Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic <\/p>\n
HOUSTON \u2014 There\u2019s no way for the Mets to truly replicate what they did a year ago, when they exceeded nearly all expectations under first-year manager Carlos Mendoza.<\/p>\n
From coming back after starting the season 0-5, to the OMG craze, to a late-season push to the postseason that resulted in a run to the NLCS, 2024 was a feel-good story in Queens, punctuated by grabbing Juan Soto away from the Yankees in free agency.<\/p>\n
And now the real work is about to begin.<\/p>\n
The team is set to work out at Daikin (RIP Minute Maid and Enron) Park on Wednesday in advance of Thursday\u2019s season opener.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when Clay Holmes takes the mound for his first start since 2018 \u2014 and just the fifth of his major league career.<\/p>\n
Holmes \u2014 and the rest of the rotation \u2014 is among the question marks for the Mets heading into the season, one in which they\u2019ll be dealing with a playoff-or-bust mentality.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a look at some of the keys to the early part of the season: <\/p>\n
Starting out<\/p>\n
The Mets took a chance on Holmes, a reliable reliever for much of his career with the Yankees, but who lost the closer\u2019s job last season.<\/p>\n
After signing as a free agent, the right-hander impressed this spring, enough so that he got the call for Opening Day.<\/p>\n
Of course, part of the decision to go with Holmes is that the rotation is without other free-agent starters Sean Manaea (recovering from an oblique injury) and Frankie Montas (lat strain).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to see how pitching was going to shake out and getting going, pitching is always tough to stay healthy,\u2019\u2019 Brandon Nimmo said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had a couple of guys go down, but feel like Clay Holmes has been a real nice surprise for us and he\u2019s built up and he is going to be starting Opening Day.\u201d<\/p>\n
President of baseball operations David Stearns had similar thoughts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think some of the adjustments we have seen with Clay, adjusting really well to the longer stints bode well going forward,\u2019\u2019 Stearns said.<\/p>\n
Other question marks in the rotation have also been solid, including right-hander Griffin Canning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been impressed with how Griffin Canning has taken to our organization a little bit,\u2019\u2019 Stearns said. \u201cDavid Peterson and Tylor Megill getting through this [spring] healthy and \u2026 looking really good has been positive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Second coming<\/p>\n
One of the bigger disappointments of last season was the performance of Brett Baty, who lost the starting job at third base to Mark Vientos and spent much of the rest of the season at Triple-A Syracuse.<\/p>\n
Baty entered the spring looking to win a job, but his potential role grew more important when Jeff McNeil went down with an oblique injury, opening up a spot at second base.<\/p>\n
Baty has responded both with his glove and his bat, reminding people why he was a highly regarded prospect before last year\u2019s struggles.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things we wanted to see was how Baty was going to be coming through the spring and he\u2019s answered that emphatically,\u2019\u2019 Nimmo said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a great spring for him, so I am happy for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stearns agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Baty] played well and that is what we\u2019ll take from this: He\u2019s in a really good spot [and] he played well on both sides of the ball,\u2019\u2019 Stearns said. \u201cI think Brett is in a good frame of mind and ready to go and compete. He\u2019s a talented guy, so I think if we keep him in a spot where he can just focus on the moment at hand, he\u2019s going to be in good shape.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dealing with success<\/p>\n
This season, the Mets won\u2019t be able to sneak up on anyone. They\u2019ll try to avoid a similar rough start to the season that nearly derailed them in \u201924.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the biggest thing coming into a new year, a new season, is how guys are going to fit into that locker room,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cNew guys, new faces, some of the guys that we brought back. I think it\u2019s just, \u2018How long is that going to take?\u2019 How is that going to go early in camp? And I think right away, I could tell the new faces were fitting in. That\u2019s a credit to the group in there \u2014 the guys that were here last year \u2014 and they have been here quite a bit now, making sure that they feel welcome here and that is what they have done from Day 1.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was definitely an unknown coming into camp of, \u2018Hey, this is a new team, even though we have similar people,\u2019 \u2019\u2019 Nimmo said. \u201cPeople are a year wiser, a year older, all that stuff. OK, what are we going to get out of it? I have been happily surprised with how this team is shaping up come Opening Day, but ultimately the season will tell us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 Additional reporting by Mike Puma in Port St. Lucie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic HOUSTON \u2014 There\u2019s no way for the Mets to truly replicate what they did a year ago, when they exceeded nearly all expectations under first-year manager Carlos Mendoza. From coming back after starting the season 0-5, to the OMG craze, to a late-season push<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":253072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-253071","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253071"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253073,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253071\/revisions\/253073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}