Mets Saturday spring training notes

The Mets have John Buck and Travis D’arnaud working together this spring. They are really together though as in hitting drills, catching drills and even signing autographs together. Their lockers are right next to each other and Buck is really mentoring D’arnaud. It is good to see a veteran helping a young guy, I am sure at some point this season they will be on the big league roster together and it will be fascinating to watch how they interact. 
Wally Backman wants to manage in the big leagues but he states he isn’t after Terry Collins job. He did admit it is a tough spot for both of them though. Collins is a lame duck manager this year, if he gets off to a bad start and Backman is doing well in AAA that could be very awkward. Backman has a career 601-564 record in his ten year minor league career.

Jenrry Mejia is being considered as a starting pitcher right now according to Collins. Collins didn’t know whether he could come up before Zach Wheeler if the Mets need an arm, he said a lot of that could depend on how they look this spring.

Collins wants Johan Santana to skip the WBC if it isn’t going to help him get ready for the season. He said he told him if he feels it will help him then he should go ahead and do it. We will find out soon what Santana is going to do.