New York Mets

The Mets’ hope of seeing their dream rotation together at last didn’t make it through spring training. Left-hander Steven

Matz was sidelined by an elbow problem late in camp, sending him to the disabled list to begin the season.

Matz has a history of health issues, and he needed surgery to remove bone spurs from the elbow in September. The 25-yearold from Long Island has a 3.16 ERA in 28 major league starts, but he hasn’t been able to pitch more than 140 innings in a professional season at any level.

Fortunately for the Mets, they have depth in the rotation, some of it discovered and developed

when their starters went through injury after injury in 2016. Robert Gsellman and Seth Lugo pitched extremely well in fill-in roles, and both had outstanding springs (Gsellman for the Mets in the Grapefruit League, Lugo for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic).

However, Lugo began the season on the disabled list because of a sore elbow. Gsellman and Zack

Wheeler won the final two spots in the rotation, behind Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom and Matt Harvey.

As expected, the Mets will be without closer Jeurys Familia in the early part of the season. Familia accepted a 15-game suspension from Major League Baseball in a case arising from a domestic violence incident Oct. 31. Prosecutors in New Jersey dropped charges against Familia, and baseball’s investigation found no evidence of any physical force, but Commissioner Rob Manfred ruled Familia’s conduct “was inappropriate, violated the (league’s) policy and warrants discipline.”