Tuesday was a step in that direction and there is confidence in camp that as long as Lindor continues to trend that way, that he\u2019ll be able to get enough at-bats this spring to not miss any time during the regular season.<\/p>\n
Ronny Mauricio displayed his athleticism at short in the Mets 6-3 win over Team Nicaragua at Clover Park, as he and Vidal Bruj\u00e1n fill in during the spring.<\/p>\n
![\"Bo](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/l-walks-francisco-lindor-c-122184383_5b0404.jpg\")
Bo Bichette (left), Francisco Lindor (center), and Marcus Semien (right) walk together during spring training. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n
Jonah Tong is going heavy with his new pitch, the cutter, this spring.<\/p>\n
He used it early and often throughout his outing against Team Nicaragua at Clover Park.<\/p>\n
When he came up late in the season a year ago, Tong mostly featured a four-seam fastball, and Tuesday he used the cutter on 39 percent of his pitches, throwing it to both righties and lefties.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought the cutter was really good,\u201d said Tong, who allowed one run on five hits in 2 \u00b2\/\u2083 innings, striking out three and walking none in his 54-pitch outing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got some swing-and-miss and filled up the zone with it,\u2019\u2019 the right-hander said.<\/p>\n
Mendoza liked the fact Tong was persistent with the pitch in different situations as he grows accustomed to using it in game situations.<\/p>\n
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/new-york-mets-pitcher-jonah-122680692.jpg\")
Jonah Tong delivers a pitch during the Mets\u2019 6-3 win over Nicaragua during the first inning at Clover Park on March 3, 2026. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
\u201cHe used that cutter a lot,\u2019\u2019 the manager said. \u201cIt came and went, but he kept going to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The goal, Tong said, is to take the pitch that\u2019s similar to the slider he\u2019s had in his arsenal and be able to throw it in the strike zone.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing it take off is nice,\u2019\u2019 Tong said.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Mets by Mike Puma, exclusively on Sports+\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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Luis Robert Jr. is slated to appear in a game for the first time this spring Wednesday, as Mendoza said he\u2019ll be in center field in the same minor league game Nolan McLean is starting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Mets have been cautious with their new outfielder due to his injury history.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the beginning [of camp] we\u2019ve put together a progression,\u2019\u2019 Mendoza said. \u201cIt\u2019s about strength with his lower half. He\u2019s doing full activity. We just wanted to be careful.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Jorge Polanco has so far only played first base in simulated games this spring, but he\u2019s scheduled to make his Grapefruit League debut at his new position Thursday, according to Mendoza.<\/p>\n
The manager said they want to get Polanco at first \u201cas much as possible,\u2019\u2019 although he\u2019ll likely continue to DH on a somewhat regular basis in games.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he needs more reps he can go on an off day and play a minor league game,\u2019\u2019 Mendoza said. \u201cHe feels good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prospect Chris Suero saw time in left field and hit his second homer of the spring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORT ST. LUCIE \u2014 Francisco Lindor, sidelined following surgery for a broken hamate bone in his left hand,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2396],"tags":[5,227,12950,101,4,1690,61,2548,4203,185,151],"class_list":{"0":"post-605080","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-mets","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-francisco-lindor","10":"tag-jonah-tong","11":"tag-mets","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-mets","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkmets","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-spring-training"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116169136896322187","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}