The New York Mets announced their rotation of starters for the opening weekend of the Grapefruit League. Spring training games are about to start and we can’t hide our excitement about it!
Per Christina de Nicola of MLB.com, right-handers Rick Porcello and Marcus Stroman will start Saturday’s Grapefruit League-opening split-squad games vs. the Marlins and at the Cardinals, respectively. Left-hander Steven Matz will get the nod on Sunday.
The Mets rotation is among the strongest in the National League East. It has reigning two-time Cy Young award winner Jacob deGrom at the top, plus Noah Syndergaard, Stroman, Porcello, Matz, and Michael Wacha.
But the man expected to follow deGrom is Syndergaard. The righty showed up to camp with a ripped physique and a very good mindset.
He threw his first live batting practice of the spring on Wednesday under the focused look of Mets’ manager Luis Rojas. During the session, Thor faced Robinson Cano, Amed Rosario and the team’s third-best prospect per MLB Pipeline Andres Gimenez.
The Mets’ starter is focusing on his slider
During their first matchup, Syndergaard broke Rosario’s bat. Rojas, who had a perfect view of the session because he was watching behind home plate with the protection of a screen, was impressed.
“I saw a slider moving a lot better,” Rojas said to MLB.com. “That’s something good that we’re never going to see from a side angle, and I can actually tell that’s a slider right there. Some of these guys have such electric stuff that you’ve got to look at the radar gun to make sure that’s what that was. Learning their pitches and the action, you can tell now after seeing them that close. I’m looking at that and about what they’re doing, just the little things. It’s been a really good week with the live BPs.”
The slider is instrumental to Syndergaard’s success. He threw it 15.1 percent of the time last season. Thor (and the New York Mets) wants the pitch to regain its bite, as its 2019 version had the lowest pitch value (1.8, per Fangraphs) since 2015.