Colon, Mets Start Season Against Team To Beat In NL East

WASHINGTON (CBSNewYork/AP) — As the season starts, shortstop Ian Desmond and the rest of the Nationals are a popular pick to win their first World Series in what some think could be the current core's last hurrah.

Meanwhile, the Mets are looking to bump Washington off its perch.

"We have a guy in our organization, and he's back and he's healthy, named Matt Harvey," Mets manager Terry Collins said, according to MLB.com. "The middle of your lineup is going to be the key to any club. (Third baseman) David Wright being healthy, he's the key. I think a healthy David Wright's going to play well, and that's why I think this is the year for our team to step up."

The reigning NL East champion Nationals will be missing three everyday players — center fielder Denard Span, left fielder Jayson Werth and third baseman Anthony Rendon — when they open up at home Monday against New York, who finished tied for second place in 2014, 17 games behind Washington.

"They're a good team," New York shortstop Wilmer Flores said. "We have a good team, too."

Certainly one that's expected to be an improved team. The Mets have had six losing seasons in a row since moving into their new ballpark, but young pitchers Harvey (coming off Tommy John surgery) and Jacob deGrom (the 2014 NL Rookie of the Year) inspire optimism.

Neither will be on the mound Monday, though. Instead, it'll be Bartolo Colon, who at age 41 will be the oldest opening-day starter in Mets history — and in the major leagues since 2006.

"It's always an honor to start on opening day," Colon said. "Anyone on the staff could have been named the opening day starter. I'm looking forward to it. I think we've got a chance to have a great season and I want to do my part."

Colon, 15-13 with a 4.09 ERA last year, will be facing Max Scherzer, who takes the mound on opening day for the first time, beginning to earn the $210 million his new contract with the Nationals pays.

"It's cool to say that you've started on an opening day before, but at the same time, it really doesn't mean a whole lot," said Scherzer, who went 18-5 with a 3.15 ERA for the Detroit Tigers in 2014, a year after winning the AL Cy Young Award. "Starting Game 1 of a playoff series? Yeah, that means a little bit more."

Washington will need to weather a bunch of injuries in the early going, including to more than a third of their ideal everyday lineup, but that's something the team managed to do a year ago.

"We're good at that. That's what we do," Desmond said. "We have players who are ready to play at the big league level and fill in, and they know their role and can fill in and do the job the right way until the big guys come back."

Because of the up-in-the-air futures of players such as Desmond and Zimmermann, the right-hander who threw a no-hitter in the regular-season finale in September, there are those who wonder whether this could be the last best chance at a title for a while in Washington. The team failed to win a playoff series in 2012 or 2014 after finishing with the NL's best record each time.

Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo, not surprisingly, doesn't look at this as possibly the end of an era.

"We're not about to start talking about windows closing and that type of thing. We've built something here that we think is going to continue to be in existence. We're not built all-or-nothing for this year. We're built for the long haul," Rizzo said. "We think we're going to be a good, competitive team for years to come. The core players that we have this year are focused in on playing this year and winning this year — and what happens beyond that is between players and management."

The same goes for the Mets, bolstered by the return of Harvey.

"That's like getting one of the best free agents out there," Collins said. "It's huge for this team."

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