One of the great scams commonly perpetrated by fantasy analysts (or at least by me) is to write after-the-fact draft recaps in which we craft an ex post facto strategy to fit whatever roster we have built.

That is to say, we (or at least I) may occasionally embellish the details of a pre-draft plan to accommodate the post-draft roster — as if everything went perfectly according to script.

My pledge to you today is that I did no such thing with respect to the Tout Wars Mixed League in 2025.

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I did, in fact, have a five-point plan in place on Saturday afternoon as I sauntered into the Hotel Edison in New York, where the live 15-team salary cap draft took place. All five points were shared in advance with Mo Castillo, veteran senior editor of fantasy content at Yahoo.

For me, this was an unprecedented step — an uneasy flirtation with accountability. Not sure I’ll make a habit of it, but it was worth trying once.

— A note from Mo Castillo, Senior Editor of Yahoo Fantasy Content: “Yes, I can confirm that, well in advance of his draft, Andy shared his five-point plan for how he was going to attack his picks. And yes, I am sharing this information of my own consent. If you want me to say this while holding a newspaper with today’s date on it, just LMK.”

Let’s review the pillars of my draft plan, and the degree to which I managed to execute any of it. If you are interested only in the full team-by-team results, please hit that link.

Build a team that could never be constructed in a snake draft

This is a guiding fantasy principle for me in any salary cap draft, except in the deepest and most extreme formats (mono-leagues in baseball, 20-teamers in football). If you are gonna give me $260 to build a squad in any mixed baseball league, I am definitely throwing $100 or so at a pair of consensus first-round, five-category maulers. Frugality is the coward’s path. I am a big-market fantasy manager, folks.

Here’s the way we attack batting stats in a mixed league:

Bobby Witt Jr. and Kyle Tucker is a combo you simply cannot land in a typical draft unless your league has six teams. I managed to build a hitting foundation that includes the players who rank No. 2 (Witt), No. 6 (Tucker), No. 14 (Bryce Harper), No. 21 (Manny Machado) and No. 31 (Ozzie Albies) on my overall board.

Again, this is not something you can achieve in a standard snake draft — not if your personal fantasy rankings look anything like consensus.

Over the years, this general approach to roster construction has been given the label “stars and scrubs,” which is truly unfortunate. In a mixed baseball league such as Tout, all the $1 and $2 players — the scrubs — are actually going to be fantasy-relevant names with starting roles at the major league level. Several of them will eventually make the leap to star status in subsequent years. Brenton Doyle was disgustingly scrubby last spring, but I just dropped $17 on him over the weekend, following a 23/30 season in Colorado.

The key to successfully executing the stars-and-scrubs-non-stars approach is to get comfortable in advance with the end-game players — the pool of likely $1 buys. It can be argued that I am perhaps too welcoming of the bargain-bin pitchers.

Allocate $195 to hitting and $65 to pitching, a 75/25 split

So my intended hitting/pitching split is absolutely one of those draft plans about which I would have just straight-up lied to you under normal circumstances.

Had I not discussed strategy in advance with Mo — which I now very much regret — then I would have unapologetically written in this recap that, yes, of course I was expecting to spend only 16.5% of my draft budget on pitching. Very intentional. Nailed it. Not a penny over $43.

Foolishly, I tipped my hand ahead of the draft and must now explain why I couldn’t manage to spend a modest $65 on pitching — which, if I’d gotten there, would still have left me with the second-cheapest staff in the league. As it actually played out, I had the cheapest collection of pitchers by a wide margin; Kelly Kirby was the only other manager who dropped less than 25% of the budget on pitching ($59).

But here’s the thing: I kinda love the arms that I assembled. I have been on record over multiple seasons as a late-draft, low-dollar pitching advocate. This is the roster spot that carries nearly all the injury risk and much of the downside, plus it’s a position in which high-end talent always materializes in-season. Each year, we are treated to unexpected pitching surprises.

I’m pretty delighted with José Soriano and Ryan Weathers as $1 additions — both are groundballists with plus-velocity and strikeout upside — and I’m no less pleased with Hayden Birdsong as a reserve draft flier. Also, I managed to acquire multiple saves sources in Pete Fairbanks and Kyle Finnegan (and whatever we’re calling Tyler Kinley) at very little cost.

