Cardinals vs Mets, 1:05 PM, Tradition Field

Third baseman David Wright will finally play in his first Grapefruit League game today at Tradition Field when the Mets take on the St. Louis Cardinals.

Second baseman Daniel Murphy will also make his first appearance of the Spring. Both players are healthy, but were held out by Terry Collins in an effort to lessen their risk for injury. Murphy and Wright missed significant time last spring with oblique injuries.

Shortstop Ruben Tejada is in today’s lineup against the Cards after being sidelined for nearly a week by a tight hamstring. Tejada is still battling to maintain his hold on the starting shortstop job.

John Lannan was originally scheduled to start Thursday’s rained-out game against the Houston Astros, but will pitch in relief today as the Mets give Daisuke Matsuzaka the starting assignment. Rafael Montero and Steven Matz are also due to pitch.

Here are this afternoon’s lineups:

Mets

Eric Young, LF
Daniel Murphy, 2B
David Wright, 3B
Curtis Granderson, RF
Chris Young, CF
Josh Satin, 1B
Travis d’Arnaud, C
Kirk Nieuwenhuis, DH
Ruben Tejada, SS

Cardinals

Jon Jay, CF
Kolten Wong, 2B
Matt Holliday, DH
Jhonny Peralta, SS
Daniel Descalso, 3B
Scott Moore, 1B
Randal Grichuk, LF
Oscar Taveras, RF
Tony Cruz, C

Thoughts:

As some beat writers have already pointed out this morning, this lineup today comes close to resembling the Opening Day lineup. All that’s really missing is the winner of the Ike Davis and Lucas Duda competition at first base. However Satin should play regularly against left-handed pitching anyway.

Tejada has a lot of ground to make up even though he has no real competition for shortstop on the roster. Anthony Seratelli has opened some eyes, but mostly as a utility bench option.

I’m really looking forward to seeing this 1-5 in the lineup today. If the Mets are seriously going to have a winning season, it’s going to begin right there.