Sandy Alderson just spoke to reporters and said the Mets told players this morning that they finalized the roster.

Blaine Boyer will be added to the roster as the last man in the bullpen. Jason Isringhausen has been offered the option of sticking behind in Port St. Lucie to build up arm strength for a couple of weeks while the Mets assess their Major League bullpen. Alderson said that if Isringhausen got a Major League opportunity from another team in that span, he would be let go.

The Mets’ bench will include Mike Nickeas, Daniel Murphy, Chin-Lung Hu, Scott Hairston and Willie Harris. This confirms: No Nick Evans.

Your 2011 Opening Day bullpen: Francisco Rodriguez, Bobby Parnell, Taylor Buchholz, D.J. Carrasco, Tim Byrdak, Pedro Beato,
and Boyer.

Alderson cannot legally speak about players on waivers, but he indicated that the team will know by 1 p.m. today if players placed on waivers had cleared.

Meanwhile, Jason Bay felt discomfort on the left side of his ribcage during batting practice and was scratched from today’s game. He is en route to Port St. Lucie for an examination. The only revocable type of waivers, Alderson said, are trade waivers, and few players are put on trade waivers at this point in the year. That means Evans cannot be pulled off waivers to join the team in Bay’s stead.

Of course, no one said Bay will need DL time; Alderson opted not to speculate.

So what does it all mean? Well, it means the Mets preferred Harris to Evans to start the season, for better or worse. Toby Hyde wrote an epic post about this today, reiterating many of the points I made earlier this offseason. Harris seems redundant on the bench with Hairston around to be an extra outfielder and Murphy as a left-handed bat, but perhaps the team valued Harris’ defensive versatility over Evans’ cult-hero status.

This morning, Boyer did not sound eager to go to Triple-A, so the team must have determined he would take the opt-out in his contract after all. As I’ve pointed out here on multiple occasions, Manny Acosta has actually been better in the Majors than Boyer has.

If Evans clears waivers, he’ll likely start at first base for a Bisons team loaded with viable near-Major League ready players in their young- to mid-20s. That marks a massive departure from the last few years. With Evans at first, Justin Turner at second, Zach Lutz at third, Ruben Tejada at short and Lucas Duda, Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Fernando Martinez in the the outfield, the people of Buffalo might finally get to enjoy some players on their way up, not the Quad-A mashers worshiped only in this space.

So it seems like we’re done quibbling over the fringes of the roster for now. If Bay needs DL time and Evans stays in the organization, either Evans or Lucas Duda will likely take Bay’s spot on the Opening Day roster.

The other news from Alderson is scarier: Ronny Paulino’s bloodwork confirmed what Alderson described as a stomach/colon issue, and treatment for the issue could cause the catcher to miss time beyond his season-opening suspension. No word on the exact nature of Paulino’s condition, but in terms of the Mets’ roster, that means Mike Nickeas gets a longer stint with the big club than previously expected.

So there’s all that.

Isringhausen, 38, had been against the idea, but he told the Mets he would consider the possibility. He has said he will not pitch in Class AAA once the season starts.

The Mets have also discussed the idea of asking another right-handed reliever, Blaine Boyer, to accept a minor league assignment. He has an opt-out in his contract that would allow him to become a free agent if the Mets do not put him on the 25-man roster.

– David Waldstein, N.Y. Times.

Waldstein’s report seems to jive with something I wrote last week: Yes, Boyer has an opt-out, but if the team is confident he will accept an assignment to Triple-A instead of taking the out, the Mets are probably best served keeping Manny Acosta on the roster and stashing Boyer in Buffalo until they inevitably need a bullpen arm. Though Boyer has enjoyed an impressive spring, Acosta has been a more effective pitcher across his career. If the team can figure a way to keep both pitchers, it should.

Sure sounds from this report like the Mets are doing everything they can to keep as many viable Major League options in house as possible, a process that never seemed to go smoothly on Omar Minaya’s watch. If Isringhausen is willing to stick around in extended Spring Training, the Mets may yet be able to hold on to all the pitchers once competing for bullpen roles (except Oliver Perez, of course) while keeping Bobby Parnell in the big-league setup job he has rightfully earned.

But we shall see.

I am flying right now. I will land in West Palm Beach in the late afternoon then drive to Port St. Lucie.

I hoped to have the first-base preview done by now but it isn’t. I ate a chili dog instead. My apologies. I regret nothing.

