Who was the last NY Mets rookie with no MLB experience to make the Opening Day roster?

Bold offseason predictions by fans for the coming year usually have some well-known prospect cracking the Opening Day roster after an electrifying spring training. As dreamy as it is to get a full 162-games of a freshman on your roster, it’s not something the New York Mets tend to lean on.

It’s incredibly rare for anyone but a top prospect to open the season on a major league roster. MLB has tried to incentivize a change by awarding teams with draft pick compensation when they finish with Rookie of the Year votes. The program has enough of a benefit to give a player like Pete Alonso a chance to thrive from game one onward. Too bad it’s newer than his amazing rookie 2019 season.

You’re here because you might be curious who the last Mets rookie to actually make the Opening Day roster was. It hasn’t been spoiled yet. It wasn’t Alonso. In a long-lost season of 2020, Andres Gimenez cracked the team to begin their 60-game journey.

The last Mets rookie to start the season on the roster was Andres Gimenez in 2020

There’s a good chance if the pandemic didn’t happen there would have been a delay in Gimenez reaching the majors. Because a whole minor league season would be lost, the Mets decided to let Gimenez skip over the Triple-A level and see what he could do as a shortstop paired alongside Amed Rosario. The two would be linked forever as pieces swapped for Francisco Lindor in the following offseason.

Gimenez played 49 games, received 132 plate appearances, and hit a promising .263/.333/.398. The small sample of what he was even able to put together because of the short campaign gave enough of a glimpse for the Cleveland Guardians to make him a worthwhile addition in exchange for their star shortstop.

Of course, Gimenez has since grown into an exceptional fielding second baseman in Cleveland. Three straight Gold Gloves and two years in a row of stealing 30 bases with varying offensive production elsewhere, the last Mets rookie to start the year on the team has been a nice addition to the Guardians roster. He'll try to earn the remainder of a contract worth almost $100 million as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays where he was traded back in December.

In 2020, David Peterson nearly became a second rookie to begin the year on the Opening Day roster. He was held back in favor of Corey Oswalt then called up to start the fifth game of the season. The roster spot had previously been occupied by Marcus Stroman who went on the IL then opted out of the remainder of the year.

And until another rookie makes the Opening Day roster, he’s the answer to a trivia question.