Longtime Mets broadcaster and Hall of Fame slugger Ralph Kiner passed away today at the age of 91. Kiner made his Major League debut with the Pirates in 1946 and proceeded to lead the Majors in home runs in each of his first seven Major League seasons. Injuries limited his outstanding career to just 10 seasons, but in that decade of work he batted .279/.398/.548 and belted 369 homers. Kiner joined the Mets broadcast team in its inaugural season of 1962 and continued working games until 2013. He went into the Hall as a Pirate in 1975.
MLBTR sends its condolonces to his family, friends and all of the people whose lives Kiner touched. Here is a look at some transactional news relating to the Mets …
- Stephen Drew's agent, Scott Boras, is seeking an opt-out clause after the first year of a deal, reports ESPNNewYork.com's Adam Rubin. Though the Mets are willing to consider guaranteeing two or even three years to the free agent shortstop, says Rubin, they view the opt-out as a "deal-breaker."
- After watching Fernando Rodney sign with the Mariners, the Mets remain interested in adding a late-inning arm to their pen, reports Rubin. The team hopes it can land a solid option on a minor league deal, Rubin adds.
- The Mets are among the teams that will watch reliever Joel Hanrahan throw in a showcase tomorrow, GM Sandy Alderson said in an appearance today (as reported by Michael Baron of MetsBlog.) We heard earlier today that the Orioles could also be interested in Hanrahan, who figures to appeal to many clubs if he can prove his health.
- In an interview with ESPN.com's Keith Law (audio link), Alderson explained that the club has been prioritizing upside in its player acquisitions. The club has gone after high-ceiling high schoolers in the draft while employing what Alderson terms non-traditional methods of evaluation. Likewise, Alderson said, the team has gone against convention by pursuing relatively older players in the international market. The whole interview is well worth a listen for anyone interested in prospect acquisition and development.
- Meanwhile, Mets COO Jeff Wilpon spoke with Mike Lupica of ESPN New York 98.7 FM (audio link), telling him that he expects the club to be in the mix for a Wild Card this year. Wilpon explained that the club will stick with Alderson's long-term plan, but hopes to stay competitive without Matt Harvey by relying on the organization's wealth of young arms.
Steve Adams contributed to this post.
RIP Ralph Kiner. I grew up on Kiner, Lindsay Nelson, and Kiner’s Korner.
For sure Bluesky. He wasn’t one got to hear very often, being in florida, but did see him a few times way back when he traveled to winter haven, or lakeland with the mets on spring training visits. One of those made for broadcasting voices.. like Jim Woods, Ernie Harwell, Harry Cary and very few others.
RIP Ralph. I’m sort of surprised at the lack of press this is getting, but Kiner was an awesome guy and a fun broadcaster. He’s also one of the greatest power hitters of all time. He’ll be missed; I loved hearing him when he’d pop into the booth sometimes during Sunday afternoon home games
The LA Times ran a long obit for him this morning. I always listened to him in New York, and didn’t know that he was from Southern California.
I dont get why Drew would want an opt out clause when hes having some trouble finding a deal now.
Especially when hes tied to a draft pick. Hes not worth 10M+ annually and a draft pick if he has an opt out.
Mets would only be giving up a 3rd round pick which is worth about what my comment is worth
But…. If he opts out…. and the Mats extend him a qualified offer…. and He excepts. 14-15M will be more than his contract for 2015. Mets end up paying him more for 2 years and lose a Draft pick.
Don’t believe you can QO a player that opts out.
Yes after 2014.
Obviously the Mets are low balling him on the AAV. Their only objection to the opt-out would be that they know they are offering much less than Drew is worth. Why else would the Mets object to the opt out? Especially when they originally only wanted a 1-2 yr deal,
Drew will get a nice deal, just a matter of time before someone gets injured or has a bad start to the season. There seems to be some collusion going on here IMO since teams with obvious holes to fill and money to spend seem to know the players have nowhere to go. That does not usually happen in a competitive free agent market. MLB’s already been caught 4 times, so they are habitual offenders
Also, if he opts out he wont have to worry about draft pick compensation
Obviously Boras as his agent has NOTHING to do with this as well. It’s common knowledge that Boras looks to extract the last dollar in every contract and uses mystery teams to get clubs to bid against themselves (shady business practices anyone???) I wouldn’t call it collusion when clubs aren’t beating down his door to sign one of his mediocre players to a very high priced contract.
Could it just be that Boras read the market wrong or teams don’t want to give up their draft pick for an oft-injured, overrated SS?
