3 Mets players with the most to lose this spring

Spring training can be a time for battles between teammates. The New York Mets don’t have too many fights in the hopper this spring. Most of the major spots are secured with a handful of players battling for positions on the outskirts of the roster.

How players perform in camp and during exhibition games will help the front office make some of those final choices. Spots can be won or lost in March.

As previously covered, there are a couple of players with a lot to gain this spring. On the other hand, there are these three with something to lose.

1) NY Mets could put an end to Stephen Nogosek’s time in Queens

Stephen Nogosek is out of options. Literally. The Mets won’t have the ability to send him to the minor leagues this season without designating him for assignment. He’s basically a veteran reliever at this point without the resume to justify keeping him on the roster from day one.

Nogosek will either make the Opening Day roster or see himself get designated for assignment before the year begins. He’s not someone every time would shove each other out of the way to get. He’s no t-shirt with four advertisements on it launched into the crowd at a hockey game.

Nonetheless, Nogosek showed promise last year and someone would take a chance on him through a waiver claim. The Mets need to be sure of their decision with him. Keeping him around for even a few weeks could be in the cards. 

The Mets have lost Nogosek in free agency before and brought him back. However, last year’s performance was his first consistent stretch. In 22 innings, Nogosek managed to give the team a 2.45 ERA performance with 21 strikeouts. He won’t be a tremendous loss if the Mets do end up cutting him loose. Still, he’d be a solid depth piece to have.

3) NY Mets could realize their Darin Ruf mistake quickly

It’s probably not going to work out for the Mets to keep Darin Ruf on the roster. He’d need to make a surprising turnaround early on this year to justify keeping his roster spot. Nine out of ten Mets fans would agree it was time to dump him anywhere, even into the DFA pile, this offseason. Instead, he’ll at least get another look this spring.

The Mets quickly disposed of Robinson Cano when rosters shrunk back down to 28 last season. A similar situation, but in spring training, could be an option with Ruf. The obvious roster replacement for him could be Brett Baty. Mark Vientos isn’t quite as flexible in the field as Baty. And while they hit from opposite sides of the plate, the Mets have enough right-handed hitters to pair with Daniel Vogelbach. Tommy Pham, after all, signed for some of those at-bats.

It’s hard to make such a drastic decision due to spring training results. But what if Baty is tearing the cover off the ball and Ruf is repeating his 2022 struggles? Every game counts. You can’t lose a series in April and expect it to not matter later on.

Ruf will be permanently on the roster bubble from the start of the season. A serious injury on another roster could give the Mets the means to eat some of his salary and trade him elsewhere. Of course, in that situation, they’ll be looking for a little bit more in return than they could’ve asked for in November or December.

There are no excuses for Ruf this year. Hit or go.