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Since their inception in 1962, lots of incredible players have donned the orange and blue. Below, the Mets all-time 26-man roster is unveiled.

But first, some rules...

In order to be eligible for the team, a player must have spent a chunk of his career in Queens and experienced a solid part of his peak during that time. That means Pedro Martinez and Nolan Ryan won't be in the starting rotation, and Willie Mays won't be patrolling center field. Meanwhile, Juan Soto doesn't yet qualify.

And now, the Mets' all-time team...

Starting Lineup

Catcher: Mike Piazza

Aside from the ace of the pitching staff, this was the easiest call to make.

While there is sentimentality when it comes to Gary Carter -- who was a co-captain with the Mets, helped them win the 1986 World Series, and is a Hall-of-Famer -- the answer is Piazza.

The greatest hitting catcher ever, who has a Mets cap adorning his plaque in Cooperstown, Piazza hit .296/.373/.542 with 220 homers in 972 games over eight seasons in Queens, was the backstop during two of their most exciting playoff runs, and has his No. 31 retired.

First Baseman: Keith Hernandez

A true difference-maker on both sides of the ball, the arrival of Hernandez via trade in 1983 helped revitalize the franchise.

Hernandez was a clutch performer, team captain, and heart and soul of the mid-to-late '80s squad. Like Piazza's No. 31, Hernandez's No. 17 is retired.

Both Carlos Delgado (who hit 104 homers in four seasons with the Mets) and John Olerud (whose departure after 1999 hurt in a big way) deserve to be mentioned here, but neither played with the Mets long enough to challenge Hernandez for this honor.

Pete Alonso, a five-time All-Star who hit .253/.341/.516 with 264 homers (the Mets' all-time record) in his first seven big league seasons, would've almost certainly grabbed this spot if he remained with the team beyond 2025. But his departure to the Orioles via free agency keeps Hernandez at the top. 

Second Baseman: Edgardo Alfonzo

Part of the Greatest Infield Ever with Olerud, Rey Ordoñez, and Robin Ventura, Alfonzo was the perfect sidekick to Piazza in the late '90s-early 2000s, and put up one of the best offensive seasons ever by a Met.

In 2000, Alfonzo slashed .324/.425/.542 with 25 homers and 40 doubles for a Mets team that made it to the World Series.

Unfortunately, injuries started to derail Alfonzo's career after the 2002 campaign.

Jeff McNeil, a batting champion and Mets mainstay for eight years, once looked poised to overtake Alfonzo. But his offense regressed over his last few seasons in Queens before he was traded to the A's.

Shortstop: Francisco Lindor

In his first five seasons in Queens, Lindor has slashed .273/.342/.475 with 141 homers, 148 doubles, 117 stolen bases, 503 runs scored, and 445 RBI.

During that span, he has been one of the best defensive shortstops in baseball and finished top 10 in MVP voting four times. 

When it comes to electricity on the field in a Mets uniform, there was nothing quite like Jose Reyes from 2005 to 2011, when his mix of speed and extra-base power combined to make him one of the best players in baseball.

But this is now Lindor's spot.

Third Baseman: David Wright

The Captain and a career Met, Wright was on a Hall-of-Fame trajectory when injuries -- including chronic spinal stenosis -- derailed his career when he was in his early 30s. Even with that, he has received enough Hall of Fame votes during his first three years on the ballot to remain on and merit future consideration.

Wright is the Mets' franchise leader in most offensive categories, and his final career totals (even weighed down by his final injury-plagued seasons) are spectacular.

Wright hit .296/.376/.491 with 242 homers, 390 doubles, and 970 RBI in 14 seasons, and his No. 5 was retired during the 2025 season.

Left Fielder: Cleon Jones

An integral part of the 1969 Miracle Mets, Jones spent 12 of his 13 big league seasons in Queens, hitting .281/.340/.406 in a shade under 1,200 games played with the team.

Jones also caught the final out of the 1969 World Series in left field, clenching it moments before thousands of fans rushed the field.

Barring something strange happening, this will be Juan Soto's spot at some point. But he doesn't have the Mets track record just yet.

Center Fielder: Carlos Beltran

Arguably the greatest two-way player in Mets history, Beltran was one of the best fielding center fielders and an elite all-around hitter during his time in Queens from 2005 to 2011.

Beltran's smooth style was a joy to watch, and his 2006 season -- when he slugged close to .600 and crushed a then-team-record-tying 41 homers -- was incredible.

He is now back with the team in a front office capacity.

Beltran was recently inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame, and he will be wearing a Mets cap on his plaque, becoming just the third player ever (along with Piazza and Tom Seaver) to have that distinction. 

The Mets will be retiring Beltran's No. 15 during the 2026 season.

