Let The Games Begin!

Mets start Grapefruit League schedule on Saturday vs. Houston

It was a long, cold winter, but we’re finally here. Today, at 1:10 pm ET, the New York Mets begin their journey toward what should be one of the more exciting, anticipated campaigns in franchise history with their first Grapefruit League matchup of the spring versus Houston at Clover Park.

Right-hander Clay Holmes (three years, $38 million) will take the hill for the Mets, with Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto, Pete Alonso, and Francisco Álvarez sitting atop the batting order. Oh yeah, I definitely wrote that and smiled.

The months spanning the Mets’ remarkable run to the 2024 National League Championship Series last October to first pitch today have been, succinctly put, absolutely wild. Additions, subtractions, and many dramatic twists and turns have led to today, the day those uniforms are buttoned up for the first time and those magical words, play ball, are hollered.

As Pete Alonso proudly exclaimed while rounding the bases following his dagger home run in Milwaukee last fall, “Let’s f---ing go”.

Naturally, all eyes are on the Mets’ $765 million man, Juan Soto, as he dons the orange and blue for the first time between the chalk lines. It isn’t very often you feel butterflies as a fan for a February 22 game in Port St. Lucie, but [audible belly rumbles], that’s exactly what’s happening on Saturday.

Sure, there’s a long way to go, even to get to Opening Day. But there’s absolutely no denying the power of the unique brand of hope that eternally springs up this time of year. And this season, it’s been turned up a few orders of magnitude.

The immaculate vibes we’ve seen in camp via various reports and video clips have already begun to spill over to the fan base. This wasn’t written in the stars, either. In another alternate reality, the addition of Soto could have tightened this group up. The camaraderie and one-for-all mentality that carried this club to the brink of glory last year could have been decimated by adding an insoluble ingredient to the mix.

So far, that does not seem to be the case. If anything, Soto being in the fold appears to have galvanized this team into a more confident, even looser group than we saw in 2024. That bodes well for the next six months. The peaks and valleys of 162 are easier to traverse when the 26-plus in that room are playing for each other.

Let the games begin.