The Mets will be without one of their aces for the time being, as Justin Verlander will start the season on the IL with a teres major strain.
The news comes with Jose Quintana already on the shelf until at least August with a stress fracture in his ribs, and All-Star closer Edwin Diaz out for likely the entire season due to a patellar tendon tear in his knee.
Suddenly, a team with World Series hopes now has to try to just tread water through the first month of the season, at least in the eyes of BT.
"April for the Mets is not about coming out and flexing and establishing themselves and following up on last year's great 101-win regular season total," BT said. "They've got the Padres coming to Citi, they've got a 10-game west coast trip within the first two weeks of the season, they're playing four with the Braves. To me, April is just about not drowning. That's it. Don't drown.
"I don't think you can minimize this. I mean, look at the rotation!"
The Mets showed on Opening Day that they can mask some of their injuries. Max Scherzer turned in a quality start while the bullpen was flawless, and the offense got to the reining Cy Young winner in Sandy Alcantara. Still, BT says the Mets just need to worry about keeping a mediocre pace until reinforcements arrive.
"You certainly take away the components from the game," BT said. "There's a lot to like. They beat one of the two or three best pitchers in baseball."
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