3 toughest NY Mets roster decisions to make before Opening Day

3) The Mets will need to decide who completes the team's Opening Day bullpen.

The Mets enter spring action with roughly a good idea of who most of their bullpen arms will be when the season starts. Edwin Diaz, A.J. Minter, Jose Butto, Reed Garrett, and Ryne Stanek look like safe bets to be on the Opening Day roster barring injury.

The frontrunners for the final bullpen spots are Danny Young, Sean Reid-Foley, Dedniel Nunez, and Huascar Brazoban, and for good reason. All of these pitchers, except for Reid-Foley, have had career Fangraphs Stuff+ ratings of 107 or higher. It speaks to David Stearns' philosophy of emphasizing pitching talent which proved effective last year. All of these pitchers, except for Young (who has just a sweeper and a sinker), average 95 mph or higher on their fastballs.

However, will the loser of the expected battle between Griffin Canning and Paul Blackburn for the final rotation spot also be good enough to deserve a spot in the bullpen as a long reliever? That could be a wild card of the roster-ology puzzle that the front office may need to consider, which would leave multiple high-upside relievers in the minor leagues if the spring sends the roster in that direction.

If the front office is not confident that their rotation can go deep enough into games early that it warrants the over-taxation of a bullpen, would it necessitate a starting pitcher to serve as a swingman to keep their key relievers fresh? With the Mets scheduled for three off days in their first 15 days of the regular season, they might be able to get away with not addressing that problem, which surfaced like this last year when Kodai Senga got hurt. But like last year, that will be an issue the Mets will need to be resolved.