The Mets only brought one opening day started to Lakeland to take on the Tigers, and may be fined and/or reprimanded for not complying with league rules.
According to Jayson Stark on ESPN.com, Jimmie Lee Solomon, MLB's executive vice president for baseball operations, recently sent a memo to all teams requiring them they must bring a minimum of four players who were members of the team the previous year or had a "reasonable chance" of making the team this year.
The Mets brought Ryan Church, Ramon Castro, Marlon Anderson, and Ruben Gotay. I'm going out on a limb here and assuming pitchers weren't counted in this rule, because they also brought along Mike Pelfrey, Pedro Feliciano and Jorge Sosa, who all played significant time for the team last year.
Stark says, "Indications are that the commissioner's office is already looking into this one. The Mets could be fined, reprimanded or both."
This is all assuming pitchers are not counted in this rule and it was an oversight by Solomon and maybe even Stark. We'll have to wait and see, but this is a pretty silly rule, especially for the first spring training game that just happens to be 2 1/2 hours away.
UPDATE: The Mets were cleared of all charges by the commissioner's office.
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