(Sports Network) - After putting together one of the most epic collapses in baseball history last season, the New York Mets took action over the winter. Today the club will unveil its prized offseason acquisition, as Johan Santana makes his anticipated regular-season debut for his new team in this afternoon's Opening Day matchup with the Florida Marlins from Dolphin Stadium.

The Mets appeared to be on their way to a second consecutive National League East crown by owning a seemingly-comfortable seven-game lead on second-place Philadelphia in mid-September. However, New York lost 12 of its final 17 contests and wound up being edged out by the Phillies by a single game for the division title. The Mets also missed out on the NL wild card by the same margin.

Florida had a hand in that free-fall, as the Marlins took two of three games from the Mets in a season-ending series at Shea Stadium in late September. In the finale, Florida rocked the now-departed Tom Glavine for seven first-inning runs en route to an 8-1 rout that sealed the Mets fate.

That late-season downward spiral prompted Mets general manager Omar Minaya to trade four young players to the Minnesota Twins to reel in Santana, a two-time American League Cy Young Award winner who owns a stellar 93-44 career record o over eight big-league seasons.

Santana isn't coming off one of his best years, but he still won 15 games with a 3.33 earned run average as a Twin in 2007 and finished second among AL hurlers with 235 strikeouts.

The Venezuelan superstar has made two career starts against Florida and won both outings while allowing just two earned runs over 11 1/3 innings. Santana faced the Marlins in Miami last June and yielded two runs (one earned) while striking out eight over six innings to lead Minnesota to a 7-4 victory.

Florida also made a big trade over the winter, but the deal involved shipping two of the cash-strapped club's best players -- third baseman Miguel Cabrera and starting pitcher Dontrelle Willis -- to Detroit in exchange for six players, including highly-regarded prospects Andrew Miller and Cameron Maybin.

The Marlins, who finished 2007 at the bottom of the NL East standings at 71-91, still have one of the league's most exciting all-around players in gifted shortstop Hanley Ramirez. The 24-year-old batted .332 with 29 homers, 81 RBI and 51 stolen bases in a sensational sophomore season last year.

Getting the Opening Day call for Fredi Gonzalez's Marlins will be veteran Mark Hendrickson, signed by the team as a free agent during the offseason. The towering left-hander spent 2007 with the Los Angeles Dodgers and produced a lackluster 4-8 record with a 5.21 ERA in 39 appearances, 15 of which were starts.

Hendrickson will be making his first career season-opening start, as well as his first-ever start against the Mets. The 33-year-old has made a pair of previous relief appearances versus New York and allowed one run over three total innings.

Although the Mets had their struggles against the Marlins late last season, they won eight times in nine games versus Florida at Dolphin Stadium in 2007. Since the start of the 2005 campaign, New York has gone 18-9 in Miami.