smg58

Miguel Andujar goes to the Padres for one year and $4M. Given that the Mets kind of need a righthanded bat with some outfield experience even if/when Benge does come to Flushing, this strikes me as criminal negligence.

When I first started following baseball and the Mets, Mickey Lolich was the guy they had just gotten in a big trade. Had I known anything about Rusty Staub at the time, I would have probably been less impressed.

I'd have much sooner gone for Valdez at three years than given up two top 100 prospects for one year of Peralta.

Austin Hays goes to the CWS for a year with a mutual option, at $6M guaranteed. While I'd prefer Miguel Andujar, that's almost too reasonable of a price given that the Mets could really use a righthanded bat in left field.

I like this. The error bars are huge, but if you get anything on the good side of the median it's a great value play. And if you don't, you lose nothing.

I'm not against giving a minor league deal to somebody capable of earning his way into the rotation, but I don't think you can justify another major league contract right now. That's not a knock against Quintana at all, but there are teams out there that would give him a clearer path to starts.

This. Both players would have been a part of this year's team. Peralta's an extremely good bet to regress to his career norms, so we probably got a year of a 3.60 ERA for two people who will probably be starters before the year is out and continue to be starters for a while. I'm not happy about this at all.

This deal depends on how you read Acuña's .282/.397/.542 performance in the VWL this offseason. I hope they got a reliable scout's impression of it.

I think the McNeil-plus-cash-for-Yordan Rodriguez deal is leaving them even more behind the eight ball, at least on paper. Fair point.

Bichette is a very good player, with only one bad season that is very clearly an outlier. His salary is somewhat nutty, but Tucker's is extremely nutty. (And the small market teams were just given a whole lot of ammo going in to the next round of bargaining. And Soto is definitely opting out now.) There's no reason why Bichette can't play third and Polanco can't play first, but it's fair to be concerned that the adjustment period might last beyond spring. Having said that, they've at least broken even overall on the infield corners. I would argue though that, beyond further dealing, the Nimmo-for-Semien trade looks silly right now. One way to get the Red Sox to consider trading from their outfield surplus to get an infielder from you is to snatch up the best remaining infielder on the free agent market. That's worth keeping an eye on. You don't need to throw a ton of money at anybody to upgrade centerfield significantly. I'd still take a look at a righthanded bat for leftfield. Miguel Andujar seems to have regained the bat he had as a rookie and while he still lacks experience in the outfield, he's better suited there than at third base. Plus his presence would take pressure off of Benge to hit lefties right away when he gets the call. Nobody is mentioning Marcell Ozuna at all, but he played hurt last year and makes all the sense in the world as a DH option. And I wouldn't complain if they still had room for Framber Valdez.

The Jays had a Murphy's Law season in 2024, seemed to be second in the bidding on everybody last offseason, and needed one more thing to break their way and they'd have won a World Championship in 2025. Now they've made multiple big splashes and are being super-aggressive. We'll see if they get any closer.

Juan Soto, because if the Mets can afford to pay Tucker that much...

I wonder if he might be better suited to first base. He does throw lefthanded, and I don't think reflexes are his problem.

I'm thinking the same thing. I'd be willing to part with Baty to get Duran or Wilyer Abreu. (Abreu is the best defensive corner outfielder in the league right now, and I bet he could handle center just fine if asked.)

It's an interesting deal. I don't think Fangraphs likes Caissie nearly as much as mlb.com does, so he's a bit controversial. But I'm not trading my best prospect for Cabrera or Peralta or Lopez; they're just not good enough. As for Skubal, the Tigers would be slamming their window of contention shut. I just don't see it happening, no matter how much people want to talk about it.

Tucker is comparable (a year younger, but otherwise a left-handed corner outfielder worth above 4 WAR) to what Nimmo was when he got eight years and a full no-trade clause. So on one hand, he'd certainly be an upgrade over Nimmo now. On the other hand, "now" is only three years removed from Nimmo's extension, and the Mets have a lefty outfielder probably best suited for a corner who's nearly fully baked at AAA. I don't see them over-committing to Tucker, but I also get the sense that if Tucker has been offered what he was predicted to get, we wouldn't be talking about him in January. I'm curious to see how (and when) this plays out.

Peralta got a little bit lucky last year, so I'd be careful what I offered for him. (Like Lopez, he's somebody Tong could be better than by the end of this season.) And from the Brewers perspective, I'll believe a contending team would deal a good starter making $8M for players who can't help them this year when I see it.

I'm a bit surprised that Okamoto was the Japanese player that fared the best in free agency. I don't think the Mets did poorly getting Polanco for the half the years. But the Mets do still need a consequential righthanded bat.

I'm not a fan of opt-outs for non-elite players. I'm really not a fan of opt-outs for pitchers, elite or otherwise.

We're actually fourth in the league in guaranteed money handed out so far this offseason, and have made a couple of trades to boot. So while you can certainly question what the Mets are doing, it's a long way from nothing.

I liked Kingman when I was little. But I liked disco back then too.

Well I think we know who's the brains of that group.

I'd still argue that trading a prospect of that stature for a relief pitcher and a second baseman who they didn't need and was no longer worth his contract was nutty. Perhaps the Mets saw some red flags that other people at the time didn't, though.

A team with nothing left to lose takes a flier on a player with nothing left to lose. It may (i.e., very probably will) be completely inconsequential, but the match makes sense.

I was very interested in Okamoto up until the Polanco signing, but I think the role he would have had is taken. As for Imai (or any other starting pitcher), if I'm shelling out significant money I want to know that he's an upgrade over what we've got. And outside of Valdez, who may or may not be available at a reasonable price, I'm not sure who fits that description.