All things considered, I think my pitching staff is better than what I probably deserved.

Prioritize potential upper-tier pitchers who are discounted due to perceived injury risk

OK, this did not go exactly as I’d expected, but I still satisfied the basic goal.

My general outlook on MLB pitchers is that all of them — including the guys you likely consider most reliable — carry an unacceptable level of injury risk. You might feel better about the health and reliability of Corbin Burnes or Zack Wheeler compared to Tyler Glasnow or Shane McClanahan, but I certainly do not.

Honestly, I see the entire position as a minefield. I don’t trust anyone’s UCLs, flexor tendons, latissimus dorsi muscles or labrums. If you do, cool. Spend away. I think you’re paying up for the illusion of security.

To me, the most tempting potential aces in drafts are guys like Glasnow, McClanahan, Jacob deGrom, Sandy Alcantara and Spencer Strider. In an era in which basically no one can be projected for 200 innings, I’m happy to accept however many frames those guys can give me, if I can land them for $10-$12.

I passed on all those names in Tout for various reasons — usually price or timing — but I did acquire Kevin Gausman at very little cost. You might recall that he entered last season with shoulder fatigue, and thus carried an injury red flag all year, never quite matching the effectiveness he maintained from 2020 to 2023. Gausman has looked suspiciously like his old self for much of this spring, complete with the familiar movement, velocity and K-rate. (Admittedly, Monday’s start against the Yankees could have gone better.)

At $8, I’m in. This is the pitching pocket in which I prefer to operate, thank you very much.

Let’s be an active, high-motor early bidder on pretty much every star

I kinda crushed this one. Always do. When the bidding on good players is in the early stages — the $7 to $15 range — you want to be involved. Don’t be a casual onlooker. Don’t take breaks.

By the end of any salary cap draft, live or online, you should feel as if you placed the most individual bids. My usual rule of thumb is that if I value a player at $20 or more — even if they don’t fill a glaring need — I want to be active in the bidding as we approach full price.

One benefit, of course, is that you don’t want your competitors scooping up outrageous values on top-tier talent. Someone needs to be in charge of salary enforcement; it might as well be you.

The other clear benefit to this habit is that when outrageous values do materialize — as will inevitably happen in any draft — you want to maximize the odds that you are the beneficiary.

And this is how I landed Albies at $14 in Tout. Whatever you might think of him (and he is not without flaws), he’s certainly a locked-in consensus top-three fantasy second baseman who should not go for half the cost of Ketel Marte ($28) and less than Matt McLain ($15).

If you’re a chirpy participant in the early action on impact players, eventually you are going to get a filthy steal.

Draft both members of at least one of the MLB brother combos — the Naylors, Díazes, Megills, Contrerases, et al.

There’s zero strategic value to this one, obviously. I just enjoy doing it. Traditionally it’s my signature move, dating back to the era of J.D. and Stephen Drew.

Alas, I failed to achieve it in Tout — and it was right there for me. An incredible whiff. A violation of one of my most cherished draft principles. Days after the fact, I am appalled.

It always seemed unlikely that I would draft the Contreras brothers, because I almost never throw money at catchers. Elevated risks, minimal rewards. And the Díaz brothers were likely to be budget-breakers. (Edwin went for $22.) The Megills and Naylors were much more attainable, but, regrettably, I missed on the alpha Megill and alpha Naylor.

And so it came down to the Tuckers (Kyle and Preston) and the Jungs (Josh and Jace). Preston Tucker hasn’t appeared in a major league game since 2018, so I managed to summon the discipline necessary to avoid him. But after landing bounceback candidate Josh Jung for $3, it is genuinely inexcusable to have passed on Jace as my final reserve pick.

I hate to keep siblings apart in this way. If there’s one thing I needlessly value as a fantasy baseball manager, it’s family. Assuming Jace is recalled from the minors at some point in 2025, I’m gonna pounce. It will be the most satisfying FAB dollar I’ll spend all season.

For now, I am content in the knowledge that my greatest draft regret is not landing a guy who hit .121 during the spring.

