Vargas gave up a run on a hit and a walk over two innings while striking out three in Thursday's Grapefruit League game against the Cardinals.

EDGE Analysis

After Matt Carpenter took him deep for a leadoff homer, the veteran lefty found a groove against a St. Louis lineup that also included Paul Goldschmidt and Jose Martinez. Vargas is coming off a dreadful 2018 marred by a career-worst 1.76 HR/9, so his ability to keep the ball in the park is worth keeping an eye on this spring, but at the moment the Mets seem content to begin the season with him as their fifth starter and hope he can put up numbers closer to his 2017 performance with the Royals (4.16 ERA, 1.33 WHIP over 179.2 innings).