Right Fielder: Darryl Strawberry

A Rookie of the Year and seven-time All-Star with the Mets during his eight seasons in Queens from 1983 to 1990, Strawberry's sweet left-handed swing electrified Shea Stadium and helped New York turn the corner on the way to contention.

In a different world, Strawberry stays with the Mets after the 1990 season instead of bolting for the Dodgers, avoids off-field issues, and continues on his course to the Hall of Fame.

In this world, we'll have to settle for his still-tremendous Mets career that included a club-record 252 home runs.

His No. 18 is now retired. 

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*With the designated hitter now in the National League, we'll eventually add a DH to the starting lineup of the all-time team. But we're not there yet.

Starting Rotation

1. Tom Seaver

The Franchise, Seaver was not only the best Mets pitcher ever but one of the best pitchers in the history of baseball.

Seaver won three Cy Young awards with the Mets (1969, 1973, and 1975), and helped lead New York to the World Series title in 1969 and within a game of a title in 1973.

In 12 seasons with the Mets, Seaver had a 2.57 ERA and 1.08 WHIP while fanning 2,541 batters in 3,045.2 innings.

2. Jacob deGrom

Unlike Seaver, deGrom came out of nowhere -- a converted shortstop who was initially called up to help the bullpen in 2014 but instead immediately became one of the best starting pitchers in baseball.

Winning back-to-back Cy Young awards in 2018 and 2019, deGrom became the first Met to accomplish that feat. And then he got better, with his fastball routinely hitting triple-digits and slider reaching as high as 96 mph.

In nine seasons with New York -- with the final two being marred be injury -- deGrom's numbers were staggering: A 2.52 ERA, 0.998 WHIP, and 1,607 strikeouts in 1,326.0 innings.

DeGrom had a chance to supplant Seaver as the ace on this list, but that went out the window when he left via free agency following the 2022 season to join the Texas Rangers.

Still, deGrom's No. 48 should be retired at Citi Field when his career is over.

3. Dwight Gooden

The "K Korner" was born at Shea Stadium when Gooden burst onto the scene, and he spun two of the most dominant seasons ever in 1984 and 1985.

In '85, Gooden won the Cy Young after putting up this ridiculousness as a 20-year-old: 1.53 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, and 268 strikeouts in 276.2 innings.

Like Strawberry, it's hard not to wonder what could've been with Gooden, whose battles with substance abuse began to severely impact his career in 1987.

Also like Strawberry, Gooden's number was recently retired. 

4. Jerry Koosman

Seaver's wingman, Koosman -- whose No. 36 was retired in 2021 -- was a force in his own right during the 12 years he spent with the Mets from 1967 to 1978 -- posting a 3.09 ERA and 1.22 WHIP in over 2,500 innings.

His most dominant stretch came from 1968 to 1971, and included tossing a complete game in Game 5 of the 1969 World Series as the Mets won their first title.

5. Sid Fernandez

Fernandez is often overlooked, but he shouldn't be. And he eked out David Cone for this spot.

During his 10 seasons with the Mets from 1984 to 1993, Fernandez and his "rising fastball" posted a 3.14 ERA and 1.11 WHIP while striking out 1,449 batters in 1,584.2 innings.

Fernandez wasn't in the Mets' 1986 postseason rotation that featured Bob Ojeda, Dwight Gooden, and Ron Darling, but he made arguably the most important relief appearance in team history in Game 7 of the World Series against the Red Sox.

Taking over for Darling with the Mets trailing 3-0 in the fourth inning, Fernandez fired 2.1 innings of no-hit ball while walking one and striking out four to keep New York in the game.

All-Time Bullpen

Closer: Edwin Diaz

Sound the trumpets.

Diaz, who persevered after a rough first season with the Mets in 2019, spun one of the best seasons any reliever has ever had in 2022.

In 62 innings over 61 appearances, Diaz -- utilizing his dastardly fastball/slider combination -- posted a 1.31 ERA (0.90 FIP) and 0.83 WHIP with 118 strikeouts (an eye-popping 17.1 per nine). Following the season, he signed a five-year extension that made him the highest-paid closer ever.

From 2020 to 2025, Diaz was a dominant force for New York, with a 2.36 ERA (2.15 FIP) and 0.97 WHIP while striking out 439 batters -- a rate of 14.6 per nine. 

Setup Man: Billy Wagner

During his three full seasons with the Mets, Wagner was his regular unbelievable self, firing 100 mph fastballs as he posted a 2.37 ERA and 1.05 WHIP while striking out 230 batters in 189.2 innings.

Middle Relievers: John Franco, Armando Benitez, Jesse Orosco, Jeurys Familia, and Tug McGraw

The kid from Brooklyn, Franco had a 3.10 ERA in 14 seasons with the Mets and amassed 276 saves along the way, eventually becoming a setup man during a career that lasted 21 years.

