Mets officially open alternate training camp site in Brooklyn
A general view of MCU Park on Thursday, Aug. 16, 2018 in Brooklyn. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Mets officially opened their alternate training site in Brooklyn on Monday.
MCU Park, usually the home of the short-season Class A Cyclones on Coney Island, instead will be the home of the Mets’ backup players during the pandemic-delayed season scheduled to begin July 24.
Teams can have 60 players in their so-called player pool. Thirty of those players will be on the Opening Day roster. The rest will work out at the club’s alternate training site, waiting for if and when someone on the active roster needs to be replaced. In the absence of a minor-league season, the backup site and player-pool system functionally replace Triple-A.
The Mets also added seven players to their player pool. That included the only four players on the 40-man roster who were not in the initial player pool: righthanders Franklyn Kilome and Jordan Humphreys and lefthanders Stephen Gonsalves and Thomas Szapucki.
Righthander Matt Blackham, infielder Jake Hager and catcher David Rodriguez also will join camp.
The Mets’ 60-man player pool is at 58 players, leaving little room for them to add further-away prospects who otherwise won’t be able to practice baseball in an organized team setting this summer.
