Mets Morning News: Rafael Montero looks good, David Wright feels good, Johan's arm strength is not good

Meet the Mets

The Mets beat the Nationals 3-1 in Port St. Lucie yesterday afternoon, as pitching prospect Rafael Montero got the spot start and tossed an impressive 4.2 shutout innings. Lucas Duda cracked his fourth home run of the spring and they got strong efforts from five different relievers over the final 4.1 innings to close things out. This afternoon, the Mets play split squad games, as they take on the Cardinals in Jupiter, while they also play the Tigers at Tradition Field on WPIX.

There's good injury news and some bad injury news. The bad? With his shoulder still weak, Johan Santana may not be ready to pitch in games for six weeks. The good? David Wright may see game action later this week and Frank Francisco threw his first bullpen session of the spring.

Zack Wheeler pitched in a minor league game yesterday and wowed scouts in attendance with a fastball at 96-98 MPH and four plus pitches. Maybe Matt Harvey really is way, way behind Wheeler. I mean W A Y behind. I'll stop there.

At Faith And Fear In Flushing, Greg is ready for baseball and the great outfield experiment of 2013 to begin.

Around the Majors

Mike Trout is really good at running the bases, so Jeff Sullivan decided to look at the few times he was caught stealing in 2012 (he was caught just 5 times in 54 attempts).

Yasiel Puig's had a great spring small sample but if he's truly for real, it seems like a bad omen for the rest of baseball (and a good one for Dodgers fans).

The Astros and Ronny Cedeno are close to an agreement on a contract.

Thanks to a good spring, we'll find out tomorrow if Yuniesky Betancourt is going to make the Phillies' roster. Yes, that Yuniesky Betancourt with the career .290 OBP.

Cardinals' closer Jason Motte is likely headed to the DL to start 2013.

Yesterday At AA

Brock Mahan looks back at March 23rd in Mets' history.