Jonathan Daniel via Getty Images

Thirty years ago, Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan put the entire NBA on notice. After retiring for 17 months, Jordan announced his official return to basketball with arguably the two most iconic words in NBA history: “I’m back.”

Jordan made the announcement via fax. The one-page letter, which was released by Jordan’s agent David Falk on March 18, 1995, read:

“WASHINGTON, DC. (March 18, 1995) — The following statement was released today by Michael Jordan, through his personal attorney and business partner David B. Falk, Chairman of Falk Associates Management Enterprises, Inc. (“FAME”) located in Washington, D.C., in response to questions about his future career plans:

‘I’m back.’”

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The announcement came in the middle of the 1994-95 NBA season. The Bulls were 34-31 when Jordan rejoined the team. Jordan, who initially retired prior to the 1993-94 NBA season to pursue a career in baseball, spent the 1994 baseball season with the Birmingham Barons, a minor-league affiliate of the Chicago White Sox.

Despite not being in basketball shape, Jordan returned to action a day after the announcement and dropped 19 points in a loss to the Indiana Pacers. In his fifth game back, Jordan scored 55 points in a win over the New York Knicks.

Jordan played in a total of 17 regular-season games with the Bulls, who went 13-4 with Jordan averaging 26.9 points. That performance earned the Bulls the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference and led to Jordan finishing 11th in MVP voting.

While the Bulls managed to defeat the Charlotte Hornets in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, Chicago lost to the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

After spending the offseason getting back into basketball shape, Jordan returned to the Bulls for the 1995-96 season and led the team to a then-record 72 regular-season wins. He averaged a league-high 30.4 points, won the MVP and led the Bulls to yet another championship. The Bulls went on to win two more NBA championships during the 1996-97 and 1997-98 seasons, giving Jordan his second three-peat in Chicago. The emotion and drama of that 1997-98 season was featured on ESPN’s “The Last Dance.”

Michael Jordan returns to NBA after pursuing MLB dreams

Jordan’s first retirement from the NBA shocked fans. After leading the Bulls to a third-straight championship during the 1992-93 season — his first three-peat with the team — Jordan retired from basketball at 29 to pursue a career in professional baseball.

Jordan cited physical and mental exhaustion as his main reason for walking away from basketball. He decided to play baseball in honor of his father James, who was murdered in July 1993. James reportedly envisioned Michael as a professional baseball player, which inspired him to give baseball a shot.

Ahead of the 1994 MLB season, Jordan signed a minor-league deal with the Barons. The team was owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, who also owned the Bulls.

In his only season in the minors, Jordan hit .202/.290/.266 over 127 games. He added three home runs and stole 30 bases, though he was caught 18 times. At age 31, Jordan’s MLB prospects were muted. And with the league eight months into the 1994 strike, Jordan opted to leave baseball to return to the Bulls.

Given Jordan’s quick return to form — and subsequent second three-peat — it’s fair to say he made the right decision to return to the NBA.

Since being traded to the New York Rangers, Carson Soucy hasn’t exactly found a consistent role. 

The Rangers acquired Soucy from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for a 2025-third round pick just one day before the NHL Trade Deadline. 

With Soucy also under contract for next season, Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury had high hopes for what the 30-year-old could provide not just this season, but into the future. 

He envisioned Soucy being a staple on the Rangers’ blue line. 

“We think there’s a lot of possibilities with Carson, whether it’s with Schneids or Foxy or Will (Borgen), or even having him on the right side at some point,” Drury said. “We’ll see how it plays out. I’m glad we were able to get him. I was excited about the term, excited about the number. He’s not a rental. 

“He’s someone we could have in for the rest of the year and next year. I just like the overall game – the size, the skating, the sense, how he defends. We were able to do some homework on him the last couple weeks and we’re excited to get him with a piece we got in the Reilly Smith trade.”

Drury’s vision has not come into fruition whatsoever thus far. 

Soucy has been scratched out of the lineup for the past two games and will be benched once again on Tuesday night against the Calgary Flames. 

The emergence of Zac Jones on top of Adam Fox’s return have a lot to do with why Soucy finds himself in the doghouse. 