Benitez gets a bad rap and will never be forgiven for blowing Game 1 of the 2000 World Series, but he was mostly dominant as a Met. Look at his numbers. Seriously, go look.

Orosco was splendid during his eight seasons with the Mets, posting a 2.73 ERA and closing out the NLCS and World Series in 1986.

Familia had a 3.27 ERA over 10 seasons with the Mets (with a brief trip to Oakland in the middle of that stint) and led the league with 51 saves in 2016. 

McGraw was one of the glue guys for New York from 1965 to 1974.

Long Reliever: Rick Aguilera

Aguilera was a starter/reliever hybrid for the Mets from 1985 to 1988 before becoming a full-time reliever in 1989 and eventually moving on to the Minnesota Twins, where he became one of the best relievers in baseball. He's the perfect man for this job.

Bench

Before discussing the bench, it should be pointed out that the original version of this roster had a bench that was made up of players who were often used in a reserve role -- not the next best player at each position. You can see that version here.

But, since so many clamored for a bench that was the next best player at each position, it's below.

Catcher: Gary Carter

This was the easiest bench selection to make.

Carter's tenure in Queens spanned 1985 to 1989, and he was a four-time All-Star during that time. He had huge seasons in 1985 and 1986 (when he finished in the top six in MVP voting each year), and was part of the heart and soul of the '86 championship squad.

First baseman: Pete Alonso

With Alonso's Mets tenure over, he takes this spot. 

The other main candidates were John Olerud and Carlos Delgado.

With the Mets rom 1997 to 1999, Olerud slashed .315/.425/.501, which included batting .354/.447/.551 in 1998. Olerud's .354 average in '98 is the Mets' single-season record.

Delgado slugged 104 homers for the Mets from 2006 to 2009. 

Infielder: Jose Reyes

A typical Reyes season during his peak meant a high batting average and on base percentage along with 15-to-20 triples, 30-plus doubles, 55-plus stolen bases, and the daily sight of him turning singles into doubles and doubles into triples.

The gear Reyes hit when rounding second and heading to third was a sight to see.

Outfielder: Brandon Nimmo

If not for the recent trade that sent Nimmo to the Rangers, he soon could've found herself in one of the starting outfield spots on the all-time team. 

In 10 seasons with the Mets, Nimmo hit .262/.364/.438 (.802 OPS) and was one of the clubhouse leaders.

Cliff Floyd was also in the conversation here, as was Michael Conforto, whose Mets tenure is woefully underappreciated.

Pinch-hitter: Rusty Staub

There's an argument here for Matt Franco, and a case could be made for Lenny Harris. But the pinch-hitter on the Mets' all-time team is Le Grand Orange, who spent two chunks of his terrific career with the Mets -- one in the 70s and another in the 80s.

The Mets host the Cardinals on Friday at 1:10 p.m. on SNY.

Here's what to know about the game and how to watch...

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Mets Notes

• The Mets are continuing to trim their roster ahead of Opening Day, with the final spots in the bullpen and on the bench still up for grabs
• New York completes its Grapefruit League schedule on Sunday

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Today's Lineups

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For more information on how to stream Mets games on SNY, please click here.

Mookie Betts is entering the 2026 season off the heels of a career-worst year offensively and he is determined to get back to his MVP form. Even with all the accolades, of which include winning four World Series titles, he still demands more of himself. That also factors into the way he trains.

His teammate, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, has always had a very unorthodox training regiment, which features javelin tosses and arched back exercises. In an attempt to broaden his horizons, Betts has started to take a page out of Yamamoto’s book by throwing javelins as well, which he has credited as having opened his mind and game to a new perspective, per Jack Vita of the Los Angeles Times.

“I’m not fully in his whole routine,” Betts said of Yada, who is often referred to as Yada Sensei. “But I wake up every morning and do my stretch routine that Sensei showed me, throwing the javelins every day. I think throwing javelins is the reason why I can make a play in the hole like that and throw it in the air on a line. I’m really grateful for Yoshi and Sensei, because they have definitely changed my perspective, changed my life, changed my game.”

The changes have resulted positively so far, as Betts is slashing .304/.385/.478 with a home run through 26 plate appearances this spring while continuing to improve defensively at shortstop.

As for Yamamoto, he was ranked as the fourth-best pitcher among ace-quality arms by Andy McCullough, Will Sammon, and Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic. Shohei Ohtani ranked ninth on the list and Blake Snell ranked 12th.

PROSPECT WATCH

The Dodgers play the Chicago White Sox as part of this year’s spring breakout, and the name drawing the most hype out of the Dodgers’ system is their no. 1 prospect, outfielder Josue De Paula. Jim Callis of MLB.com also highlights right-hander Marlon Nieves as someone to keep an eye on for Saturday’s game, with the Dodgers vice player of player development raving about his potential.

