Mets

[Amazin69]

Mets will hire Carlos Mendoza as their latest manager.

Also, I have missed my chance to see Adam Ottavino pitch for the Mets, as he has declined his option and is now a free agent.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

Also, I have missed my chance to see Adam Ottavino pitch for the Mets, as he has declined his option and is now a free agent.

Good riddance.

He was like Hansel Robles. Except that he actually cost money to give up soul-stabbing bombs.

[Amazin69]

Peterson has labrum surgery, out until May at the earliest.

David Stearns appears lukewarm about diving into the Yoshinobu Yamamoto sweepstakes, telling Newsday that the Mets don't need to add a #1 pitcher and telling the New York Post that the team is likely to fill a rotation spot using "depth pieces" (Peterson, Megill, Butto) and that competition in training camp is healthy.

Er, Bear? Y'all realize that Senga-Quintana-Lucchesi (oh, vomit) is only three "starters", right?

I was going to jest that Bear thinks that Jordan is all the Yamamoto the Mets need, but he's gone, too.

(Tankety-tankety tank-tank-tank.)

But, never fear! Jeremy "Spider-Tac" Hefner will stay on as PC. Yay?

[Westheim]

Senga-Quintana-Lucchesi is actually two starters.

...that have a chance to go sub-5 ERA and above-5 innings/start.

Woe is Mets.

[Amazin69]

Current state of the Mets roster

C: Alvarez
backup C: Narvaez, who has gone .562, .743, 597, .580 the past 4 seasons.

And he only costs $7,000,000 this season! Woohoo!

1B: Kingman (I hope he re-signs, and I hope I can stop calling him this.)
2B: Squirrel
SS: Francisco "Uncontrollable Giggling" Lindor
3B: Mauricio, perhaps?
reserve 3B: Baty
reserve reserve 3B: Vientos
we'll never be short at short, now that we have Zack Short (.204/.292/.339 w. DET)
Best Beard (and glove): Guillorme

LF: the immortal DJ Stewart
CF: Mr. Pointy
RF: the all-too-mortal Starling Marte
reserve OF: as if!

DH: Vogelfat

SP: Senga!
SP: Quintana, when healthy
SP: Lucchesi (46 IP is totally enough sample size!)

SP other: Butto, Megill, Peterson (in May, May-be), your name here.

RP: Edwin Diaz (fingers crossed)
RP: Brooks Raley, Scourge of the Homosexuals
RP: Trevor Gott
RP: Drew Smith

RP "depth": Phil Bickford, Jeff Brigham, Sam Coonrod, Reed Garrett, Grant Hartwig, Sean Reid-Foley, Josh Walker

fresh in on waivers from Seattle: Penn Murfee, allegedly recovering from season-ending UCL surgery just fine, thank you!

And that's it. (Acuna is also on the 40-man, but will presumably start in the minors.)

Actually, 74-88 looks optimistic…

[Amazin69]

Pete Crow-Armstrong has "tripled" in value since Mets swapped him for Whiffez, now #12 prospect in MLB

The Penn Murfee era has come and gone. Mets tried to waive him off of the 40-man to assign him to Syracuse, Braves grabbed him. Gosh.

[Amazin69]

Latest Mets roster moves.

Mets non-tender Jeff Brigham, Sam Coonrod (okay, okay), Trevor Gott (hmm, thought he was in the plans)…

…and Vogelfat (Yes! What took you so long?)

…and Guillorme. (Noooo! SAVE THE BEARD!!!)

OTOH, they signed…DJ Stewart. Let joy be unconfined.

Also, OF Alex Ramirez has been added to the 40-man, following a sizzling .221/.310/.317 at Brooklyn. This is the big prospect you have to protect from the Rule V draft? Yeesh.

[Westheim]

Why you'd let Guillorme go is beyond me.

But ten years ago they also let Justin Turner go, and that was beyond me as well. It's not like he had any kind of career afterwards, right?

Ah, that's just me, sentimentally clinging to all the players (minus Snottavino) until they're skeletonized... (looks at the Raccoons' Lonzo, hitting for a 69 OPS+ but sitting 8th in career stolen bases at age 30)

[Amazin69]

Lindor actually won a Silver Slugger? I guess the 30/30 has its charms, even if it was a sub-par season by his standards. (.806 OPS , career is .815)

Is this only the Mets' third 30/30, or did Voltron get one while I wasn't looking to go with Hojo's 2? I must say Frankie had a good season on the bases (31 SB/4 CS)…but then again, they're only 88 feet apart now, lol.

[Amazin69]

Mets sign 33-year-old IF Joey Wendle.

1 year, $2 million. I guess they were impressed by that .212/.248/.306 he posted in 318 PA for the Fish last year?

And speaking of stinking like fish, Mets spend $13 million in bridge tolls to bring Luis Severino and his 6.65 ERA, 6.14 FIP and 1.646 WHIP across the Whitestone for 2024.

