Acting GM happy with Mets roster
PORT ST. LUCIE — Without saying the Mets are finished adding players for the season, acting general manager Zack Scott on Monday indicated the team has about reached that point.
“I feel really good about the roster as it is right now,” Scott said after the Mets’ initial full-squad workout. “I think we’re pretty settled with the 40-man. We may have some other type of non-roster deals and there might be some other opportunities that present themselves during the spring, but I feel very good about the group that we have here right now.”
It’s a group that includes starting pitcher Taijuan Walker, who signed a two-year deal with the club over the weekend. Albert Almora Jr., Kevin Pillar and Jonathan Villar were other depth pieces that arrived in recent weeks. The Mets’ big splashes came earlier in the winter, with the additions of Francisco Lindor, Carlos Carrasco, James McCann and Trevor May, after Marcus Stroman returned on a qualifying offer.
Asked specifically about the bullpen, which added only May and Aaron Loup on major league deals (and lost a potential big piece with Seth Lugo’s elbow surgery that will prevent the right-hander from throwing until at least April), Scott indicated he was content.
“I like what we have right now,” Scott said. “I think there’s guys that probably didn’t have the seasons they wanted to have last year, but I expect good things from them this year.”
➤ Sandy Alderson delivered quite the zinger when asked whether the Mets would watch their former star Yoenis Cespedes work out next month in hopes of securing another MLB contract.
“We’re going to rent horses and ride to the workout,” the Mets president told MLB Network’s Jon Heyman on Monday, making light of Cespedes, the outfielder who doubles as a rancher and rode a horse to Mets spring training in 2016.
The Mets are not expected to reunite with Cespedes, who opted out of last season after famously not showing up to a game in Atlanta.
➤ Dominic Smith, Carlos Carrasco and two other players (whom manager Luis Rojas didn’t name) were absent from the first workout for non-injury reasons.