While Peter Laviolette isn’t necessarily discouraged with what he’s seen from the veteran defenseman, he feels that Rangers’ defense has been strong over the past couple games and isn’t looking to shake things up as of right now. 

“He’s been good,” Laviolette said of Soucy. “I don’t have an issue with the players that aren’t playing. Again, there are six spots on defense and we have eight defensemen here. I like the six in the way they are playing right now, so we didn’t make a change tonight, but we are happy to have both him and de Hann here. I know it is tough sitting out. Nobody likes to sit out, but I like the way our defense is playing right now.”

This dosn’t mean Soucy will be benched permanently. Things could change on a game-to-game basis depending on how well the Rangers are playing.

In all likelihood, Soucy will be back in the lineup sooner rather than later. 

Based on Drury’s comments though, you would think Soucy would instantly jump into a prominent role and that just hasn’t happened.

Rejoice, baseball fans, because the MLB regular season started earlier than ever in 2025. Tuesday marked the start of the Tokyo Series between the Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers.

While spring training is still in full swing for most teams, the Cubs and Dodgers traveled to Tokyo for a two-game series that counts toward the regular season. The reigning champion Dodgers got off to a hot start, winning the first game of the series 4-1 behind a strong start from Yoshinobu Yamamoto and some timely hitting from Shohei Ohtani.

With the Cubs’ and Dodgers’ 2025 seasons already underway, when does the rest of the league start playing regular-season games? Here’s everything you need to know about MLB Opening Day 2025.

When is MLB Opening Day 2025?

For the Cubs and Dodgers, Opening Day was technically Tuesday, March 18, in Tokyo. They will play another regular-season game Wednesday before flying back to the United States to finish spring training.

For 26 other MLB teams, Opening Day will take place Thursday, March 27, with 14 games scheduled that day. The Milwaukee Brewers and New York Yankees will get things started at 3:05 p.m. ET, and the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays will get underway two minutes later. The final two games of the day — the Cubs vs. the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Athletics vs. the Seattle Mariners — will begin at 10:10 p.m. ET. Despite playing regular-season games on March 18 and 19, both the Cubs and Dodgers will play on March 27.

The Colorado Rockies and the Tampa Bay Rays are the only two teams that won’t play a regular-season game by the 27th. Those teams will open the season the following day, on Friday, March 28. The Rays and Rockies were initially set to begin play March 27, but the game was moved back a day after Hurricane Milton damaged Tropicana Field in October. 

In fact, Tropicana Field will not be ready for the start of the season, forcing the Rays to play their home games this year at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, where the Yankees play their spring training games. The Rays pushed back their first regular-season game so stadium workers would have an additional day to transition the ballpark from Yankees to Rays.

What is the MLB Tokyo Series?

To kick off the 2025 MLB regular season, the league opted to play two games between the Cubs and Dodgers in Tokyo a week before domestic Opening Day. Both teams boast Japanese stars, including Ohtani, Yamamoto and Wednesday’s starter, Roki Sasaki, for the Dodgers, as well as Seiya Suzuki and Tuesday’s starter, Shota Imanaga, for the Cubs.

This is the second straight season in which the league has played its first regular-season game overseas. The Dodgers and the San Diego Padres opened the 2024 MLB season with a two-game series in Korea while the rest of the league was still in the midst of spring training.

MLB Opening Day 2025 schedule

As noted, the Brewers and Yankees kick things off on March 27 at 3:05 p.m. ET on ESPN. ESPN will also broadcast the Detroit Tigers vs. Dodgers contest, which starts at 7:10 p.m. ET. Those are the only two games that will be nationally broadcast that day.

Full schedule of March 27 games (all times Eastern):

• 3:05 p.m. – Milwaukee Brewers at New York Yankees

• 3:07 p.m. – Baltimore Orioles at Toronto Blue Jays

• 4:05 p.m. – Texas Rangers at Boston Red Sox

• 4:05 p.m. – Philadelphia Phillies at Washington Nationals

• 4:10 p.m. – Cleveland Guardians at Kansas City Royals

• 4:10 p.m. – New York Mets at Houston Astros

• 4:10 p.m. – San Francisco Giants at Cincinnati Reds

• 4:10 p.m. – Atlanta Braves at San Diego Padres

• 4:10 p.m. – Los Angeles Angels at Chicago White Sox

• 4:10 p.m. – Pittsburgh Pirates at Miami Marlins

• 4:15 p.m. – Minnesota Twins at St. Louis Cardinals

• 7:10 p.m. – Detroit Tigers at Los Angeles Dodgers

• 10:10 p.m. – Chicago Cubs at Arizona Diamondbacks

• 10:10 p.m. – Athletics at Seattle Mariners

On March 28, the Colorado Rockies and Tampa Bay Rays will play their first regular-season game at 4:10 p.m. ET.