“Marlon flew under the radar, even a little bit internally,” Rhymes said. “Once he went to Rancho and was pretty dominant there, that was eye-opening. His stuff is really good. His cutter and slider are excellent pitches, and that two-seamer has such velocity. He has a real feel for execution and manipulation. He’s a hell of an athlete, such an easy, whippy thrower.”

The 20-year-old right-hander logged 84 innings between rookie ball and Single-A Rancho Cucamonga, posting a 2.79 ERA and 1.119 WHIP with 94 strikeouts and 44 walks.

Good morning, baseball fans!

The San Francisco Giants are planning to hold their 2026 Wall of Fame ceremony for some of our most beloved former Giants players from the World Series championship era this season on Saturday, August 8th.

Joining the Wall of Fame this year will be Forever Giants Buster Posey, Brandon Crawford, Brandon Belt, Pablo Sandoval and Joe Panik! That’s one heck of a group of players being celebrated, and definitely a game to mark on your calendars.

Fans in attendance for the game will receive a Wall of Fame poster giveaway and will want to get to the game early for the ceremony. You can get your tickets over on the Giants’ website.

I would love to attend this game, sadly I’ve already bought my tickets for this year to attend Belt’s celebration game next month. But hopefully we’ll have some of the McCovey Chronicles community in attendance to report back!

After loading up with some new talent following a disappointing, playoff-less 2005 season, the Minnesota Twins opened 2006 north of the border in Toronto and rode an early-season rollercoaster for the first few weeks.

A classic Johan Santana vs Roy Halladay clash christened the new 162-game slate on April 4, and the home Jays got the better of the visiting Twins 6-3. Shannon Stewart and Tony Batista bashed bombs, at least, and the Twins evened the series the next day with a lopsided 13-4 drubbing of the Birds—16 hits (homers from Stewart, Torii Hunter, & Luis Rodriguez) supporting a strong Brad Radke start.

But in the series finale, Carlos Silva couldn’t scatter 5 H & 2 BB as masterfully as usual and MN went through customs to Cleveland as a losing ball club.

Hoping to get a leg up on the division rival Clevelanders, the Twins…did not. Kyle Lohse (4.2 IP, 11 H, 8 ER) & Matt Guerrier (2.1 IP, 2 ER) were disastrous in the Jacobs Field home opener, with Travis Hafner hammering two homers and former Twin Casey Blake blasting another en route to a 11-6 Tribe triumph.

Game two saw 24-year old fifth starter Scott Baker twirl a nice road tilt—but only receive 6 H of support in a 3-0 defeat. It was more of the same the next day for the CLE sweep: only 4 MN hits as Jake Westbrook (7.1 IP, 1 ER) out-dueled Santana (5.1 IP, 3 ER). Uh oh. After two series, the ‘06 Twins were 1-5 and the should-have-been-reigning AL Cy Young had been beaten twice.

Fortunately, some Dome cookin’ was just what the doctor ordered.

In the Dome Opener versus the Oakland Athletics on April 11, Justin Morneau & Batista homered in support of the metronomic Radke (7 IP, 4 ER) to blow the 48,911 paid out the doors with a smile over the 7-6 victory.

A 13-hit, multi-homer (Morneau & Hunter) pounding of Esteban Loaiza backed up Silva (2 homers to Nick Swisher, but otherwise solid) for the 6-5 game-and-series victory the next day, while 12 more hits (HR from Hunter & Michael Cuddyer) including a Nick Punto triple (I can picture the headfirst dive into the third sack!) secured the sweep behind Lohse’s strong bump turn (6 IP, 2 ER).

The New York Yankees were under the Teflon next and threatened to ruin the good vibes as quickly as they had ruined the 2003 & 2004 postseasons for Twins fans.

But not this time:

A four-game home winning streak was achieved when Scott Baker out-dueled Mike Mussina 5-1 with the 6-7-8-9 batters Morneau, Batista, Lew Ford, & Juan Castro combining to go 7-14.

The contest on 4/15/06 was an all-time Twins/Yankees classic (in the good way, for once!). Down 6-5 heading into B9 with Mariano Rivera on the mound, one almost couldn’t blame the 42,316 Twins Territory acolytes for gathering their possessions in anticipation of a quick exit. But Luis Castillo singled—then the same from Joe Mauer. Let’s not get too antsy to beat the traffic! But whiffs from Rondell White & Hunter quickly reduced the Twins to their final out. It took exactly one pitch to decide it—that being Mo’s first offering to Morneau which the future Twins Hall-of-Famer blooped over the head of NYY 2B Robinson Cano. Moving on contact, Castillo & Mauer skittered around the bases to score the tying and winning runs—a 6-5 victory over the Yankees and a 5-game winning streak to become a winning ballclub (6-5) on the young season!

