This story was excerpted from Anthony DiComo's Mets Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- For a beat writer, Spring Training is one of the best times of year to work. Everything is fresh. Writers and players haven’t interacted much for several months. The grind of the season has yet to set in. There’s also better access to players and coaches than during the regular season, given all the hours spent at the complex together.
As a result, many of my favorite stories of each year come out of Spring Training. In today’s newsletter -- the last one before camp breaks -- I’d like to reshare some of the best from the past six weeks.
The one about the big home run
Let’s start with the most recent story on this list. Earlier this spring, Pete Alonso agreed to sit down with me and review tape of his at-bat against Devin Williams in National League Wild Card Series Game 3. The result was a fascinating look into an elite slugger’s mindset with everything on the line. The way Alonso broke down his approach against Williams, one of the NL’s best closers, was fascinating to me. It’s a cool look back at one of the biggest home runs in franchise history.
The one about the Whole Foods catcher
I love a story about a Minor League grinder. This year’s came courtesy of Hayden Senger, a longtime Mets farmhand who has spent the past two offseasons working at Whole Foods. Senger came into camp with little chance to make the Opening Day roster. Then Francisco Alvarez suffered an injury, and suddenly Senger is on the cusp of cracking the Majors for the first time at age 27. If he does, he may not need to keep that second job.
The one about the comeback kid
Remember Matt Allan? The guy around whom the Mets molded their entire 2019 Draft strategy? The past four years have not been kind to Allan, who has taken the long road back from Tommy John surgery. Yet he’s back in Minor League camp now, healthy and throwing 99 mph. Still younger than top overall Mets prospect Brandon Sproat, Allan is working on an inspiring comeback story -- that of a player who simply won’t give up.
The one about the captaincy
Should Francisco Lindor be the Mets’ captain? What about Brandon Nimmo, though? And where does Juan Soto fit into all this? I talked to several people around the organization for insight on what it means to be a captain, and whether the Mets really need one.
The one about steak and eggs
For the first two weeks of camp, the Mets boasted quite possibly the largest clubhouse population in Port St. Lucie history. How did it all work? I spoke to Danny Barnes, the Mets coach in charge of organizing the camp chaos. There are some crazy figures in here, including the fact that the Mets were going through around 540 eggs per day at the beginning of camp. The wildest part? The number of players swelled to 70 after this story ran, until the Mets finally made their first wave of cuts.
The one about the coach you’ve never heard of
One of the longest-tenured Mets in uniform is Rafael Fernandez, the team’s “third” hitting coach who is beloved by Latino players. Read how Fernandez worked his way from a teenage farmhand to a big league coach, in a role that “nobody sees” but is plenty important.
The ones about the prospects trying to reestablish themselves
Of the many prospects the Mets invited to big league camp, two are facing crucial years: infielder Ronny Mauricio, who’s recovering from the second of two knee surgeries, and catcher Kevin Parada, who struggled last year in an extended taste of the upper Minors. Mauricio won’t wind up appearing in games this spring (at the time of publication, it looked like he would), but he’s still optimistic about what comes next. As for Parada, he dropped 15 pounds this offseason after cutting down on sweets.
The one about green tea
Did you know Nimmo ditched coffee over the winter in favor of matcha tea, which he brews each morning using traditional Japanese methods? Yeah, neither did I, until I sat down with him to discuss the how and why behind his new obsession.
The one about the reappearing ace
Each spring, the Mets bring a slew of alumni into camp as instructors. This year, that included a new face: Johan Santana, who spent time working with Sean Manaea and David Peterson during a couple days in camp. It was cool to see Santana back in uniform more than a decade removed from his final pitch with the Mets.
The one about … a brand new car!
The most memorable story of this spring may have been the day Soto surprised Brett Baty with a new Chevy Tahoe. The car was a gift for Baty, who gave Soto his uniform No. 22 after he signed. And it made for a very, very happy third baseman.