MLB Opening Day 2025 starting pitchers

With the regular season quickly approaching, a number of teams have already announced who will be on the mound for Opening Day. The Dodgers called on Yamamoto to start Game 1 of the Tokyo Series, and he opposed Imanaga in the contest.

The following pitchers will get the ball for their teams on domestic Opening Day:

• Freddy Peralta (MIL) vs. Carlos Rodón (NYY)

• Zach Eflin (BAL) vs. José Berríos (TOR)

• Garrett Crochet (BOS) vs. Nathan Eovaldi (TEX)

• Zack Wheeler (PHI) vs. MacKenzie Gore (WAS)

• TBD (CLE) vs. Cole Ragans (KCR)

• Clay Holmes (NYM) vs. Framber Valdez (HOU)

• Logan Webb (SFG) vs. Hunter Greene (CIN)

• Chris Sale (ATL) vs. Michael King (SDP)

• Yusei Kikuchi (LAA) vs. Sean Burke (CWS)

• Paul Skenes (PIT) vs. Sandy Alcantara (MIA)

• Pablo López (MIN) vs. Sonny Gray (STL)

• Tarik Skubal (DET) vs. TBD (LAD)

• TBD (CHC) vs. TBD (ARI)

• Luis Severino (ATH) vs. Logan Gilbert (SEA)

• TBD (COL) vs. Shane McClanahan (TBR)

The Cubs, Dodgers, Guardians and Rockies are the only four teams that have not named their starters ahead of their first regular-season games following the Tokyo Series.

Rejoice, baseball fans, because the MLB regular season started earlier than ever in 2025. Tuesday marked the start of the Tokyo Series between the Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers.

While spring training is still in full swing for most teams, the Cubs and Dodgers traveled to Tokyo for a two-game series that counts toward the regular season. The reigning champion Dodgers got off to a hot start, winning the first game of the series 4-1 behind a strong start from Yoshinobu Yamamoto and some timely hitting from Shohei Ohtani.

With the Cubs’ and Dodgers’ 2025 seasons already underway, when does the rest of the league start playing regular-season games? Here’s everything you need to know about MLB Opening Day 2025.

When is MLB Opening Day 2025?

For the Cubs and Dodgers, Opening Day was technically Tuesday, March 18, in Tokyo. They will play another regular-season game Wednesday before flying back to the United States to finish spring training.

For 26 other MLB teams, Opening Day will take place Thursday, March 27, with 14 games scheduled that day. The Milwaukee Brewers and New York Yankees will get things started at 3:05 p.m. ET, and the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays will get underway two minutes later. The final two games of the day — the Cubs vs. the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Athletics vs. the Seattle Mariners — will begin at 10:10 p.m. ET. Despite playing regular-season games on March 18 and 19, both the Cubs and Dodgers will play on March 27.

The Colorado Rockies and the Tampa Bay Rays are the only two teams that won’t play a regular-season game by the 27th. Those teams will open the season the following day, on Friday, March 28. The Rays and Rockies were initially set to begin play March 27, but the game was moved back a day after Hurricane Milton damaged Tropicana Field in October. 

In fact, Tropicana Field will not be ready for the start of the season, forcing the Rays to play their home games this year at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, where the Yankees play their spring training games. The Rays pushed back their first regular-season game so stadium workers would have an additional day to transition the ballpark from Yankees to Rays.

What is the MLB Tokyo Series?

To kick off the 2025 MLB regular season, the league opted to play two games between the Cubs and Dodgers in Tokyo a week before domestic Opening Day. Both teams boast Japanese stars, including Ohtani, Yamamoto and Wednesday’s starter, Roki Sasaki, for the Dodgers, as well as Seiya Suzuki and Tuesday’s starter, Shota Imanaga, for the Cubs.