I guess Stearns wasn't completely sure about Joey Lucchesi in the #3 rotation slot?

Also, the Mets picked up catcher-outfielder Cooper Hummel on waivers from Seattle. Hummel went 2/23 last season.

[Westheim]

Making waiver claims is fine, and the $2M for Wendle are defensible.

$13M for Severino are not.

[Amazin69]

Mets sign Austin Adams to a split deal.

In 2021, Adams set a live-ball-era record for most HPB in a season, even though he was a reliever who threw fewer than 50 IP.

In 2022, Adams only made 2 appearances before going out with flexor tendon surgery.

In 2023, Adams had a 5.71 ERA in relief.

Remember when Scott Boras said the Mets were shopping in the canned fruit aisle? Stearns is shopping at Dollar General, it appears.

(In an unsurprising related report, the Mets are allegedly dropping out of pursuing Ohtani, as are the Strangers and the Sawx.)

Also, in the "More Semi-Warm Bodies in Case We Find a Sucker to Take Narvaez" category, the Mets have picked up Catcher Tyler Heineman on waivers from Toronto. Heineman, age 32, had two decent weeks after being reacquired by the Jays from Pittsburgh last season, but I think the chances of "Let's go, Heiney-Man" ringing out next season are still rather small.

[Amazin69]

Mets add RHP Michael Tonkin.

After missing five seasons, Tonkin had a comeback with Atlanta last season, posting a nice 1.09 WHIP.

Alas, that came with a mediocre 4.28 ERA, since Tonkin did give up 13 bombs in only 80 IP. Also, he collapsed down the stretch, which usually doesn't bode so well, especially for 34-y/o pitchers.

[Amazin69]

Quoting Westheim in the Yankees thread, after Severe No made his final start in (those) pinstripes:

We might see him at Citi next year, since we gotta rebuild our rotation with over-the-hump has-beens from the free agent market *somehow*, and which also means he'll have a rash in March and a sore nostril in April and a strain in May, and in the midst of the swoon of June you'll ask yourself "didn't we sign this guy last winter? Where's him at??"

Sorta like Quintana and Verlander and everybody else this year.

Revel in your predictive wisdom, oh Furry Fury!

[Westheim]

I'd honestly prefer my lottery numbers being drawn.

[Amazin69]

Ohtani? Who cares? The Mets picked up RHP Jorge Lopez!

(SI.com headline was "Former Orioles All-Star Lopez Signs with National League Contender". Hehe, "contender". Good one, SI!)

That said, for discard pile pick-ups (another 1 year/$2 mn player), this doesn't totally suck. Sure, Lopez was hot garbage for three teams (MIN, MIA, BAL) last season, but he was a 2022 All-Star before the O's messed him up by cashing him in for 4 players at the deadline. (Presumably, Lopez thought he was part of what they were building in Baltimore, and was thrown when he was kicked out of the nest.)

And he's "only" 30 (an infant, by Mets standards), which means there's a chance that last year was in fact a blip, rather than the start of the Death Spiral.

So perhaps he will be better than last season's 5.95 ERA and 1.51 WHIP. He even has starting experience with KC in 2018-19, although he was completely ass-raped trying that for Baltimore in 2021. But given the Mets' dearth of starter candidates, it's at least useful knowing there's an option in the pen.

Just in case Senga/Quintana/SevereNo/Lucchesi/Butto turn out not to be the Fireball Five reborn, after all.

[Westheim]

Lopez is career-horrible, those $2M would have been better spend on a charity of Uncle Steve's choice...

Now watch Lopez post a 17-9 season with 3.12 ERA and shut out the Barves in a pennant-clinching Game 7 or some wicked ****.

[Magus978]

No Yamamoto for the Mets as he goes to the Dodgers. Mets offered the same deal as the one he signed with the Dodgers for, but naturally he chose LA over New York.

At this point, the smartest play may actually be the one that leads to a full rebuild. None of the remaining FA's out there move the needle for me to make this team even a borderline contender if all falls right. Trade Alonso and get a haul, then move the rest of this core that has failed miserably. I know Nimmo signed a big deal recently, so he may not be tradeable. Doesn't mean you can't move McNeil though. Trade who you can, punt 2024 & 2025 and let's try again in 2026 after letting the kids develop.

[Westheim]

Not Pete...!!

[Magus978]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Not Pete...!!

This core has failed. If you're really serious about winning in the long term, you don't hold onto players for sentimental reasons. Sentimentality gets in the way of winning. Trade Alonso and get a big haul from someone, trade McNeil (and Nimmo if you can), kick in $$$ for better prospects like you did in the Verlander and Scherzer deals.

There is a belief that you can never pull off a full rebuild in New York. Wrong. You absolutely can. I'd rather attempt that than float around in 75-80 win mediocrity for the foreseeable future.