Welcome back to the Mets Beat newsletter! Anthony DiComo has covered the Mets for MLB.com since 2007, including the past 15 seasons full-time on the beat.

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- To get the obvious thing out of the way first, Trayce Thompson understands the questions. He knows that his brother, Klay, is one of the most famous basketball players on the planet, a generational talent who has won four NBA championships and made five All-Star teams. It’s hard to ignore that sort of reputation.

“I like to call it an athletic family,” Trayce said this week when asked why he didn’t choose basketball himself. “For me, it was baseball from Day 1. You could ask anybody in Portland, Oregon who we grew up with, they would have told you at five years old, baseball was my thing. I love the game. I fell in love with the game at a young age.”

Much like Klay, Trayce Thompson succeeded at the highest level of his sport right away, producing an .896 OPS as a 24-year-old rookie with the White Sox back in 2015. But his journey has grown rockier since then, including multiple DFAs and waiver claims, trades and other transactions. He has switched organizations 12 times over the last 10 years, most recently joining the Mets on a Minor League deal in December. Now two weeks shy of his 33rd birthday, Thompson is looking to stick in the Majors with his new team.

“I think I needed a change,” he said. “I think I needed different at this point in my career.”

So far, so good. Thompson hit a grand slam against the Nationals on Monday and then homered and doubled versus the Cardinals two days later. Through six team games, Thompson has three times as many RBI as any other Met.

“He’s having a great spring so far, right?” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He’s working really, really hard with our hitting coaches. This is a guy that’s making some adjustments, being more direct to the ball being one of those. And he’s having results out of the gate. That’s important. This is a guy that we know the type of athlete he is and what he brings to the table -- a special defender, his speed, and the way he impacts the baseball. It’s good to see him getting results early in camp.”

Maintaining high production levels over the balance of Spring Training will be crucial for Thompson if he wants to make the Major League roster, considering the level of in-house competition. The Mets have four outfield roster locks in Brandon Nimmo, Harrison Bader, Starling Marte and Tyrone Taylor. DJ Stewart entered camp as the favorite for the fifth spot, thanks to his strong run after the Trade Deadline in August. But Stewart scuffled down the stretch and has an accessible Minor League option. If Stewart’s late-year struggles carry over into this spring, Thompson could plausibly beat him out for a roster spot.

Should that happen, Klay (and Trayce’s other older brother, Mychel) will be watching.

“They follow everything,” Thompson said. “At the end of the day, we’re brothers. They follow everything I do, everywhere I’m at. Him and Mychey, my big brothers, they’re always texting me asking how it’s been going.”

Which Mets player was not born in Venezuela?

A) Luisangel Acuña
B) Francisco Alvarez
C) José Butto
D) Jose Quintana

When Max Scherzer joined the Mets for the 2022 season, one of his first acts was to organize a Spring Training outing at the local Popstroke, a Tiger Woods-designed mini golf course in Port St. Lucie. It became a team bonding activity that drew nearly the entire roster.

With Scherzer gone, Nimmo -- the longest-tenured Met and one of the clubhouse’s veteran leaders -- decided to keep the tradition going. Nimmo and his wife Chelsea hosted the Mets and their families at the same mini golf course on Wednesday night, providing a forum for the team to bond.

“It’s just a way for guys to get together off the field, families to get together off the field,” Nimmo said. “That way, when we come to New York, it’s not like, ‘Who’s this? Who’s this?’ Everybody’s a little more familiar with each other. And usually when guys are a little bit more comfortable, families are a little bit more comfortable, it usually puts people in a better position for success.”

Some of the younger Mets in particular enjoyed the event. Pitching prospect Christian Scott said that he, Mike Vasil, Dominic Hamel and Hayden Senger played each of Popstroke’s two courses twice, for a grand total of 72 holes in a night -- with a quick break between rounds to grab a charcuterie board from the clubhouse.

• I caught up with Mets legend Darryl Strawberry to talk about his recent visits to maximum-security prisons. The mission is an important one to him.

• Earlier this week, Marte played in his first Major League game since last August. He’s convinced that he’ll be back to his old 2022 self once the season begins. 

• Gary, Keith and… Murph? Daniel Murphy stopped by Clover Park for two days this week to try his hand at broadcasting. Early reviews were solid.

• Kodai Senga’s injury has altered the Mets’ Opening Day roster plans. Our latest projection shows how things have changed.

• That injury also opens the door for someone else -- likely Quintana -- to be the Mets’ Opening Day starter.

D) Quintana

Quintana is from Venezuela’s Western neighbor, Colombia, and is the all-time winningest Major League pitcher from that country.

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