2008 New York Mets Season - Spring Training

Spring Training

The Mets entered spring training with questions about their pitching staff due to injury and age. Duaner Sánchez was still recovering from his shoulder injury, and older starters Pedro Martínez and Orlando Hernández were coming off of seasons when they missed significant time due to injury. Martínez made it to Opening Day healthy, but Sánchez and Hernández opened the regular season on the disabled list.

During spring training, the team suffered several injuries to players that they had pegged to play with the Mets when the season opened on March 31. On March 1, Ryan Church collided with Marlon Anderson while trying to catch a fly ball, leaving Church with a concussion and Anderson with a bruised sternum. Ramón Castro aggravated his right hamstring injury on March 16, ending up with a sprain. It was more severe than first thought, keeping Castro out of play through the beginning of the season. Carlos Beltrán and Luis Castillo were late to start playing because they were both still recovering from offseason knee surgery, while Moisés Alou was held out of action because of hernia surgery. Other players suffered minor injuries that held them out of many exhibition games, but they returned before the first game that counted.

John Maine had the strongest spring training performance from the pitching staff, leading all National League pitchers with a 1.53 ERA. Maine went 3–1 over 29⅓ innings, with 33 strikeouts and five walks. Ángel Pagán was a surprising force on offense, batting .329 to win the starting left field competition that was open due to Alou's injury.

Coming out of spring training, the Mets set their starting rotation with Johan Santana, Martínez, Maine, Óliver Pérez, and Mike Pelfrey in place of Hernández. The bullpen consisted of Billy Wagner, Aaron Heilman, Pedro Feliciano, Scott Schoeneweis, Matt Wise, and Joe Smith, who beat Brian Stokes for a spot on the roster. Brian Schneider, Carlos Delgado, Castillo, José Reyes, David Wright, Pagán, Beltrán, and Church started in the field.

Anderson, Damion Easley, and Endy Chávez were set as the bench players, joined by Brady Clark and Raul Casanova due to Alou's and Castro's injuries. These decisions caused Rubén Gotay to lose his spot on the roster after playing in 98 games in 2007, so the Mets placed him on waivers, where he was claimed by the Atlanta Braves on March 28.