Mets 26-man roster predictions: Who opens the season with the Amazins?

In only a few weeks, 26 men will be selected as members of the 2021 New York Mets Opening Day roster. Some won’t last the season. Others may evolve into heroes.

The Mets don’t have too many major decisions to make for their roster, leaving very little to compete for this spring in terms of the big roles. However, there are still some roles and roster spots up for grabs.

Rather than share my own predictions, I thought I would ask three Rising Apple writers for what they believe the Mets look like on Opening Day. Adrian Cervantes, Mason Smoller, and Zach Rotman were each given the task to put together their 26-man roster predictions. Although quite similar, there were a few minor differences between the three roster submissions I received.

Mets 26-man roster starting rotation predictions

Only one job is fully open for the Mets Opening Day starting rotation. The fifth starter spot appears to be a race between David Peterson and newcomer Joey Lucchesi. The fact that there is even a spring competition between these two has me convinced Mets fans may be disappointed with Lucchesi winning the job.

It’s only fair to let spring performance decide which of these two arms finds a spot in the starting rotation. I favor Peterson yet I tend to lean toward the belief that Lucchesi actually ends up with the gig.

When posed with the question as to what the rotation will look like, all three of our guests predicted the same thing, in no particular order:

1) Jacob deGrom
2) Carlos Carrasco
3) Marcus Stroman
4) Taijuan Walker
5) David Peterson

It’s the safest prediction to make even with Peterson’s job yet to be locked up. We may be making more of his spring competition with Joey Lucchesi than it actually is. Perhaps it’s what the Mets are using to motivate the young lefty to be even better.

Predicting the 26-man roster’s rotation is one thing. The bullpen would be a little more difficult.