The Mets recently got good injury news on left-handed pitcher Sean Manaea, who was cleared to throw after a follow-up MRI on his right oblique.
Manaea played catch for the first time on Tuesday and is "symptom-free," manager Carlos Mendoza said.
"We gotta pretty much build him back up as a starter," Mendoza explained. "The good thing is he's feeling good, there's nothing going on there -- that oblique. And now it's just 75, 90, 120 [feet] before he gets on the mound."
Speaking last week, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns discussed Manaea's timeline to return.
"He hasn't gone through spring training, so, I think our original timeframe was somewhere mid-to-late April, I think that still holds right now," Stearns said.
Given that Manaea has resumed throwing right around when the Mets thought he would, the above timeframe should hold.
That means that if all goes well, Manaea will not miss a significant chunk of the regular season.
In the absence of Manaea and Frankie Montas to start the season, the Mets' rotation will be headlined by Kodai Senga, Clay Holmes, and David Peterson, and include two pitchers from the depth group of Griffin Canning, Paul Blackburn, and Tylor Megill.
Top pitching prospect Brandon Sproat is expected to be an option at some point during the season -- perhaps as early as the first half -- but he will begin the year back with Triple-A Syracuse.