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Joe Smith signs were the Twins and Shea Stadium lives on ever so slightly for another season.

The TV shebang. https://twitter.com/zey97/status/1504503839306633216 [media=youtube]5ihtX86JzmA[/media]

The whole radio shebang. [media=youtube]5ihtX86JzmA[/media]

Howie and Wayne with the call on WCBS (880 AM), shortly after 6 PM.

Nick Castellanos has signed with the Phillies as there's a drive into deep left field by Castellanos and that'll be a home run. 5 years, $100 million.

The Red Sox can't resist the charms of Hansel Robles and bring him back.

Mets trim the roster by optioning Jordan Yamamoto to minor league camp.

MFYs move Luke Voit.

Kay is seven years younger. It's the perspective he offers that's immature.

Ex-Marlin, ex-Nat and ex-Met and prospective Phillie Hand has a leg up on joining the http://www.faithandfearinflushing.com/2018/08/28/beasts-of-the-east/NL East Four-Timers Club.

The journeyman reliever continues his journey as a Pirate. As a Met, he showed up in late August while the ship was sinking and proceeded to go down with it.

Howie Rose got well soon. Now, he tells Neil Best of Newsday, he plans to get around the league a little less, Howie Rose, the Mets' longtime lead radio announcer, will cut back on his schedule this season in the wake of a health issue that cost him parts of the 2021 season. Rose, 68, told Newsday on Thursday that he still plans to work most games but will skip long road trips such as ones to California, Arizona and Colorado. The schedule change might have happened even if not for his health scare, Rose said, but he added "clearly, the physical situation and my surgery and recovery from that and my new normal dictates I have to cut back." WCBS, which carries Mets games, has not said who will fill in for Rose alongside his partner, Wayne Randazzo. Local baseball TV and radio teams are due to return to the road after doing away games off TV monitors last year. Rose missed some games while being treated for his condition, then missed the entire last month upon having surgery. "I was diagnosed with something last spring that we treated during the season with the hope of avoiding surgery, but we just weren't able to get to that point," he said. "I had to have the surgery that I did. I've been told that everything looked good after that and I should resume my life and so that's where I'm at right now." Even without that, Rose likely would have sought to cut back within the next two or three years to maintain peak on-air performance. "I'm 68 and I've got a lot of miles on me from having done two sports [Mets and Islanders] full time for a lot of years," he said. "I've talked to some of the other radio guys around the league. I think we're all in that boat when we get to this point in our careers. "In order to maintain our ability to do the job to the highest level, we need to cut back along the way." Rose has resumed his five-year-old recreational golf career – "I suck beyond suckage," he said – and that he has been told he is good to go on and off the golf course. "The doctor said no restrictions; just live your life," he said. "So that's what I'm doing. How I respond to the rigors and routines of travel is to be determined." https://www.newsday.com/sports/media/howie-rose-mets-radio-booth-1.50539440https://www.newsday.com/sports/media/howie-rose-mets-radio-booth-1.50539440

The Cubs can't get enough 2021 Mets: Stroman, Villar and now the hirsute Gsellman. Came through big down the Wild Card stretch in 2016. There was something with his shoulder where the only thing he could do with a bat was bunt and he somehow got a base hit anyway. Not a bad fill-in closer when Familia was hurt in 2017. Amiably goofy.

The new Cub became the de facto starting third baseman in 2021, contributing more than could have been expected considering how far below the radar his signing with the Mets was. I never understood the difficulties people had pronouncing his last name: Vee-yar (the presence of looks-like-he-should-rhyme-but-doesn't Kevin Pillar notwithstanding).

Tim McGraw's heart if not shirt is in the right place.

Calculated 86, typed 82. Here's to the final four years of a long life.

Bob Murphy calling the games… Ralph's true Met legacy: he taught Tug McGraw the screwball.

Ralph Terry, who finished his career with the 1966 and 1967 Mets, has died at 86. A 23-game winner in 1962 for the team that won the World Series that year. Gave up Mazeroski's HR in 1960.

Best sign of Spring.

Andrew McCutchen moves on to Milwaukee.

Came aboard after his and the Mets' peak. September 2021 was one of the gloomier Met months of recent vintage and, try as he might have, Brad Hand couldn't lift a finger to clear the clouds away.

More free agent fun…

In addition to grabbing Nelson Cruz, Nats sign Aaron Sanchez to minor league deal.

Big MFY deal.

Nelson Cruz signs with the Nationals, because that's a team a DH can go to now.