Alas, the momentum would be curtailed the next day when Bombers Jason Giambi, Cano, & future Minnesota Timberwolves owner Alex Rodríguez pummeled Radke & Guerrier to the tune of a 9-3 defeat.

But roughly two weeks into the 2006 season, the Twins had overcome an initial setback and reset the needle on the campaign to regain AL Central supremacy.

Introduction

As part of my 6 days in Jupiter, I collected lots of observations and I’ve given to breaking them down and passing them along in manageable (ie. readable) chunks. I passed along some nuggets in game recaps if they were short and relevant to pre-, in- or post-game happenings. Two weeks ago, I published an article that summarizes what I saw on the back fields in more or less a stream of consciousness format. I wrote on shorts on Urias and the ABS last week. This article and one later today are the end of this series. Spoiler Alert: I think I saved the best for last. Good thing, since camp will be closed soon.

Short Topic of the Day

No, I’m not going to fret about the slow start the overall offense has encountered in Jupiter. Lots of variables that won’t be present a month from now complicate any analysis one might attempt on what is already small sample size. Several guys, Herrera first and foremost, are coming off surgery and may take all spring or more to get their timing down. Also, it is Roger Dean Stadium. Like in the last 10 years, only 1 team has hit over .250 in spring at this place and that was the power-laden 2022 team. It is hard to hit here. Although, I will observe that the shortening of the fences and the newly constructed buildings in right-center at least appear to have changed the dynamics, particularly how balls carry to left. I anticipate a shift in park factors coming.

I’ve seen a lot of commenters speculating about the line-up construction, centering on who should lead-off. From what I could discern in camp, it looks like the shape of the line-up may well start like this:

Against right-handers – Wetherholt (1), Herrera (2), Burleson (3)…

Against left-handers – Winn (1), Burleson (2), Herrera (3)…

I’m curious to how JJW adjusts to left-handers. If he isn’t super-splitty, I could see him batting 2nd and pushing Burly to clean-up.

If Gorman hits enough to play, it seems like he projects to the clean-up spot or fifth in the order. After that, it looks kind of grim. What can we expect offensively from Walker in right or Scott in center?

Who is in left is a big question mark until Nootbaar gets healthy, but odds are it will be a defense heavy platoon, although Velazquez is a wild card here. Can Church hit enough to carry this load, in R-L platoon? Or might they just roll Velazquez out there more regularly and rotate Church in defensively later in games? I’d suspect more of the latter, although if Church (or anyone for that matter) gets rolling offensively, they will play a lot.

I do wonder if Crooks can hit enough to get a larger share of time behind the plate than anticipated. I suspect that once the Herrera situation clarifies, we may see a mid-season transition of Crooks to MLB.

It seems most reasonable to expect that the offense is going to come up short in the power department. OBP and BsR would seem to be keys to creating and sustaining some offensive momentum. I didn’t see Torres breaking camp with the team (he was returned to MiLB last week), but I suspect at some point they are going to bring his OBP up to MLB and see if it plays.

One item I’ve heard from many is the general perception that most of the loud offense in Spring Training emanated from players not anticipated to break camp with the team (Crooks, Baez, Davis, Gazdar, Rodriguez to name a few who struck balls well). This may be applicable to more than the offense, but I’d say one thing we learned this spring is that the Cardinals upper-minors’ players are better than other teams upper-minors’ players. That is consistent with recent system ratings. Hope is on the horizon.

Overall, I’m preparing for a pretty rough ride offensively, at least at the outset. While I think we all can see that the offense that will break camp is likely to struggle mightily with consistently scoring runs, I have some hope that it will improve as the year progresses.

The way I look at it is … If guys like Gorman and Walker improve, then the offense will float with their improvement. If they do not improve, then they are likely to run out of runway and get moved aside. Each has a player waiting in the wings (Saggese and Baez), who would get a shot and hopefully offer another pathway to offensive improvement. I also suspect that once they determine a pathway for Herrera and get him on board, then Crooks may re-appear to offer an additional offensive boost. Last, Nootbaar should roll in sometime (I’m guessing late May, early June), offering another boost. None of the boosts individually should be dramatic, but 4 incremental improvements could begin to add up to something a fair bit better overall.

Consider this as a potential mid-July line-up…I think you could imagine 8 of those guys being 95 wRC+ or better. That would be an average offense. With their pitching, that might be enough.

