This morning in Port St. Lucie, the Mets are preparing for their first spring training game, which begins at 12:10 pm today against the Washington Nationals. As usual, the players started with a team stretch and broke out into groups. The catchers practiced blocking pitches off a pitching machine operated by Bob Geren, and I was able to get some video of Travis d'Arnaud honing his pitch-blocking craft.

As you can see in the photos above, Jenrry Mejia threw a bullpen after reporting to spring training yesterday, and the rest of the players were running through some routine drills. Zack Wheeler was in the cage practicing bunting and taking a few swings. If you didn't already know, Wheeler's a left-handed hitter despite the fact that he's a right-handed pitcher.

I also bumped into Sandy Alderson, who said that d'Arnaud and Wheeler — assuming they start the year in Vegas — will be deemed ready much in the same fashion that Matt Harvey was last year, after more or less mastering the Triple-A level.