Centerfield

Every day, I click on CPF hoping to see: METS RE-SIGN PETE ALONSO METS RE-SIGN EDWIN DIAZ CPF FOREVER HOME FOUND FORUM WILL EXIST IN PERPETUITY

I had very low expectations for Mullins and somehow he fell way short of them. The defense was puzzling. I watched him field and wondered how anyone could consider him a good defender. Small guy. Didn’t hit the ball hard. I remember wondering how he ever hit a home run.

On cue, today Heyman tweeted that Tucker met with the Blue Jays.

There are a lot of words I don't understand, but it sounds like we saved the forum? Or better put, Edgy and Ben saved the forum? If so, woohoo!!!

I mean, I'm sure some people are talking about Kyle Tucker. But I feel like this year's top free agent isn't getting nearly as much buzz as years past. No owners meeting with his agent. No flight trackers. No contract demands. I haven't even heard him seriously linked to a team yet. With the Winter Meetings around the corner, I feel like we should be hearing more by now.

A big thanks to everyone who has kept this place alive. I’m happy to cover any portion of the cost.

I agree to an extent. If the choice was Diaz or Williams, or really, Diaz or anyone else, then I agree, you have to bring back Diaz. That is, to the extent Diaz wants to come back. Which I think he does, but you never know. So bottom line, make or match the highest offer on Diaz. If you do that, and Diaz elects to go elsewhere, then I think Williams is on the short list of guys that could adequately replace Edwin. Devin Williams, Robert Suarez, Pete Fairbanks. Maybe Kenly Jansen, though I think Jansen and Emilio Pagan are a step down. If the Mets were to lose Diaz, I'm guessing they'd be looking to bring one of these guys in to pair with Williams.

What does that mean? I feel like it’s faster.

MLB trade rumors projected his contract at 4 years, $68M. So a year less than projected at nearly the exact AAV.

His 1.129 and 2.68 FIP indicate maybe he wasn’t as bad as his ERA suggests. Let’s hope so. His ERA suggests he wasn’t pretty bad.

Still in on Diaz. Per diComo and Andy Martino.

Yeah. It would be hard to justify letting Pete walk for fear of his 33-35 seasons and bad defense, then turning around and signing Schwarber. Though I guess you can make the argument that three years is less risk than five. I know batting average isn’t what it used to be. But I don’t think id enjoy rooting for a guy who hits for an average that low. And strikes out that much.

Three years. $50 million. Per Jeff Passan. I hope this doesn’t take them out of the Edwin Diaz sweepstakes.

I don't have the know-how to keep the CPF up and running. But I'd be happy to venmo anyone who has an interest in doing so. And a big thank you go Ben, Edgy, KC and everyone else who has worked hard to keep this little community going all of these years. I can't even imagine a world with no CPF.

I saw a tweet that Hayden Senger is raking too. And I’m totally happy for him but I think this tells us a little about the quality of baseball being played there.

I thought maybe we were finally going to get that fearsome 8th and 9th inning duo that was promised when we got JJPutz. Still waiting.

I think what derailed the Mets in both 1987 was the pitching more than losing an infielder. In 87 the pitching was still good, but you had to be great to make the playoffs. Magical years are tough. It’s hard to recreate magic even if you run back the same exact team. In fact even if you replayed 86 and 2024, you get much different results. As a fan, I put very little focus on clubhouse chemistry. Not because I don’t think it’s important, but because I have no idea how to measure it. I also tend to think, without evidence, that winning is a big part of a great clubhouse rather than the other way around.

https://metsrefugees.com/ I don’t recognize any names. Unless they all have new handles. Anyway. Can we get back to saving this forum?

Sure, here’s the relevant part: [bLOCKQUOTE]Can Semien rebound offensively? The stats on the back of the baseball card for Semien were rough in 2025: a .230/.305/.364 slash line for his worst OPS since he became an established big leaguer a decade ago with the Chicago White Sox. Only nine players qualified for the batting title last season with a worse OPS than Semien’s .669. It’s been a major drop-off since 2023, when Semien finished third in the MVP balloting and helped lead the Rangers to their first championship. But let’s take a look under the hood at those two years. Marcus Semien, 2023 vs. 2025 Exit Velo 88.4 88.3 Barrel % 6.5% 6.7% Hard-Hit % 37.0% 35.0% xWOBA 0.333 0.318 xWOBA con 0.349 0.341 Chase% 21.4% 23.5% Whiff% 18.0% 22.6% K% 14.6% 17.4% BB% 9.6% 9.4% Yes, Semien was worse in 2025 than in 2023; those numbers are moving in the wrong direction. But he wasn’t so far gone in a lot of the important offensive metrics to think he deserved falling off a cliff the way he did. Is Semien likely to contend for an MVP again at age 35 next season? No. Is it reasonable to think he can be better at the plate than he was last season? Yes.[/bLOCKQUOTE] This is encouraging!

He fractured his foot in August and didn’t return. His numbers are unaffected by the foot injury.

I would love to see this. I don't have an Athletic subscription. Can you cut and paste a portion of it?

I think so. Ronny may or may not ever be an effective big league player. But as far as being "ready", he's compiled over 2300 PAs in the minors, with 571 of them at the AAA level. His OPS in AAA is .887. He's 25 years old. He's as ready as he'll ever be. Like Baty before him, he's not going to learn to hit big league breaking balls by playing in Syracuse. He needs big league ABs, so the Mets can decide if he's a flop, a stud or whatever else he might end up in between.

Well the Rangers just did. And got an extra $5M on top of that. And by your argument, they didn't even have to take on a bad contract. But I'm not expecting that to happen. As I said. Best case scenario is they unload part of it. I mean, they don't need to. But the budget at some point is finite. The Nimmo trade is proof of that. Of course he's going to play. And if he's playing, he's blocking another player. That's what blocking is. And his salary is dictating that. He's going to get at least half a season to see what he's got left in the tank. I'd much rather give that to a younger player with upside, or take the known thing that is McNeil. To the extent McNeil is still on this team, he'll block him from day 1. And McNeil is a much better hitter. He'll block Ronny Mauricio as well. If McNeil were traded, we'd likely get Ronny as our opening day second baseman. Ronny has shown he's outgrown AAA. And in 2025, flaws and all, had basically the same OPS as Semien. I agree he'll block Jett the least. If Jett shows he's ready, it's likely sometime in the second half. And if Semien is struggling, I hope the Mets are ready to move on from him by then.

I think the best we can hope for is that Semien gets off to a hot start, then some contender loses their SS or 2B to injury (hopefully not the Mets) and the Mets are able to unload some portion of the contract. It's not just locking in for 500 PAs of low .600s OPS. It's blocking Jett or Ronny, or even McNeil, who will easily give you 100 points of OPS.

Pretty much across the board offensively. I was hoping to see some good splits with the hope maybe he could platoon with McNeil. But no. He sucks almost equally against rightys and lefties. .679 OPS vs. RHP. .642 OPS vs. LHP. I was wondering maybe he got off to a slow start, and then picked it up in the second half. Nah. .593 OPS in the second half. One stat that was somewhat encouraging was his home/away splits in 2025. .617 Home. .718 Away. Maybe he just hates hitting at Globe Life, which was ranked by Forbes as the second most pitcher-friendly park in 2025. But his 2024 splits take the air out of that. .703 Home. .694 Away. Fangraphs projects him at .241/.314/.399. That's a .613 OPS. On the plus side. They think he'll hit 22 HR. So that's something. Also, 3.1 WAR.