Morning Mets Notes: Jenrry Mejia Cleared to Report to Mets Camp by Weekend

It’s fair to say that over the last few years, Major League Baseball has been dealing with somewhat of an identity crisis with regard to players being honest and forthright about their age and name. We saw it most recently with pitchers Leo Nunez (now known as Juan Carlos Oviedo) and Fausto Carmona (now known as Roberto Hernandez), as it’s been something that the league has been trying to fix. Honestly, I thought we had our latest issue with Mets pitcher, Jenrry Mejia, even though New York reported it was a random check in the Dominican Republic rather than an investigation. However, I’m thankful to see that Mejia has been cleared, is who he says he is, and will be headed to PSL within the next couple of days.
Sep 24, 2012; Flushing, NY,USA; New York Mets relief pitcher Jenrry Mejia (32) pitches during the first inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-US PREWIRE
The starting rotation is set with Johan Santana, Shaun Marcum, Jonathon Niese, Matt Harvey, and Dillon Gee this season, but with him being seventh on the depth chart behind Zack Wheeler, he’s an important piece to watch this spring. I’d like Jenrry to be in camp as long as possible and utilize not only his fellow starters, but veterans like LaTroy Hawkins and John Buckin an effort to harness his control before heading to Triple-A, since that now looks to be the course the organization wants the 23-year-old to go down. In seven starts (25.2 IP) for Tigres del Licey in the Domincan Baseball Winter League, Mejia went 1-2 with a 4.21 ERA, striking out 19 and walking 10 hitters.
Danny Abriano once again kept us up-to-date with what happened during yesterday’s workouts; New York agreed to minor league deals with pitcher Andy Wells and outfielder James Roche, both of whom will head straight to minor league spring training. Daniel Murphy is back in camp after going to New York to get a cortisone shot for his strained intercostal muscle; he’s forced to be on a stationary bike for the next few days, but the injury doesn’t look serious. Kirk Nieuwenhuis will be the first player to get a crack at leading off, as he’s slated for the top spot against the Nationals Saturday in their Grapefruit League opener.While the Mets were busy participating in another day of full squad workouts in advance of actual games starting this weekend, we had some great things on Rising Apple yesterday to both read and listen to. Will DeBoer did his best David Letterman impression by starting a new series unique to the site, titled the Rising Apple Top Ten. Each week, he will be taking a different Mets-related category and count down the best responses from ten to one. This week’s category? The top ten things buried under the former Shea Stadium. Also, on the heels of hearing that Terry Collins would formally start the process of naming David Wright captain, Sam Maxwell asked whether or not the third baseman really needs the “C” on his jersey. Finally, we aired the eighth episode of The Rising Apple Report, featuring our friend Coop, from her site A Gal for All Seasons.
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