Mets Morning News: Opening day roster is nearly set, Mets order a side of Rice

Meet the Mets

See ya next year, Port St. Lucie! The Mets closed up their home spring schedule with a 7-2 victory over the Cardinals, as Matt Harvey looked sharp over four innings. David Wright and Daniel Murphy were both in the lineup, making it likely that they'll be ready to play on Opening Day.

After the game, the team went about finalizing its roster. The team added LaTroy Hawkins, Scott Atchison, and Marlon Byrd to the roster as expected, while also giving 31-year old Scott Rice his first trip to the big leagues after 14 minor league seasons. The team designated Reese Havens and Darin Gorski for assignment and both players cleared waivers. Also making the roster are relievers Greg Burke and Jeurys Familia.

There was plenty of reaction to Johan Santana's injury yesterday. At Fangraphs, Paul Swydan bids farewell to Johan Santana with a nice look back at his career. Sandy Alderson said that there's no link between Santana's no-hitter and the tear of his anterior capsule and Dr. James Andrews agrees. Santana, meanwhile, is still discussing his options and supposedly leaning towards another surgery.

A pair of Mets' prospects had a minor dust-up last week: Zack Wheeler hit Aderlin Rodriguez with a pitch after Rodriguez pimped his way around the bases on a home run. Luckily, it seems like everything was smoothed over and this is all in the past.

Paul DePodesta wrote a piece for CNBC, saying that "more data is not always better data".

Bobby Valentine is officially joining SNY in a limited role during pre- and post-game shows.

Around the Majors

Baseball Prospectus put out their 2013 organizational prospect rankings and the Mets came in 10th overall.

Was 2012 a golden age for center fielders around Major League Baseball? Grant Brisbee says that it just might've been.

Former Mets' reliever C.J. Nitkowski has some end of spring training "cut day" stories from his career.

Two star players got paid on Friday, as Justin Verlander and Buster Posey agreed to long term contract extensions. Are extensions the new on base percentage?

Apparently, the Phillies used seven year old scouting reports when signing Delmon Young this offseason and Ruben Amaro likes to sign players based on how many RBIs they have. I'm glad that's not the Mets' front office.

Yesterday At AA

Pack Bringley continues our Top 50 Mets series with #35 Wayne Garrett.

Brock Mahan looks back at March 29th in Mets history.