Once again, I’d love to hear what you’d like to read from the Mets’ last two days in Port St. Lucie and their opening series in Miami. I got some good suggestions last time I posted this, so here it is again in case you missed it that time.

In 2010, Mets catchers combined for a .665 OPS. In 2009, it was .685. The team’s backstops have not bettered the paltry league average for catchers since 2007, and that was mostly thanks to Ramon Castro’s outstanding production in 153 plate appearances.

Under Omar Minaya, we heard many times, the Mets viewed catcher as a defensive position. Too often this excused catchers who couldn’t hit at all, some of whom weren’t even particularly good defenders. In 2011, one of the fruits of Minaya’s first draft (combined with a fellow perpetually rumored to be on Minaya’s radar) will look to exonerate the former GM of his inability to find catchers that could hit.

The catchers in April: Josh Thole, Mike Nickeas.

Overview: I think David Wright and Jose Reyes spoiled us. We forget that it took Reyes two and a half seasons to reach his All-Star form, and we expect every player that comes through the system to quickly achieve the type of success that Reyes and Wright enjoyed early in their careers. It’s almost unbelievable that the Mets were able to develop two legitimate All-Stars in such a short time, yet now we hope every prospect can immediately reach that level.

But no team entirely consists of All-Stars, and good teams need guys, too. A frequent point of contention with Minaya’s administration was that the Mets too often complemented their great players with terrible ones, casting misplaced blame on the Wrights and Carlos Beltrans of the world when meanwhile Jeff Conine was still getting important at-bats. Great teams need dudes: Low-cost, generally homegrown contributors that can benefit a roster without vacuuming up the payroll that should be dedicated toward the All-Stars.

And I think Josh Thole might be a dude. In his first 286 Major League plate appearances, Thole has a solid .286/.357/.373 line. It’s a small sample and his power numbers won’t make anyone forget Mike Piazza, but Thole has nonetheless hit like a better than average catcher whenever he has been in the big leagues. Moreover, the numbers aren’t terribly out of line with his Minor League stats; Thole has always been a patient hitter with doubles power.

The knock on Thole is his inexperience behind the plate — he caught in high school but mostly played first base in the Minors from 2005 to 2007. But Thole now has three full seasons of catching at the professional level. By Beyond the Boxscore’s catcher defense rating, he was well better than average in 2010, thanks in part to his throwing out 44% of would-be basestealers. Plus, Mike Pelfrey and R.A. Dickey both praise Thole’s game-calling ability.

Thole is still young and reasonably new to Major League play, so he could endure an adjustment period at the plate in 2011. But we should be patient. He has hit in the Minors and worked to become a solid defender behind the plate. Cost-controlled catchers with an above-average ability to get on base don’t come around every day, and even if Thole needs some time to develop at the big-league level, he is likely good enough and young enough to contribute to the Mets’ next contender.

Nickeas starts the season on the roster while Ronny Paulino finishes his PED suspension. Nickeas has not hit much in the Minors, though he enjoyed a very Thole-esque .276/.389/.382 line in 2010, mostly due to the strength of his performance at Double-A Binghamton. At 28, he’s unlikely to ever become a Major League regular, but he has a reputation as a good defensive catcher and seems like a pretty sharp guy. Perhaps if he proves he can get on-base a little at the Major League level, Nickeas can join baseball’s fraternity of itinerant backup catchers.

Paulino is currently shut down due to something that came up in his blood work, which is a bit scary. I don’t know what that means or how long he’ll be out. When he comes back, he’ll mash left-handers. He has a career .881 OPS against southpaws, meaning he can spell Thole against tougher lefties and give the Mets an offensive boost. He, too, scored well on Beyond the Boxscore’s catcher defense rating.

The catchers in September: Thole and Paulino.

How they stack up: Bryan McCann is one of the best catchers in the Majors and the class of the NL East. The Marlins gave John Buck a three-year, $18 million deal coming off the best season of his career, but Buck has a career .301 OBP. The Nats will use a combination of Ivan Rodriguez and Wilson Ramos behind the plate. Ramos is a well-regarded prospect and is still quite young, but he very rarely walks and hasn’t hit much above Double-A. Pudge can’t hit at all anymore. Carlos Ruiz enjoyed a great year for the Phillies in 2010 with a OPS about 100 points higher than his career line.

I’ll take Thole over Buck and the combo in Washington. And I’ll hold out hope that Ruiz, at 32, regresses to something closer to his lifetime .260/.353/.396 line and that he and Thole are more or less equals.

Next up: First base.