As Opening Day rolls around the corner on April 3, our New York Mets and Yankees have been preparing for the upcoming season. The Mets finished last year with an impressive stint in the World Series. The Yankees managed to make it to the Wild Card, but failed to advance further. As Spring Training continues, both the Mets and the Yankees have made important changes to their teams in order to produce a more rewarding season than those past.

The Mets have hopes to reach the World Series again this year, only this time they aim to win the most coveted game in Major League Baseball. To be able to accomplish this goal, the Mets have made a plethora of offseason moves to bolster their lineup. The star second baseman Daniel Murphy signed with the nationals, leaving no one to fill the gap that was left by Murphyś departure. To solve this, the Mets traded for Pirates second baseman Neil Walker. The Mets have a deep reserve of pitching, so Jon Niese was sent to Pittsburgh in the trade. In Walker, the Mets will add a thirty-year-old switch-hitter who does much of what the team hoped to find in Ben Zobrist. Though Walker did not quite live up to his fairly high standards last year, he was nevertheless quite productive at the plate. All said, he owns a .272/.338/.431 lifetime batting line, compiled in nearly 3,500 plate appearances, and has averaged about 16 long balls a year since he became a regular. He’s rarely strayed too far above or below that mark, which is quite productive for a middle infielder. The Mets also chose to retain the 42 year pitcher, who will bridge the gap while Zack Wheeler recovers from an injury. Since joining the Mets for the 2014 season, Colon is 19-14 with a 3.98 ERA in 235 innings. He has won more games and logged more innings than any other Mets starter during that span. He is 4-1 with a 3.31 ERA in 32 2/3 innings in 2015. To bolster their infield, the Mets signed Asdrubal Cabrera to a 2-year deal. Cabrera, 30, hit .265 with a .744 OPS in 143 games last season for the Rays. He is capable of playing both shortstop and second base, though after acquiring Walker, the Mets figure to use him almost exclusively at short. The move leaves incumbent shortstop Wilmer Flores without a starting job, but Flores should still find plenty of playing time at second, third and short as a reserve. In order to add a lefty to their bullpen, the Mets signed Antonio Bastardo to a 2-year deal. Pitching for the Pirates last season, Bastardo appeared in 66 games and posted a 2.98 ERA over 57 1/3 innings. All the moves the Mets offseason were great, but they looked so much better when the team resigned Yoenis Cespedes. While he might have originally been acquired as a rental piece at the non-waiver trade deadline, Yoenis Cespedes is staying with the Mets, who announced a three-year deal with the slugging outfielder on Tuesday evening. While a return to the Mets has always seemed plausible, it’s also appeared at times to be a long shot. That’s due in large part to the fact that Cespedes seemed destined to land a much greater, longer-term commitment than Sandy Alderson and co. were willing and able to make. Cespedes, 30, put up a huge .287/.337/.604 slash down the stretch after coming to New York in a deadline deal that sent minor league right-handers Michael Fulmer and Luis Cessa back to the Tigers. Although Cespedes dealt with some injuries and wasn’t a major force in the postseason, there’s no question of the impact he made on the Mets last year. All of the Mets offseason moves were strong, and poises them to enter the 2016 season strong.

The Yankees did what they always did last year, they succeeded. They made fewer moves, and these were all somewhat questionable decisions. The Yankees have struggled to find a replacement for Robinson Cano, and their trade for Starlin Castro may very well fill that void. Castro, 26 in March, is a three-time All-Star that struggled mightily for much of the 2015 campaign but had a strong finish to the season and an even better showing in the playoffs. Overall, Castro batted .265/.296/.375 last season, marking the second time in the past three seasons in which he’s delivered a well-below average output on offense. However, the 2014 campaign was excellent, as Castro batted .292/.339/.438 with 14 home runs. The Yankees will be counting on Castro to look more like his 2014 and the late-2015 versions of himself over the course of the next four seasons that remain on his contract. The most controversial move that the Yankees made was a trade for Aroldis Chapman, who suffered a suspension recently due to MLB’s domestic violence policy. Chapman is set to join left-hander Andrew Miller and right-hander Dellin Betances in the late innings, giving the Yankees the top three strikeout relievers in the Majors and setting up a trio that could significantly shorten games next season. The most baffling move the Yankees made was trading Justin Wilson to the Tigers. Wilson’s departure leaves a hole in the Yankee bullpen, where he served as Joe Girardi’s primary seventh-inning option in 2015 after being acquired last winter from the Pirates for Francisco Cervelli. Though the Yankees made some questionable decisions, the positives outweigh the negatives.

The Mets and Yankees made the moves they needed to, which will assist them in reaching yet another postseason run. The prestige of New York baseball is rising, and with these new offseason moves, New York baseball is looking positive throughout Spring Training and into the regular season.