Like the rest of Major League Baseball, the Yankees are beginning to put together who will and who will not be on their Opening Day roster.  With the recent acquisitions of Brandon Drury and Neil Walker, 1B/OF Adam Lind became more expendable than he already was.  As a result, the Yankees released him allowing him to find the perfect situation for him to make an Opening Day roster.

For Lind, that situation should be with the New York Mets.

As the Mets progress towards Opening Day, the team is still unsettled at both first base and the outfield.  In what should come as a surprise to no one, this is really the result of injuries.

While he is not technically injured, Adrian Gonzalez is dealing with back issues which require him to warm up two hours before a game.  Whatever he is doing has not been working so far.  No, we should not read too much into Spring stats, but Gonzalez going 5-30 this Spring should be cause for concern, especially with how poorly he has looked on the field.

Now, the answer at first base should Gonzalez falter was Dominic Smith.  As Spring Training began, Smith was svelt, and he looked poised to give Gonzalez a real fight for the first base job.  That was until Smith showed up late the day of the first Spring Training game.  After that, he suffered an injury, and he has still only played in one Spring Training game.

Given the Springs we have seen from both Gonzalez and Smith, the first base job should be considered well up for grabs.  Arguably, the Mets could circumvent some of this by moving Jay Bruce from right field to first base.  That could have the added benefit of having Bruce not sprinting around the outfield with his plantar fasciitis.

However, Bruce may be needed in the outfield.  Yoenis Cespedes just received a cortisone injection due to a wrist injury.  With the Mets being the Mets, the team allowed him to play in a Spring Training game knowing he had the wrist injury.  With the Mets being the Mets, we don’t know how long the wrist will be an issue.

If Cespedes goes down, this means both Brandon Nimmo and Juan Lagares will have to play everyday due to the thin outfield depth in the Mets organization.  Unfortunately, both of those players have had their own injury issues.  This necessitates the team add to its outfield depth because Matt den Dekker is not the answer.

This brings us back to Lind.

The left-handed hitting Lind is coming off a terrific year as a bench player for the Washington Nationals.  In 116 games, he hit .303/.362/.513 with 14 doubles, 14 homers, and 59 RBI.  He split time fairly evenly between first base and left field.  While he’s not really good at either position, he at least has the experience to play them somewhat capably, and he hits enough against right-handed pitching to offset some of his defensive deficiencies.

In his career, Lind is a .288/.348/.504 hitter against right-handed pitching.  This would make him an ideal platoon partner with Wilmer Flores at first.  It would also make him a welcome addition to a team which features a bench with players like Jose Reyes and Lagares who hit left-handed pitching well but struggle against right-handed pitching.  Essentially, Lind balances out both the bench and the roster.

At this point, the Mets really need to ask themselves if it is worth gambling with Gonzalez at first given how poorly he has looked this Spring.  The team also has to consider if they are comfortable with den Dekker playing a larger than originally anticipated role.  Taking all of this into account, the Mets should be picking up the phone to bring in Lind as first base and outfield insurance.