Morning Briefing: World Baseball Classic Starts This Week

Good morning, Mets fans! The Mets have 24 days to cut 44 players.

Tyrone Taylor and Chris Suero (No. 13 Mets prospect on MLB Pipeline) each homered and Yonatan Henriquez walked it off with a two-out single for a 4-3 victory over the Astros on Sunday. Henriquez is a 21-year-old OF-3B who hit eight homers, stole 33 bases and posted a .749 OPS in 104 games at Low-A St. Lucie last season.

In his second spring training outing, Clay Holmes threw four innings of one-run ball. Jack Wenninger, Mets prospect No. 11 on MLB Pipeline, walked five in 1 2/3 innings and was tagged for two runs. The Mets are 5-3-1 in Grapefruit League play.

The Mets will host Team Nicaragua in an exhibition game on Tuesday at 1:10 p.m. ET at Clover Park in Port St. Lucie and Team Israel at 1:10 p.m. ET on Wednesday. The next regular Mets spring training game is on Thursday vs. the Nationals at 1:05 p.m. ET at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches in West Palm Beach.

The days off will give those Mets participating in the World Baseball Classic time to report to their teams. WBC games are taking place in Miami, Houston, San Juan and Tokyo, starting on Wednesday. The Mets have 18 players, major and minor leaguers included, playing in the WBC. Holmes and Nolan McLean are playing for Team USA, Juan Soto and Huascar Brazobán are on Team Dominican Republic and Mark Vientos is representing Nicaragua.

Latest Mets News

The Mets optioned RHP Alex Carrillo to Triple-A Syracuse and reassigned lefties Anderson Severino and Matt Turner to minor-league camp. By MMO’s Mike Mayer’s count, 70 players remain in major-league camp. How many can you name?

The Mets and RHP Dan Hammer agreed on a two-year, minor-league deal, per Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. Hammer, 28, pitched to a 6.57 ERA in 38 1/3 innings at Double-A Montgomery (Rays) last season. He struck out 40 and walked 29.

One day before the 10-year anniversary of her passing, St. John’s University will honor the life of Shannon Forde during Tuesday’s men’s basketball game at Madison Square Garden against Georgetown, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reported. Forde was a 1994 SJU graduate who went on to work for 22 years in the Mets’ media relations department. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012 and worked as long as she could before passing away on March 4, 2016. Forde’s family will be presented with a St. John’s basketball jersey from alum John Franco and Ed Kull, the school’s athletics director.

Mike Petriello of MLB.com thinks the NL East could be a four-team race, with the Marlins set to surprise. He writes that the Mets, Phillies and Braves all have risks in their starting rotations.

Latest MLB News

Konnor Griffin, the 19-year-old Pirates prospect ranked No. 1 in baseball by MLB Pipeline, hit his third home run of the spring on Sunday.

The Cardinals extended manager Carlos Marmol‘s contract for two years including a club option for 2029.

Marlins pitching prospect Thomas White will be out up to four weeks with a right oblique strain.

Latest on MMO

James Villani has more on the walk-off win over the Astros. Cristian Pache is 8-for-11 this spring.

Robert Colonna continues our WBC previews with the scoop on Team Canada, which includes Prince George, British Columbia, native Jared Young.

Alexis Farinacci has the details on Tobias Myers‘ second spring outing. He is working on his slider.

On This Date in Mets History

1966: MLB Commissioner William Eckert voids a contract Tom Seaver signed with the Braves because of a rule that barred college players from signing with clubs after the start of their collegiate season. Seaver’s USC Trojans played a couple of exhibition games prior to the draft. The Mets would ultimately win a three-team lottery among teams willing to match the Braves’ offer. The Phillies and Cleveland were the other two teams in the lottery.

2005: The Washington Nationals play the franchise’s first spring training game, beating Tom Glavine and the Mets, 5-3. Glavine also pitched for the Mets in the final game in Monteal Expos franchise history the previous October.

2006: Bret Boone, who hit 252 home runs over a 14-year career, retires at Mets camp before the first spring training game is played. He was set to compete for the second base job with Kazuo Matsui, Anderson Hernandez and Jeff Keppinger.

Born on This Date: Dom Hamel (1999), Chico Fernández (1932).

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