Mets Morning News: Wright Leaving Camp Tomorrow, Wheeler Fine To Work Out

The Mets had another Grapefruit League game on Thursday, one which ended in a 4-4 tie. That happens so infrequently in baseball that I had a hard time even typing it (I really had to fight the urge to use the word draw).

Terry Collins spent some of yesterday talking about being aggressive on the basepaths. With a pretty obvious lack of speed in the everyday lineup, I think it might be difficult for his base coaches to follow up on this plan once the games begin to count.

David Wright will be representing the United States in the World Baseball Classic, and he's set to depart Mets camp to join up with the team tomorrow. This is going to be an odd WBC to watch, as the previous tournaments have involved a lot more Mets players.

Zack Wheeler missed his Grapefruit League start several days ago with an oblique strain, but it's not so bad that he is unable to work out. It sounds as if he'll be re-evaluated after the weekend, and we could be seeing him again very shortly. Mike Newman wrote a bit more on Wheeler over at FanGraphs, and you should take the time to check it out.

One young pitcher that didn't miss out on a chance to impress due to injury is Rafael Montero. The fact that the Mets were able to find the late-blooming right-hander is probably at least partly due to Sandy Alderson's work in the Dominican.

Yesterday at AA

Jeff had an excellent article with a few notes on Noah Syndergaard's curveball. If you haven't taken the time to read it yet, you probably should.

James continued our community projection discussions with Kirk Nieuwenhuis. The outfielder is a tough one to project, so many of us will probably follow his lead by swinging and missing.

Dave looked back at Mets history on February 28, the day in which Brian Bannister was born.

R.A. Dickey was seen in a Blue Jays hat. Ouch.

Around Baseball

Poor, poor Jose Reyes. How dumb was that decision to sign with the Miami Marlins? Reyes and his agent both spoke with Ken Davidoff about what a wonderful owner Jeffrey Loria is, and hopefully that helps destroy the Marlins chances of ever signing another player to a multi-year deal again. I'm so glad they are in the NL East.

Over on the other side of town, the Yankees have reportedly made a fairly substantial offer to keep Robinson Cano in pinstripes.

The Mets have been trying to protect young catching prospect Travis d'Arnaud by avoiding blocking home plate during spring training games. Grant Brisbee took a look at home plate collisions over at Baseball Nation.