Mets Roster: One starter, one reliever, one bat in danger of demotion

The 2021 New York Mets roster is about as solid as we could have hoped. They upgraded in multiple areas, leaving us with only a few questionable spots among the 26 men on the Opening Day roster.

No roster is perfect from the jump. As the season progresses, for one reason or another, players lose their job. We already know a few members of the Mets Opening Day roster won’t be around all season long because the club has a few injured players healing up to replace them at some point.

While the Mets do have a few DFA candidates, I’m going to leave them off of the list I want to discuss. This is a list of the three men I think are in most danger of a demotion. They will need to perform well early to stick around.

Mets starter in the most danger of a demotion: Joey Lucchesi

Of course the Mets starting pitcher in the most danger of seeing his job taken away is the number five guy, Joey Lucchesi. Even if he doesn’t ultimately file in as the fifth starter to begin the year, there’s little question he’s fifth on the depth chart.

Lucchesi’s future with the Mets is something I’m greatly interested in seeing unfold. A relatively unknown young pitcher with an upside to his name, the Mets went out and acquired him this offseason in a trade without much media attention. He impressed the coaching staff and front office enough to win a job out of camp.

Although an early roster spot winner, he’ll need to pitch well to keep his roster spot over David Peterson.

Carlos Carrasco will be back before we know it and this probably signals the end of Lucchesi’s time starting. He could slot in as a reliever if he’s pitching well enough and the Mets view him as a greater asset throwing big league innings as opposed to stretching out on the farm.

Lucchesi’s inevitable demotion isn’t as great of an insult as one might be for the other two names I have on my list.