This is the second straight season in which the league has played its first regular-season game overseas. The Dodgers and the San Diego Padres opened the 2024 MLB season with a two-game series in Korea while the rest of the league was still in the midst of spring training.

MLB Opening Day 2025 schedule

As noted, the Brewers and Yankees kick things off on March 27 at 3:05 p.m. ET on ESPN. ESPN will also broadcast the Detroit Tigers vs. Dodgers contest, which starts at 7:10 p.m. ET. Those are the only two games that will be nationally broadcast that day.

Full schedule of March 27 games (all times Eastern):

• 3:05 p.m. – Milwaukee Brewers at New York Yankees

• 3:07 p.m. – Baltimore Orioles at Toronto Blue Jays

• 4:05 p.m. – Texas Rangers at Boston Red Sox

• 4:05 p.m. – Philadelphia Phillies at Washington Nationals

• 4:10 p.m. – Cleveland Guardians at Kansas City Royals

• 4:10 p.m. – New York Mets at Houston Astros

• 4:10 p.m. – San Francisco Giants at Cincinnati Reds

• 4:10 p.m. – Atlanta Braves at San Diego Padres

• 4:10 p.m. – Los Angeles Angels at Chicago White Sox

• 4:10 p.m. – Pittsburgh Pirates at Miami Marlins

• 4:15 p.m. – Minnesota Twins at St. Louis Cardinals

• 7:10 p.m. – Detroit Tigers at Los Angeles Dodgers

• 10:10 p.m. – Chicago Cubs at Arizona Diamondbacks

• 10:10 p.m. – Athletics at Seattle Mariners

On March 28, the Colorado Rockies and Tampa Bay Rays will play their first regular-season game at 4:10 p.m. ET.

MLB Opening Day 2025 starting pitchers

With the regular season quickly approaching, a number of teams have already announced who will be on the mound for Opening Day. The Dodgers called on Yamamoto to start Game 1 of the Tokyo Series, and he opposed Imanaga in the contest.

The following pitchers will get the ball for their teams on domestic Opening Day:

• Freddy Peralta (MIL) vs. Carlos Rodón (NYY)

• Zach Eflin (BAL) vs. José Berríos (TOR)

• Garrett Crochet (BOS) vs. Nathan Eovaldi (TEX)

• Zack Wheeler (PHI) vs. MacKenzie Gore (WAS)

• TBD (CLE) vs. Cole Ragans (KCR)

• Clay Holmes (NYM) vs. Framber Valdez (HOU)

• Logan Webb (SFG) vs. Hunter Greene (CIN)

• Chris Sale (ATL) vs. Michael King (SDP)

• Yusei Kikuchi (LAA) vs. Sean Burke (CWS)

• Paul Skenes (PIT) vs. Sandy Alcantara (MIA)

• Pablo López (MIN) vs. Sonny Gray (STL)

• Tarik Skubal (DET) vs. TBD (LAD)

• TBD (CHC) vs. TBD (ARI)

• Luis Severino (ATH) vs. Logan Gilbert (SEA)

• TBD (COL) vs. Shane McClanahan (TBR)

The Cubs, Dodgers, Guardians and Rockies are the only four teams that have not named their starters ahead of their first regular-season games following the Tokyo Series.

The Mets break camp in less than a week, before traveling to Houston to begin the regular season against the Astros on March 27.

The expectations they had entering spring training remain the same with them about to wrap spring training: compete for the NL East title, make the playoffs, and be a legitimate threat to win the World Series.

New York will be challenged early, though, with a handful of key injuries. And those injuries have altered how their roster will look from the jump.

Here is our 26-man roster prediction 3.0 for Opening Day…

REGULAR LINEUP

Luis Torrens: C
Pete Alonso: 1B
Brett Baty: 2B
Francisco Lindor: SS
Mark Vientos: 3B
Brandon Nimmo: LF
Jose Siri: CF
Juan Soto: RF
Jesse Winker: DH

Two injuries have shaken things up here.

