Gwreck

At $175 million. Obviously they’re all alike but this is the third major deal for a FA hitter this year and they were all for 5 years…

This would seem (on its face) to be in the 10% of cases in which the player would benefit from going to the hearing. The Tigers’ number seems awfully low, and ripe for a situation in which the player gets everything he wanted by riding the hearing out.

A few updates, as NBC has announced their “Sunday Night Baseball” lineup: -Opening day, Thursday 3/26 was pushed up to a 1:15 PM start (was 3:10). -Sunday, August 30 vs. Houston now at 7:20 PM (was 1:40). -The Mets are also playing a Sunday night game on June 21 in Philadelphia. -Sunday, July 5 in Atlanta is now an NBC game but with a 12:30 PM start. All 4 of these games are NBC exclusives (so no Gary/Keith/Ron).

This is a good summary: https://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/mlb/brewers/2024/07/26/a-timeline-of-events-surrounding-ryan-brauns-ped-suspension/73996442007/

Britton and Sammon did a mailbag today which is somewhat interesting: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6940828/2026/01/05/pete-alonso-steve-cohen-mets-mailbag/ Key takeaways: -They don’t expect any big starting pitcher moves, unless someone (e.g., a Valdez or Suarez) can be had on a short term deal. Their analysis: “[The Mets] see upside in Clay Holmes and David Peterson, plus bounce-back potential from Sean Manaea. They are also bullish on getting a full season from Nolan McLean.” -Acuna and Mauricio are “trade candidates” and not expected to be regulars. Vientos also a trade candidate if the Mets sign another right handed bat, which they are looking for.

Presumably there’d be a lot more to worry about if MLB had a 17 game schedule. (Note this is not an argument in favor of 4-team divisions.)

Indeed, DiComo voted for the first time this year: Beltran, Hernandez, Pedroia, Pettitte, Utley, Wright. https://www.threads.com/@anthonydicomo/post/DTA4EoyEQDQ

Lance Johnson would like a word.

Interestingly, the advanced defensive metrics still rated Jones quite highly through 2007, his last gold glove season. He led the league in total zone runs above average for center fielders in 2006. He was +19 defensive runs saved in 2007 (compared to -6 in 2008, his first year after leaving Atlanta). For reference’s sake, Carlos Beltran was +13, +10, and +14 in his 2006-08 Mets prime. I suspect that given how good Jones was in his prime, him initially losing a step was at the same time obvious but not so much a dropoff that he wasn’t still the best. —- As for the HOF case more broadly, the centerfield position is a curious one. There are 7 no-doubt HOFers at the top of the heap: Mays, Cobb, Speaker, Mantle, Griffey, Snider, DiMaggio — plus Mike Trout, not yet eligible. The JAWS metric (based on total and peak WAR scores) then says the next best — closely behind Snider and DiMaggio — are Beltran, Jones, and Kenny Lofton. The rest of the 16 CFs in the Hall are much more scattered around, falling in most cases far short of Beltran, Jones, and Lofton by that JAWS metric: There’s Larry Doby (with not-measured-in-stats-alone contributions); Oscar Charleston; Richie Ashburn; Puckett (probably not the strongest choice), Billy Hamilton (played in the 1800s) and then 10 other guys who you may not have even heard of, scattered among the Jim Edmonds and Cesar Cedeno and Dale Murphy and Johnny Damon and Brett Butlers in the tier of “you’d never seriously think of any of these guys as a Hall of Famer.” Now, understanding and recognizing there’s no specific quota of HOFers per position, that Carlos Beltran (and also Jones) are among the 10 best to ever play the position does makes their case stronger to me.

This is a year in which I think a blank ballot is a defensible choice. I don’t think it’s the correct choice, but it’s defensible. Now, the guy who voted for no one other than Rollins and Utley (yes, he ignored the most-deserving Phillie — Abreu)? That guy I would take the vote away from.

