After a month of spring training, Opening Day has arrived for the Mets and Yankees, and the teams’ rosters have been shaped. This past weekend, they executed their final moves before commencing the 2023 MLB season.
Max Scherzer will get the start for the Mets when they begin a four-game series today against the Miami Marlins on the road and Gerrit Cole will be on the mound for the Yankees this afternoon when they host the San Francisco Giants to kick off a three-game set in the Bronx.
Last season, the Houston Astros swept the Yankees in the American League Championship Series. The Yankees now look to get past the team that has stopped them from reaching the World Series three times in the last six seasons.
The Mets are also looking ahead to a more fruitful season after a horrible ending to last season, losing to the San Diego Padres in the National League Wild Card Series two games to one. Last Sunday, the Yankees posted a video on their Twitter page of manager Aaron Boone and general manager Brian Cashman informing top prospect Anthony Volpe he had made the Opening Day roster.
After achieving a .314 average with three home runs and a 1.064 OPS, the Watchung, N.J., native, who was drafted by the Yankees with the 30th pick in the first round of the 2019 MLB Draft out of Delbarton High School in Morristown, N.J., will live his dream of wearing Yankee pinstripes on Opening Day.
“My heart was beating pretty hard—I don’t have too many words right now, but this feels amazing.” said the 21-year-old short stop.
While many Yankee fans are excited about Volpe at short stop position, they have concerns about the team’s rotation, which has taken another massive hit with Luis Severino being shut down for five to 10 days due to a lat strain. The severity of the injury is unknown. Last Friday, Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake said the injury to Severino is in a different location from the one that put him on the 60-day IL on July 13 last year. Up to that point, Severino was having a great bounce-back season after missing 120 games since undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2019.
The Yankees do have pitching depth with Deivi Garcia, Domingo German, and Clarke Schmidt.
Meanwhile, the Mets did not reward their 23-year-old third base prospect Brett Baty, who had a .325 average and six RBI’s this spring with an Opening Day roster spot.
Mets GM Billy Eppler expressed the need for Baty to “reach some more development markers at the minor league level.” The decision not to include Baty on the 40-man Opening Day roster has Mets fans split, because some felt he should begin this season in the big leagues, but Eppler and manager Buck Showalter have a clear plan for him. Baty played 11 games and had 38 at-bats for the Mets last season after being called up from the minor leagues.
The Mets also announced that David Robertson will be the team’s closer at the outset of this season in the absence of star closer Edwin Diaz, who suffered a torn patellar tendon earlier this month in pitching for team Puerto Rico during the World Baseball Classic.