The New York Mets front office backed up the Brink trucks this offseason to ensure an improvement from their 2022 early postseason exit.
However, before they embark on a quest to replicate their dominant regular season success in the National League East, the Mets will await the return of over half an Opening Day roster's worth of players who are scheduled to participate in the 2023 World Baseball Classic tournament.
And with an immense total of 15 players dispersed among the 20 WBC teams, per MLB.com, Mets manager Buck Showalter isn't too keen on the idea of losing a major chunk of the roster throughout the early stages of spring training.
"The worst thing would be for someone to leave and not go play at all," Showalter said, according to NJ.com. "And I know I've voiced that to managers and stuff. It's fine and we're excited and proud that they're going, but they can't come back and be way behind. You worry when guys start their clock up that quickly. But it's good for the game in total."
Here's a full list of Mets players set to represent seven different WBC teams:
Francisco Lindor, INF, Puerto Rico
Edwin Diaz, RHP, Puerto Rico
José Quintana, LHP, Colombia
Eduardo Escobar, INF, Venezuela
Omar Narvaez, C, Venezuela
Elieser Hernandez, RHP, Venezuela
Pete Alonso, INF, United States
Jeff McNeil, OF, United States
Adam Ottavino, RHP, United States
Brooks Raley, LHP, United States
Cam Opp, LHP (minor-leaguer), Great Britain
Claudio Scotti, RHP (minor-leaguer), Italy
Jonathan Araúz, INF (minor-leaguer), Panama
Humberto Mejia, RHP (minor-leaguer), Panama
Dominic Hamel, RHP (minor-leaguer), Puerto Rico
In 2022, the Mets were eliminated by the San Diego Padres in the NL wild-card round after winning 101 games in the regular season. Team owner Steve Cohen has since led an all-out spending spree with the Mets committing over $806.1 million in contracts this offseason.