The first is a hand injury to Francisco Alvarez, which will keep him out until at least the end of April — though Alvarez is hopeful he’ll be able to return on the shorter end of the team’s six-to-eight week projection.

In Alvarez’s place as the starter will be Torrens, who knows the pitching staff and should be able to hold things together.

The other injury is to Jeff McNeil, who was having a strong spring before going down with a mild oblique issue.

McNeil is only expected to be out until the second or third week of the season, but the Mets will need a regular starter at second base in his stead. And that will be Baty.

Even before McNeil went down, the Mets were getting Baty exposure at second base in addition to third base — in preparation for him potentially landing a role on the bench.

And Baty has excelled — adeptly handling second base while looking very good at the plate. He has earned this shot.

Everything else is as expected as it pertains to the regular position players, including Winkeras the designated hitter and Siri as the initial choice to get the bulk of the starts in center field.

STARTING ROTATION

Clay Holmes: RHP
David Peterson: LHP
Kodai Senga: RHP
Griffin Canning: RHP
Tylor Megill: RHP

This is where the most uncertainty is.

New York will begin the season without Sean Manaea and Frankie Montas, though Manaea has already resumed throwing and should return at some point in April.

The prognosis isn’t as promising for Montas, who could be back in May but whose next time on a big league mound will likely come in June.

That means added stress on a unit that was already the Mets’ one big question mark when it still had a fully healthy Manaea and Montas.

Holmes, who will start on Opening Day, has been mostly dominant in spring training. So there shouldn’t be much concern about his stuff translating to a starting role. But it’s still fair to wonder about his stamina and how many innings he’ll be able to provide.

Peterson will be looking to build off his strong 2024, while Senga — who has been proceeding deliberately this spring — is attempting to shake off a year mostly lost to injury.

The back end of the rotation will feature Canning (who seems to be benefiting from the Mets’ pitching lab) and Megill (who has yet to find consistency, but has good stuff and some upside).

BULLPEN

Edwin Diaz: CLS
A.J. Minter: LHP
Reed Garrett: RHP
Ryne Stanek:RHP
Jose Butto: RHP
Max Kranick: RHP
Danny Young: LHP
Paul Blackburn: RHP

The Mets’ bullpen should be a strength this season, and it has a chance to be one of the best in baseball if things break right.

Diaz, Minter, Stanek, and Garrett are legitimate late-inning weapons, while Butto and Kranick — who are expected to be able to provide multiple innings at a clip — could be X-factors.

Since Kranick has a minor league option remaining, New York could theoretically have him begin the season in the minors. But with his stuff playing up as he transitions to a full-time relief role and Kranick having been one of the Mets’ most dominant pitchers this spring, it makes no sense to not carry him right away.

Dedniel Núñez will be a huge part of the relief corps this year after missing the end of last season due to injury, but his first game action of the spring didn’t come until March 17. And while Núñez was dominant in that appearance, the guess here is that he’ll need a bit longer to get ready.

That would open the door for the Mets to carry Young, who is out of options and will give New York a second left-hander to go along with Minter.

The final spot in the bullpen will go to Blackburn, who is also out of options and can provide serious length if needed.

BENCH

Tyrone Taylor: OF
Hayden Senger: C
Donovan Walton: INF
Starling Marte: DH/OF

The most interesting thing to watch here is the backup infielder role, though this one seems easy to call.

Luisangel Acuñahas been in competition for a bench spot and (recently) the regular second base job with McNeil down for a bit. But unless the Mets think it will benefit them and Acuña for him to be part of a platoon with Baty at second and a bench player the rest of the time, it doesn’t make much sense to carry him.

The better plan is to have Acuña begin the year with Triple-A Syracuse, where he can continue to work on his offense. That would mean a spot on the bench for Walton, who has five years of big league experience as a defense-first backup capable of playing third base, shortstop, second base, and corner outfield.

The rest of the bench will be Taylor or Siri (whoever isn’t starting in center field that day), Senger (who will be the backup in place of Torrens until Alvarez returns), and Marte.

Marte’s inclusion was a bit of a question until recently, with him continuing to deal with a lingering knee issue.

But with Marte’s main role as the short end of a DH platoon, it’s easy to have him on the roster despite his limited mobility.