With the starting rotation now set, the New York Mets shored up their Opening Day roster on Tuesday.
The most glaring differences from 2008 are in the bullpen, where only Pedro Feliciano, Bobby Parnell and Brian Stokes held their roster spots from last year.
Reliever Sean Green (who appeared in 72 games last year for the Seattle Mariners) should eat up plenty of middle innings, and stepping in for 2008 sidearm righthander Joe Smith is subsidearm righthander Darren O’Day. O’Day appeared in 30 games for the Los Angeles Angels last year, going 0-1 with a 4.57 in 43 1/3 innings worth of work.
And if we can make it through seven innings with a lead, expect to see J.J. Putz in the eighth and Major League save record-holder Francisco Rodriguez in the ninth.
The rest of the Mets’ roster, according toMLB.com, is as follows:
Carlos Delgado (1B), Luis Castillo (2B), Jose Reyes (SS) and David Wright (3B) will be familiar faces around the horn, and Marlon Anderson and Alex Cora will be helping out off the bench. Nick Evans will begin the season as a Met but plans are to send him to AAA Buffalo when fifth starter Livan Hernandez officially joins the roster for his Mets debut.
Carlos Beltran, Ryan Church, Daniel Murphy and Fernando Tatis will be joined in the outfield by newcomer Jeremy Reed, who batted .269 in 97 games with the Mariners.
Brian Schneider and Ramon Castro will be flashing the signs behind the plate
