Don’t miss Mike Puma’s text messages from spring training — he’s giving Sports+ subscribers the inside buzz on the Mets.

Not sure if it was confident, cool-headed baseball president David Stearns, excellent pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, the vaunted pitching lab or what, but the Mets pulled together a better-than-presentable rotation last year despite dire predictions. 

Once again, they act confidently, speak positively and perhaps see something we don’t. But the Mets rotation, with two spring injuries diminishing a solid-but-unimposing group, from here looks incomplete at best, worrisome at worst. 

Sean Manaea can be back by mid-April, though they’ll be cautious with his oblique strain following his impressive, extended 2024. But the goal for late May or early June for Frankie Montas, who has a troublesome, high-grade lat strain, may be slightly hopeful. Montas avoided surgery, but this is a tricky injury. 

With arguably the game’s best lineup, the Mets know they don’t need a rotation of aces. Still, this is a rough beginning.