The New York Mets are taking on the Toronto Blue Jays in Spring Training action on Monday.
Blue Jays fans in Dunedin hoping to see the departed Bo Bichette play, though, will be disappointed.
Bichette isn’t in Toronto’s lineup for the afternoon game.
The Mets’ lineup looks like this:
- MJ Melendez RF
- Mark Vientos DH
- Ronny Mauricio 3B
- Jared Young 1B
- Hayden Senger C
- Vidal Brujan SS
- Jackson Cluff 2B
- Nick Morabito LF
- Ji-Hwan Bae CF
Clay Holmes pitches for a Mets team that is playing essentially none of its regulars.
There’s a simple explanation for the absences of Bichette and the rest.
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Why isn’t Bo Bichette playing today?
Bichette isn’t playing Monday in large part because the game is on the road in Dunedin.
“This was an obvious one, though, so don’t view it as anything out of the ordinary,” MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson wrote on X. “Veterans and guys on big contracts almost never make the cross-state trips to play.”
As you’ll note, there’s no Juan Soto or Marcus Semien or Jorge Polanco or Luis Robert Jr. or Francisco Alvarez in there, either.
The Mets are letting the second-stringers make the early spring road trip and keeping the veterans at home to get their work in.
