach Jeremy Hefner is returning (the rest of the coaching staff hasn’t been hired), giving Showalter at least one uniformed source for information.
Showalter’s concern is the lockout, which began Dec. 2 after MLB and the MLBPA failed to reach an accord on a new collective bargaining agreement, will extend deep into the winter or beyond and lead to a shortened spring training.
“It is going to be a challenge, but fortunately nobody is going to have a head start on us,” Showalter said. “My focus right now is making sure — I was talking with Jeremy about it [Monday] — that we’re focused on the shortened spring training potential and the biggest challenge of that is the pitchers.
“I am hoping that doesn’t happen for the Mets fans and for us, it certainly would make spring training a lot easier, but we can’t control it, so we have to prepare for the ‘what ifs’ of the shortened spring training and that is going to be a challenge.”
Starting pitchers Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer and Carlos Carrasco were all impacted by physical ailments last season. DeGrom missed the second half of the season with a lowgrade tear of the ulnar collateral ligament. Scherzer had shoulder soreness that precluded him from starting Game 6 of the NLCS for the Dodgers. Carrasco missed half the season with a torn hamstring and then became aware of a bone fragment in his right elbow (which was surgically removed in October).
“The communication, we’ll catch up with that very quickly — the onus is on us to get that done,” Showalter said. “I want to make the players’ path as easy as possible. But getting a team ready in a potential short spring training, shame on us if we’re not prepared for that when it happens, because usually a normal spring training you have got a buffer period where if you have a setback with a spring training arm or a leg or sore shoulder, you have time to come back and make the start of the season, but if you shorten up spring that buffer or safety net won’t be there. It’s going to be tough. I’m OK with it as long as everybody else is not doing it.”