2B – Wetherholt

DH – Herrera

LF – Nootbaar

1B – Burleson

RF – Baez

3B – Gorman (or Urias or Saggese)

SS – Winn

C – Crooks

CF – Scott II

Some people might wonder why they just don’t start out this way. Except that isn’t a realistic option. Reality is, Herrera and Nootbaar still need to get fully healthy and full-go. Baez and Crooks could use more time at Memphis (prudently so, IMO). And management needs more time to fully determine if some of the other alternatives might actually produce even greater than average outcomes.

Despite taking a step forward in his sophomore season, Jackson Holliday comes into the 2026 season with plenty of questions still to answer.

The former No.1 pick has yet to take the step we saw from Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman in their second seasons. That being said, describing Holliday’s 2025 season as “bad” would be taking things a step too far.

Among primary 2B last year, Holliday finished seventh in hits (142), eighth in home runs (17), seventh in stolen bases (17), and sixth in walks (56).  However, his triple slash of .242/.314/.375 certainly left something to be desired. His advanced numbers were also a little lacking, where stats like xwOBA, xBA, xSLG and Average Exit Velocity were all in the 30-something percentile range.

Judging Holliday is a weird mix of reminding yourself that he’s only 22, while also acknowledging the first 700+ ABs of his career haven’t matched the hype of a former No. 1 overall prospect. When the Orioles were making their decision at the top of the 2022 draft, Holliday was lumped in with fellow high schoolers Druw Jones, Termarr Johnson and Elijah Green. Four years later, Holliday is entering his third season in the majors, while the other three have zero ABs above Double-A.

Still, Holliday feels like a player who is still more potential than production. He has all the tools to challenge Ketel Marte, Brice Turang and Jazz Chisholm Jr. for the title of best offensive 2B in baseball. At age 21, the former No.1 overall pick nearly put up a 20/20 season, joining Chisholm, Turang and Matt McLain as the only 2B with 15+ HR and 15+ SB. And yet, inconsistent contact quality and stretches of questionable swing decisions held him back from utilizing the tools he showed throughout the minors.

Compared to MLB’s best 2B, Holliday is ahead of schedule in his career. At 21, Marte was a part-time player with a .753 OPS for the Diamondbacks. Turang and Chisholm were still waiting to make their MLB debuts. The Orioles’ young infielder, on the other hand, is entering his second season as a full-time starter, looking to take the leap from average starter to real contributor.

However, the start of that leap will be delayed after Holliday broke a bone in his hand during live batting practice last month. Per Baltimore Sun reporter Jacob Calvin Murphy, Holliday hopes to be back at the beginning of April after a brief rehab assignment. His timeline should be similar to Gunnar Henderson from last season, when the star SS missed the first two series of the season with a rib injury

One area where Holliday stands to improve the most is against fastballs. Last season, he hit .220 against four seamers and .229 against all fastballs. His -8 Run Value against four seam fastballs was the worst among all qualified Orioles and put him 337th out of 355 qualified major leaguers.

Holliday’s struggles with velocity show in his batted ball profile, as his 50.6% ground ball rate was more than six points higher than the MLB, while his 20.2% line drive rate was nearly five points below league average. Being late on fastballs makes it harder to drive the ball, leading to weaker contact, more ground balls and lower expected averages.

If the 22-year-old can get back on time against heaters, it could lead to a big jump in his offensive output. Projections are split on what to expect from Holliday in his third season.

• ZiPS: .247 average, .328 OBP, .404 SLG, 19 HR, 16 SB, 69 RBIs
• Baseball Reference: .244 average, .316 OBP, .390 SLG, 16 HR, 13 SB, 54 RBI

FanGraphs’ ZiPS model is much more bullish on Holliday’s outlook for the 2026 season. It projects a 42-point jump in the infielder’s OPS, along with career highs in HR and RBI. Baseball Reference, on the other hand, projects only a 16-point increase in his OPS while taking a step back in the HR and SB departments.

The arrival of Blaze Alexander could provide the competition that gives Holliday the push he needs. Alexander figures to be the Opening Day 2b as Holliday rehabs his hand injury. Once back healthy, it may become a platooon at 2B. The second-generation MLB Holliday is a career .247 hitter against righties, but only hits .180 against southpaws.

Alexander hits .269 against lefties with a .800 OPS, potentially forcing Holliday to the bench against LHPs. Losing his ABs against lefties may push Holliday to lock in a try and earn back his full-time starting role.

At one point not long ago, people thought of Holliday alongside the likes of Henderson and Adley Rutschman—the trio seen as the foundation of the Orioles’ future success. With the additions of Peter Alonso and Taylor Ward, as well as the ascension of Samuel Basallo, Holliday has slipped down the pecking order to the ranks of role player. And yet, 2026 gives the young Holliday a chance to set his career on a trajectory in line with his considerable talents.

Meet the Mets

Legendary Mets broadcaster Howie Rose announced that the 2026 season will be his last, as he prepares for retirement following several decades of incredible work.

