Mets Morning News: Matz makes good

Meet the Mets

The story of the day was Steven Matz, who finally looked like himself on Friday, pitching four scoreless innings against the Tigers.

Kristie Ackert, among others, argued that Matz earned himself a place in the conversation about who will be the Mets’ fifth starter.

Sources told Matt Ehalt that the Mets had a deal in place that would have sent Paul Sewald to the Indians for Jason Kipnis, but it was nixed by ownership.

The Mets have begun taking health and nutrition very seriously at spring training, gathering data to track player progress.

Kevin Plawecki will see more playing time in 2018 according to Mickey Callaway.

Around the National League East

Braves prospect Luiz Gohara is injured yet again.

In a somewhat surprising turn considering he’s still banned from WWE, Hulkamania was running wild at Phillies spring training on Friday.

Tony Clark called out the Marlins for breaking up their team, pointing to it as a prime example of a team that didn’t need to go into rebuilding mode as it had young talent.

Around Major League Baseball

MLB and Facebook have partnered to exclusively air 25 games on Facebook Watch this season. The Mets will face the Phillies in the first such game on April 4.

The White Sox’s Cuban connect is still going strong.

The Athletics have signed Jonathan Lucroy to a one-year deal.

Could baseball legally exclude a woman from playing?

In a reminder of his humanity, Shohei Ohtani had a dud of a game against a Mexican league team on Friday.

Yesterday at Amazin’ Avenue

Allison McCague argued that the Mets should consider signing Neil Walker if they can get him on a cheap deal.

Richard Staff likes the way Yoenis Cespedes plays and hopes you do too.

This Date in Mets History

The first Mets game in history took place on this date in 1962, as the Mets took on the St. Louis Cardinals in the Grapefruit League.