Opening Day is here as New York Mets, New York Yankees look to start the season off right

Opening day has finally arrived, and the New York Mets and New York Yankees will look to start their seasons off the right way when play begins on Thursday afternoon.

At long last, we’ve arrived at the day that we thought would never come with the New York Mets, New York Yankees, along with baseball in general being back.

Opening Day is finally here. The stadiums are being opened to the fans, lines are being painted on field, and the grounds crew is making their final preparations to begin the new season. This day each year is a national holiday for baseball fans. We rejoice when the words “Opening Day” are spoken as we see our teams in real action for the first time since the fall.

Every baseball fan loves Opening Day, and the fans of the Mets and Yankees should be even more excited than usual this year.

For the Yankees, they’ll be coming off a season in which they won 100 games in the regular season, but just two games in the post season.

With almost the same roster coming back, along with the additions of James Paxton, Troy Tulowitzki, DJ Lemahieu and Adam Ottavino, among others, the team will be poised to make another trip to the post season in 2019.

The expectations are high for the Bronx Bombers, but this is a team that has proven people wrong before. A lot of the same core was expected to be an average team in 2017, only for them to come within a game of the World Series.

Led by thumpers Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, the record-breaking Yankees lineup from 2018 will look to do more of the same this season.

They also boast one of the deepest rotations in the MLB, with the late-spring addition of Gio Gonzalez making them even better.

The bullpen is also arguably the best in the majors, so if the starters get in trouble the relievers will be there to clean up the mess.

The Yankees somehow improved their roster this offseason, and they hope to improve their record and post season status this year.

While the Yankees are clearly one of the top teams in the MLB, don’t count out the Mets from making a run of their own as well.

Mets General Manager Brodie Van Wagenen made it a goal this offseason to improve their roster in an effort to get the team back to the playoffs after this past year’s 77 win season.

As we sit here on the first day of the season, it looks like he has done just that.

Van Wagenen added a plethora of players this offseason, such as Robinson Cano, Edwin Diaz, Wilson Ramos, Jed Lowrie and much more. He also made good on his promise to not play the service time game with top prospect Pete Alonso, as it was announced on Wednesday that he would make the Mets Opening Day roster.

The Mets are also returning their entire starting rotation, which was widely considered one of the best in baseball at the end of 2018. This includes reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom, who will be taking the hill in Game 1 against the Washington Nationals.

The Mets everyday lineup will be anchored by Cano and young slugger Michael Conforto, the latter of which will be looking to bounce back to his 2017 all-star form after a strong second half of last year.

The biggest question mark for both New York baseball clubs this year will be whether or not they can stay fully healthy. This seems like a given, but it is especially true for these two teams.

Both have an impact player sidelined for an extended period of time, as both Didi Gregorius and Yoenis Cespedes will start the season on the Injured List.

Both have also had injury problems in the past with their pitchers, and Yankees starter Luis Severino isn’t expected to be back and healthy again until at least May.

However, both teams have the depth to overcome injury. This is weird to say, especially from a Mets point of view, but that is one reason why both teams are expected to compete this year.

With all of this being said, every season starts at Game 1 of 162. There’s a whole season ahead of both franchises and both fanbases, and it will be a long, windy road to the end.

Buckle up, Mets and Yankees fans. The start of the season is here, and it’s going to be a fun one.