As you’d expect, there were plenty of reactions and statements in the wake of Howie’s announcement.

Mets pitching prospects Jack Wenninger and Jonathan Santucci were the stars of the show in the team’s Spring Breakout game, a 2-0 loss to the Rays’ roster of prospects.

Francisco Alvarez left the Mets’ major league spring training game early last night because of back tightness.

Having optioned Ronny Mauricio to Triple-A Syracuse yesterday, the Mets plan to play Bo Bichette at shortstop today—his longstanding position before signing with the team—presumably in case he needs to play a little bit of the position as the Mets don’t have a true shortstop on their projected bench.

Mauricio wasn’t the only player cut from big league camp, as pitchers Joey Gerber, Mike Baumann, and Brandon Waddell joined him.

Craig Kimbrel’s contractual out was yesterday, but he wasn’t expected to exercise it as he and the Mets figure out what the Opening Day roster will look like.

Nolan McLean would say yes to pitching in the World Baseball Classic again in the future if he’s invited to do so.

Spekaing of McLean, FanGraphs wrote that he looks unhittable.

Around the National League East

Braves outfielder Jurickson Profar, who was suspended for half of the 2025 season for a positive PED test, will serve a full 162-game suspension this season for his second such positive test, as his appeal did not result in any reduction of the suspension.

Battery Power wonders if it’s time to jump on the Didier Fuentes hype train.

The Phillies are getting closer to finalizing their roster.

Federal Baseball highlights the Nationals’ very tough schedule to start the 2026 season.

Karson Milbrandt struck out six Astros prospects in three innings, a standout performance at the Marlins’ Spring Breakout game.

Around Major League Baseball

Venezuela celebrated its WBC championship with an epic parade in Caracas.

The WBC’s success might lead to a move that puts the competition in the middle of the MLB season rather than before it. That concept would mimic the format used by the best soccer leagues in the world, which regularly take breaks for players to participate in international play.

Trey Yesavage, who starred for the Blue Jays in their ALCS run just a few months ago, will open the season on the injured list with a shoulder impingement.

The Giants announced that Hayden Birdsong will undergo Tommy John surgery.

Here’s how Brent Rooker became an All-Star slugger.

Major League Baseball continued to embrace betting on the sport with a foray into prediction markets, a move that runs counter to its milquetoast efforts to curb pitch-level betting.

Yesterday at Amazin’ Avenue

The Mets have 64 seasons under their belt, and Linus Lawrence took the opportunity to make a March Madness bracket featuring each of those teams and having them play through the full tournament in OOTP.

Allison McCague previewed Francisco Lindor’s 2026 season.

This Date in Mets History

On this date in 1961, the Yankees officially announced that the Mets would not be playing their home games at Yankee Stadium, leaving the franchise to play its first two seasons at the Polo Grounds.

I’m a bit stubborn about injuries, particularly with pitchers. One injury riddled season is par for the course for pitching prospects, and we don’t want to move pitchers way up and down the rankings, changing grades constantly unless there’s sustained growth or a sustained issue. Unless a pitcher becomes a regular feature on the injured list, I take it as a matter of course that they’re all going to have an injury year on the path to the major leagues. Jaden Hamm was a borderline top 100 prospect coming into 2025, but he had a pretty brutal year in the injury and performance department. Still, since there was nothing requiring surgical intervention and we don’t really have any information on his injured list stint to work from, we’ll hold on him and expect a bounce back season in 2026.

The Tigers nabbed Hamm with their fifth round pick in 2023, signing the Tennessee native out of Middle Tennessee State for $397,500, just a little under slot value. In college, Hamm was a pretty raw product until his junior year when his stuff made a leap forward. Even so, he didn’t use his high IVB fourseamer to good effect by pitching up in the zone, and that was one of the first big steps for him going from a solid, if unheralded college pitcher to a well regarded prospect. The Tigers sent him out to High-A West Michigan in 2024 with instructions to start pounding the top of the strike zone and no other major changes, and Hamm shredded hitters en route to a Midwest League Pitcher of the Year award.

Hamm’s 30.6 percent strikeout rate was impressive, and he also limited walks and home runs, putting up a 2.64 ERA with a 3.09 FIP. Other than some minor work to tune up his delivery and instructions to throw his fastball up at the top of the zone a lot more, the Tigers hadn’t even tinkered with him much.

Hamm was sitting at 93 mph and touching 96 in West Michigan, and routinely topping 20-21 inches of induced vertical break out of his high arm slot. His 80-81 mph curveball was of the overhand, 12-6 variety with plenty of depth. When he established the fourseamer up, hitters struggled to lay off the curveball, and he got better and better at dropping it off the eye line of the fastball and landing it on the bottom rail for called strikes as the year went along. His circle change had good velocity separation, typically 83-84 mph, and while the movement was pretty pedestrian, Hamm’s delivery and high slot made it difficult to pick up the changeup as well and it really falls off the table. The depth of those secondary offerings, playing off the steady diet of high fastballs, gave hitters fits. Both pitches will flash plus at their best.