“Why else would the Mets object to the opt out?” Because, if he gets hurt or plain old stinks up the joint, they’re on the hook for 2 more years. Also, that would fit the reasoning for “originally only wanting a 1-2 year deal”.
First off, RIP to the great Ralph Kiner. A legend on and off the field.
If the Mets want to really compete for a wildcard, they should sign Drew and Morales. All of a sudden the lineup looks capable and you have a nice pitching staff to go with it.
Drew – SS
Murphy – 2B
Wright- 3B
Granderson – RF
Morales – 1B
C. Young – LF
d’Arnaud – C
Lagares – CF
Colon
Wheeler
Niese
Gee
J. Mejia
Rafael Montero and Syndergaard waiting in the wings
No thanks on Morales. His health and defense are not reliable, and his bat is very overrated. I would rather give Ike another chance or just roll with Flores.
Edit – excuse my sleep deprived self, I obviously meant Morales.
Montero is a starting pitcher.
Exactly! Now imagine if he could play defense and hit?!
Rafeal Montero is a starting pitcher.
I totally agree that his health can be questioned but I acknowledge no universe where Ike is a much safer option. If Morales can be had on a one or two year deal I think you gotta snag him cause he would bring the lineup up a notch. As it is now your only real threats are Wright, Granderson, and to a lesser extent Murphy. Even if D’Arnoud emerges which is probable I still think he could make a major difference. If I was Morales though I would be looking somewhere like the Indians or Bucs.
He is what now three years removed from a freak injury?
He will out produce Abreu on a short deal, no doubt.
I would love them to sign Morales,but they won’t do it. That right there would prove the Mets made a upgrade at literally almost every postion
Why sign Morales when you can give the spot to Flores? Kid can rake (don’t let his stat line fool you from last season). Lets not forget that Puello is also waiting in the wings to take that spot from Young.
And where do Lucas Duda and Ike Davis fit in?
Drop or trade Ike for whatever I can get, Duda to AAA.
If the Lambo 1B experiment fails for the Pirates, the Mets should be able to get Nick Kingham for Davis.
That’s not a wild card team. Morales would get injured before April was finished and that offense is pretty shaky. Colon is not an ace on any team bound for October.
I never said it was. I said they would compete for a wildcard.
They wouldn’t. Drew is not a leadoff guy, Granderson isn’t a number 4 hitter, and Morales can’t play regular first base. If everyone stayed healthy, that team might finish at .500. But that’s a big if.
For them to be a .500 team this year, it would boil down to this: they had 74 wins last year, so they’d need to improve by 7 wins. They lost Harvey, Byrd, and Buck. They added Granderson, C. Young, and Colon. Wheeler should figure to be better and Syndergaard should be up at some point.
The OP is suggesting they also add Drew and Morales. Drew would be a huge upgrade for SS and Morales would be a slight upgrade. imo, if they made those moves, I could see them being .500, although only if everyone stays healthy.
I’m not sure Wheeler should figure to be better. There’s no real way to expect what kind of year he’ll have in his first full season in the bigs.
Morales isn’t an upgrade because he cannot play full time 1B. Drew would be an upgrade, but how much of one? C. Young was a bad contract given by a desperate team and Harvey and Byrd are bigger losses than anything they’ve added. They could be .500 if Colon continues to defy all logic, but who knows?
Drew would be a massive upgrade, and I don’t know how you could think otherwise. It’s not that Drew is amazing, it’s that the Mets SS situation last year was probably the worst in the league. Quintanilla had a -0.8 rWAR and Tejada had a -0.9. They were well below replacement level for the whole season.
And please stop with the ‘Young was a bad contract’ stuff. It’s not true. First, it’s for one year. Second, it’s only $7.25MM. Have you seen the contracts being handed out this offseason? What about it is bad? What about it signals that the Mets are ‘desperate’?
Also, judging by strictly WAR, Morales would indeed be, as I said, a slight upgrade.
It depends on what Drew they get. Tejada was awful last year but Drew’s WAR hasn’t been the model of consistency. Tejada’s 24 and posted 2 WAR two years ago. He’s not dependable, but neither is Drew.
Young was a bad contract. He can’t hit for power or average. His defense is good, but not as good as it was a few years ago and with the rest of his skills on the decline, that’s not something to ignore. Everything about it is bad except for the fact that it’s one year. It’s a waste of money for a team that talks about payroll concerns and they had no competition for his services.
Agree to disagree, I guess, but given Drew vs. Tejada-Quintanilla, I’d have to say that Drew is a huge upgrade.
I still maintain that Young is not a bad contract. He just turned 30, and is only two seasons removed from back-to-back 5+ WAR seasons. $7.25MM is nothing compared to what is being spent this offseason. Mike Pelfrey got $5.5MM over two seasons, and he’s one of the worst starters in baseball.
