Lefty Specialist

#1 priority for this team is Diaz. It's be nice to pick up a serviceable lefty for the pen, too. I don't really trust Joely Rodriguez, even though he had his moments. I'm OK with Ottavino coming back. Smith is a box of chocolates. I want to see Adonis Medina get more work, he's got good stuff and that save against the Dodgers showed he had balls of steel. Peterson and Megill may very well be starters next year; I don't think they're really bullpen pieces. I'm guessing Williams will look for a rotation job with another team, but if he wants to come back in the same role I'd be pleased. Trevor May is bad at his job. He should go elsewhere. And take Mychal Givens with him.

I've got Stockholm Syndrome already!

I was worried for a second that Ronnie was becoming a Marlins announcer.

I like that the Nats won the World Series AFTER they dumped Bryce Harper. I'd like his ringless streak to continue. Better the Astros than the Yankees. I'll be banging my trash cans for them to win in 6.

Ted Cruz enjoys a warm welcome at Yankee Stadium. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FfzRMX8XgAEzODk?format=jpg&name=small>

Whomp-whomp.

They also whined that Bregman's home run was a cheapie. Like they've never seen right field at Yankee Stadium.

It absolutely kills me to say this, but go Astros!

New GM wants his own guys in the org. Not exactly unusual. Sucks for Tim and Endy; but that's baseball, Suzyn.

Not seeing it, Papi. I think the Yanx will break the bank to bring him back.

A '35' year old from Cuba who'll be '36' by spring training? Um, no. There'll be plenty of candidates for the DH job next year.

Keith desperately sucking up to Phillies fans is unseemly. They're still going to boo you, pretty boy.

He'll be looking for at least 4 years and in excess of $40 mil a year. At that price and length, I let him walk. Uncle Steve has unlimited money, but that doesn't mean he'll SPEND unlimited money. I have a feeling that deGrom will be in for a steep decline. We still don't really know what exactly happened to him last year, and he seems to always be one pitch away from another mysterious IL stint. He was not right his last few starts this year, just from the eye test, not inside medical knowledge. I think any team that signs him long-term (including the Mets) will regret it. And he won't do a short-term deal because he'll just have to do this all over again. He wants his last big payday now, and somebody will give it to him.

Padres. Pads have never won a World Series, so they'll be sentimental favorites. Phillies, oy, I have too many Philly friends willing to bust my chops. Go Friars!

Bassitt is a guy who's really going to be hurt by the 24-second rule next year. He's far too fussy on the mound.

I stand corrected. Boy there are a lot of moving parts. Those I want re-signed in order of urgency are Diaz, Nimmo, Walker and Bassitt. As for DH, I have a feeling that Francisco Alvarez will be seeing a lot of time there. I also envision a Baty/Escobar platoon at 3rd. Not sure what this means for Vientos as he and Alvarez are both righties.

[media=youtube]xMaE6toi4mk[/media] The Mets have a lot of decisions to make, and some players have decisions of their own.... FREE AGENTS Brandon Nimmo Edwin Díaz Seth Lugo Trevor May Adam Ottavino Trevor Williams Mychal Givens Joely Rodriguez Tyler Naquin Tommy Hunter OPTIONS Jacob deGrom -can opt out Carlos Carrasco -club option Chris Bassitt -mutual option Taijuan Walker -player option Daniel Vogelbach- club option NON-TENDER CANDIDATES Dom Smith Darin Ruf Who should stay? Who should go? Some of these are easy, some not so much.

Yeah, I could probably find a way to cram Aaron Judge into my lineup. Somebody will offer him a stupoid amount of money. Question is will the Yankees match or exceed it. I want James McCann gone. They overpaid to get him and they're going to have to overpay to get rid of him. But he's such a vortex of suck. I may be in the minority, but if deGrom opts out of his contract I let him walk. He'll want ridiculous money for declining results.

Well, this team underperformed in the clutch. Yeah, I know that's pretty obvious. But they never quite jelled the way they were supposed to. The players had good seasons, but seemingly not at the same time. Alonso and Lindor had ice-cold stretches. Escobar took the first five months off. The catchers never did anything to speak of offensively. Hard to believe a 101-win team could underperform. Everybody who talks about 'Wow, the Mets have the two best starters ever' needs to shut up. DeGrom was NOT the deGrom we've known in the past. There were flashes, but he seems to be a 5 inning-pitcher who gets hurt a lot and takes a long time to recover. Scherzer seems to have taken a step back, too, which is inevitable at his age. Carrasco was the scariest 15-game winner I ever saw. Bassitt, as we saw, pitches fine when the season is NOT on the line. His last two starts were Archie Bells. At least Walker was relatively consistent. This team will require a lot more money to be held together, and I don't think it should be. They're going to have some tough decisions to make. Fortunately they've got a lot of time between now and the end of the World Series to think about them.

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Yay, a 4 pitch leadoff walk.

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Bassitt has had two high-pressure starts in the last week and he's come up small in both of them. Yeah, it's tough to play in New York, but it's also tough to watch games like this.