All this was enough to get Hamm into the 45+ tier on several sites, with predictions that he’d be a top 100 prospect by the end of 2025. The 6’1” right-hander needed to keep adding strength and flexibility. With long legs for his height and less than ideal athleticism, his delivery was a bit stiff, with a short stride and a long arm path that was sometimes tricky for him to sync up. Hamm reaches his arm back, dips, and then whips his arm over the top and through with a lot extension, rather than keeping it folded and using his drive down the mound to generate his power. It’s a little bit of a throw back. However, while that often triggers a high relief risk tag, location hasn’t been much of a problem for him and he consistently throws strikes and works the ball well to both sides of the plate.

What Hamm needed was to develop a harder breaking ball to give him a weapon in between the 93-94 mph fastball and the low 80’s curve and circle changeup. Hamm and the Tigers worked on a slider last offseason to give him something breaking away from right-handed hitters, and reports indicated him making progress with the pitch and looking good in camp. He threw some good ones in 2025. It started out more cutterish, but Hamm was able to start getting more depth and developing it into a mid 80’s gyro slider. The velocity issues tended to overshadow everything and he still leaned on his curve and changeup in most outings, but the slider looked pretty solid on the rare occasions he leaned into it after returning from injury in August and September.

Things quickly went south for Hamm in 2025 after a few good starts to begin the year. His velocity flucutated wildly for a few starts in May, and we didn’t see many mid 90’s fastballs. He was still getting a similar rate of whiffs compared to his High-A work, but hitters were having a lot more success putting the ball in play with two strikes. Hamm managed to keeping throwing a solid ratio of strikes with all his pitches, but he just looked out of sync much of the time. To his credit he didn’t fall apart, and was rarely wild at all, but he struggled more to put hitters away and he just wasn’t repeating his delivery with the same consistency he had in 2024.

In late June, the Tigers shut him down for a month with an undisclosed injury. He returned for a few short outings in late July, and then settled back in and finished out the season, but never really looked back in form. His ability to get whiffs and weak contact in the air with high fastballs kept him from getting shelled out of games, but from outing to outing his performance was pretty inconsistent and his mistakes were getting hit quite a bit harder. Worse, Hamm was still averaging 89-90 mph in a few outings, and 91-92 mph in his better ones.

The Tigers unwillingness to report on injuries makes the situation tricky to evaluate. Clearly they didn’t have him trying to pitch through an injury, but the velocity drop over the course of the season was striking. If Hamm had shoulder trouble, or if he’d even blown out his UCL, explanations would be simpler. In some ways, his profile would be less affected nationally if there was a straightforward issue to pin the loss of velo and inconsistency on. What is clear is that the fastball velocity has to return or his profile is really going to suffer. He doesn’t have to build up to 95-96 mph all the time to be an effective major league starter. The movement alone plays up quite a bit. But he can’t sit 90-92 mph and thrive as a starter either.

Right now, Hamm’s status is very up in the air. He was young on draft day, and he’s still only 23 years old, so there’s time to put 2025 behind him and get back on track. If his velocity is back up after an offseason’s rest and re-conditioning, it’s game on. Hamm’s distinctive delivery takes some athleticism to time up, and it would help him to keep building strength and flexiblity in his lower half to help power his delivery and smooth out his footstrike.

While the circumstances make him tricky to evaluate heading into the season, the equation here is pretty simple. If Hamm gets his velocity back, the fastball will play in the big leagues and gives him a strong base to work from. Hamm already throws enough strikes to work in a relief role even if he can’t hold up to a starter’s workload consistently. At times he threw some good sliders as he worked on that pitch, and the curveball and changeup give him a solid pitch mix to work with, but the whole profile revolves around having a dominant riding fourseamer for everything else to play against.

For now, we’ll put 2025 in the rear view mirror and wait to see how Hamm looks like spring. If he’s really 90-91 mph now, he’s in trouble, but I don’t want to dump him way down our board and then turn right around and call false alarm if his velo is back where it should be early this season. Without any hard injury information to attribute the down year to, it’s impossible to make an educated guess. He’ll return to Erie and try to settle in there and make the jump to Triple-A late in the season if things go well. If the fourseamer is back in form, Hamm will go right back to profiling as an interesting potential mid-rotation arm with a group of pretty good secondary pitches. That fastball also gives him a nice floor as a potentially dominant reliever as a fall back plan. If the velocity isn’t there and he struggles again, all bets are off and his stock is going to drop like a stone.