"We expect to be a contender," he said Tuesday during his first spring training news conference. "We know how all the teams are. We're going to be in a tough division and play some tough teams on our schedule. We have a great roster, great position players with versatility, great starting rotation or pitchers that have a history of Cy Youngs and World Series winners. And our bullpen has a history of saving games and being closers."

The Mets went 46-26 in the latter part of the 2019 season, finishing three games back of Milwaukee for the second wild card.