Thoughts: -Long contracts for starting pitchers always have to assume some sort of injury/problem somewhere along the line. (The Scherzer signing by Washington is the unicorn). -That doesn’t mean you refuse to sign such players; you just have to go in eyes-open about that risk. -Signing a starter to a long-term deals doesn’t inhibit the development and promotion of young talent the way a mainstay at a position in the batting order might. (I still think that’s generally an overrated concern, but it’s a non-concern given the size of pitching staffs these days) -It’s just money, and it’s not my money. Signing Valdez now makes the team better now and is more likely than not to make the team better for several more years. 5 years from now, if they really need to, they can release him rather than keeping him on the roster. -I don’t expect the Mets to sign Valdez. But I also didn’t expect a lot of the moves/non-moves so far this offseason and it’s totally unclear what the plan is/if there is a plan at all. I was spending a whole boatload of money on a free agent pitcher, I’d probably prefer Skubal after next season (who will then be 2 years younger than Valdez is now). But that doesn’t help a team with a prime Lindor and Soto year right now, and needs pitching right now. So I guess you have to sign them both?

Strictly a bench player. Not exactly a star with the glove, and nothing special with the bat. Useful depth. Laughable to consider him a starter/regular.

Of course, all of this — assuming it’s the plan — counsels against trading McNeil with one year left. And as noted above, taking this approach (and not signing impact free agents) requires either banking on a whole lot of improvement from existing players or foregoing the playoffs in 2026. The Mets have massive resources. A lengthy contract is not an albatross for the Mets the way it is for others. They can both make the team good AND keep their prospects.

I’ll apologize to Tylor if he ever throws another pitch in the majors for the Mets.

I think you’re right. The “plan” to make this team playoff-caliber is to assume/hope/guess that: -Baty can not only repeat, but improve upon his unprecedented 2025 season -Alvarez can perform as he did in 2025 (post-demotion) for an entire year -Vientos can return to the form he had in 2024 -Peterson can pitch a full year’s worth of innings and be reasonably effective -Holmes can be as good as he was in 2025 but throw more innings -Manaea and/or Senga can return to their 2024 or 2023 form, respectively -Some combination of McLean, Sproat and/or Tong are effective major league starters over a full year (and not the 8, 3, or 1 good starts they respectively had in 2025) -Devin Williams can return to his pre-2025 form -Tyrone Taylor is better -Some positive offensive contributions are made by Mauricio, Benge, and/or Williams. And of course that all of this happen without ramp-up/adjustment periods occurring that cost the team wins. If this all happens, then sure, we probably have a 95-100 win team. If some-to-most of it happens, maybe the Mets make the playoffs. I think it’s a terrible plan, but I suppose it is a plan.

Led the 2022 (101-win) team in WAR. Great Spider-Man catch bouncing off the silly outfield netting in…Chicago(?). Don’t have the data to prove it but I’ve always felt that McNeil was one of the players most hurt by the ban on the shift, as he always seemed to excel at hitting around a shifted infield.

The only players left from the 101-win 2022 Mets are Lindor and Peterson. (Plus the very small cups of coffee that Baty, Vientos, and Alvarez had when they debuted that year). A guy as good as McNeil as your key utility player is a luxury item…seemingly ideal for a team with massive resources. Dumping him to just save money doesn’t make sense on its face.

For a 17 year old pitching prospect. And Mets sending $5.75M with Jeff, so the next savings is $10M in 2026 salary plus the $2M buyout of his 2027 option. This is…odd. McNeil is as useful a bench/utility player as there is, and it’s not like he is expensive or signed for a long time…

Hard pass. Robert is barely an upgrade over Tyrone Taylor (and in 2024 would have been a downgrade). Separately, it seems pretty hard to fathom the Mets being desperate to get rid of two years of Sean Manaea’s contract, and even harder to fathom that they’d trade him to save a grand total of $10M over the next two years.

I believe they did that with R.A. Dickey in 2012. (In fairness, it was a great trade).

San Diego just re-signed King for 3/$75.

Other than Montas (who didn’t come directly from the Bronx) those other signings range from good to excellent.

People listen to Mike Francesa?

…in the major leagues…in 2026?

The way he’s talked about here, you’d think Tong was a lock for 25 starts and an ERA+ over 125.