Notable Mets player absent from SNY's projected lineup

With Opening Day coming up very soon, we are starting to get a sense of what the New York Mets roster will look like. Acquiring Chris Bassitt gave the Mets a complete starting rotation, joining Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer, Carlos Carrasco, and Taijuan Walker.

Prior to the lockout, the Mets addressed a lineup that finished towards the bottom in runs per game by signing Starling Marte, Eduardo Escobar, and Mark Canha. The lineup definitely looks improved, but in my opinion they'd benefit from signing another bat.

Old friend Michael Conforto would fit in nicely as a much needed left handed power bat, but it doesn't seem likely that a deal would come into fruition. The most likely scenario is the Mets maybe sign a fourth outfielder, but the starting nine is already rostered.

The projected Mets lineup that SNY put out is one that I think the Mets should strongly consider.

SNY put out their projected Opening Day lineup and I thought it was interesting. Most of the lineup seems to be complete, but the DH spot is the one spot with a lot of question marks.

My initial thinking was the Mets would use Robinson Cano as the primary DH until he struggles. Despite missing all of last season as punishment for his second PED suspension, Cano is still set to make $24 million dollars in each of the next two seasons. With that in mind, I thought the Mets would either release him or give him the first crack as the full-time DH. It takes a lot of guts to bench a guy of Cano's stature.

I still think playing Cano on Opening Day is ultimately what the Mets do until he starts to struggle which seems inevitable to me. If and when that happens, J.D. Davis and Dom Smith are both very capable options to step in and be the DH. SNY projects Dom Smith as the DH and I believe he should get the first chance.

This Mets lineup looks much better but lacks a big left-handed power bat. While Smith likely won't hit 30 homers or anything, he does have extra-base hit ability. In the shortened 2020 season he had 32 extra-base hits in just 50 games, including ten home runs.

Smith did struggle last season but he dealt with a bevy of injuries. He dealt with a strained wrist, a groin issue, and just revealed to Pat Ragazzo of Sports Illustrated that he played with a partially torn labrum in his shoulder which affected his swing. While injuries shouldn't be the only excuse for a bad season, that does explain a lot of why Dom went from being one of the most effective hitters in the National League to all of a sudden one of the least effective as he posted a very poor 84 OPS+.

I would probably tinker with the order itself but the players in SNY's projected lineup graphic are the exact nine I'd want to see on Opening Day if there're no other changes to this roster.