Oh, the Mets - baseball is back! With fresh, young players on the team

[Each Wednesday, we’ll be bringing you sports news and views by new contributor Mitchell Petit-Frere – welcome, Mitchell! -Ed]

Image source: Zack Wheeler Facebook page

The first official pitch of the Mets’ 2013 season won’t be thrown until April 1, but preparations for the 162-game season began February 11 when pitchers and catchers reported to Port St. Lucie, Florida for spring training.

After four consecutive seasons of fourth place finishes in the NL East, the Mets are hoping to erase memories of nearly half a decade of irrelevance into a season that transforms Citi Field from a ballpark of lost hope into a theater of youthful exuberance. Following two seasons of cleaning house and bidding adieu to high-caliber players with even higher paychecks, the Mets are counting on youth to push them towards a playoff run come fall.

Long gone are the days of lineups doing their best interpretations of that other team from the Bronx, and pitching rotations that stacked up more debt than wins. Carlos Beltran is plying his trade in St. Louis, Jose Reyes is with his second team in as many years, Jason Bay made a trek to the west coast to join Seattle, and R.A. Dickey, CY Young and all, was traded to Toronto this past winter.

It’s the likes of right-handed pitcher, Zack Wheeler, and catcher, Travis d’Arnaud who hold some of the Mets greatest hopes for future success. Wheeler is the No. 8 prospect according to MLB.com’s Top 100 Prospects while d’Arnaud is rated No. 6.

How fitting it is, then, that Wheeler was obtained after the Beltran trade during the summer of 2011 and d’Arnaud found his way to Queens as part of the Dickey trade package in December. Wheeler and d’Arnaud aren’t projected to make their big league debuts until around Memorial Day, but the fact that the Mets are trading old talent for new is a positive sign for the Citi Field faithful.

You can catch the Mets first spring training game this Saturday, Feb. 23, when they take on the Washington Nationals.