At worst, Young is a moderate risk, decent reward player. If he plays well and they’re in contention, great. If he plays well and they’re not, trade him and get something. If he plays terrible, honestly, who cares? It’s a one year deal. People are acting as though this deal is wasting their own personal money. There’s no commitment.
agree to disagree
If Morales is signed, they only position he’ll regularly play is the 15 Day DL.
Colon was an ace for Oakland last year…
Technically, yes. Oakland’s rotation was ridiculously well rounded though. The Mets’ pitching staff leaves a lot to be desired.
Replace Morales with Flores & I’ll be content, especially knowing that Puello is right around the corner.
Flores hasn’t played an inning of first base ever.
Not so. Spot starts in both 2012 and 2013.
Actually, he’s made 18 starts at 1st base. Brief, but better than no experience.
If nobody wants to sign Drew now, what makes Boras want an “opt out” clause after the first year? Wouldn’t he have to go through the same “nobody wants him” thing next year? Have I missed something? The only reason I could see is if Boras thinks Jeter would retires after this year and the Yanks would need a SS next year.
When teams hear about the opt out clause after one year, especially being tied to the QO, no one will bite. They are lunatics for asking for an opt out clause. Teams might as well just offer him a one year deal
Next year, assuming all is relatively the same, Boras would take the 14.1m. He knows he dropped the ball. (E-Agent)
I believe if Drew opts out, Mets can’t offer QO. Same as Adrian Beltre few years ago with Red Sox. Without the compensation attached, he would be able to get a better deal.
Boras blames players like Drew not getting signed on the owners but then makes ridiculous demands like an opt out after 1 year?!?! If he would look in the mirror he would see the real problem.
Boras Logic: If no one will give my client the multi-year deal he wants, they will definitely give him a multi-year deal with an op-out….
This almost makes sense as a Drew selling point. The Mets will say no way to the opt out and will offer the 2/3 year deal and feel they got something over on Boras because they did not cave on the opt out. Boras will save face becasue he got Drew a deal many thought could not be had. The opt out was simply bait.
The following would have to happen for the Mets to even think about contending for a wild card spot:
1. All of their starting pitchers will have to repeat or improve on their performances from last year.
2. Their bullpen will have to be consistently good, not streaky as they were last year.
3. Curtis Granderson will have to hit at his 2011 levels or better.
4. Davis and/or Duda will have to be productive.
5. Ruben Tejada will have to hit like he did in 2012.
6. Juan Lagares and Chris Young will need to contribute positively on offense
7. Travis d’Arnaud will have to take a step forward from last year
8. Montero/Syndergaard/DeGrom/etc. (1 of them or a combination) need to come up and pitch well, along the lines of Harvey and Wheeler.
It’s not impossible, but it’s far-fetched at best. This team is at least a year and a few more signings away from being a real contender.
I agree that 2015 is probably their first real shot. However, I don’t think 2 or 7 are that unreasonable. Also, number 4 could probably be solved if they went with a strict platoon of Davis and Satin.
I’d say all of those things are more likely than unlikely. Biggest question I would have is point #2, otherwise I’d expect improvements as listed across the board.
The ones that I would view as likely are 1, 7, and 8.
I still believe that Davis/Duda/Tejada deserve one more chance, but my patience is running out on them and I have my doubts about any of them being productive.
Granderson can still contribute positively without hitting as he did in 2011, but having him reach those numbers would really make it a worthwhile signing.
I don’t ultimately see Lagares or Young doing much offensively.
The bullpen is on the right track, but it’s still probably going to be quite streaky this year.
Best decision for both Drew and the Mets is to sign him to a 3 year deal with an option on the 2nd year. Many people don’t want Drew because of the bigger shortstop FAs next offseason. But there are a few big market teams that’ll be looking for a shortstop next year too. So, the option for next year will be so that if they can’t sign a shortstop they’ll still have Drew. I have a feeling he’ll be signed within a week. Also I can see Hanrahan or Gregg being added.
I want Ike and Duda to compete for 1st. Whoever wins will start. Put Flores at 1st in AAA to get some time in and once he’s ready bring him up. If Ike/Duda aren’t producing then put Flores at 1st. He has the bat to be in this lineup. With an addition of Drew this team can look pretty good.
LF C.Young
SS Drew
3B Wright
RF Granderson
2B Murphy
1B Ike
C TDA
CF Lagares
The addition of Drew brings depth into that lineup.
So Boras expects a team to give up a draft pick to sign Drew, then have him opt out after one year? Good luck with that.
Don’t worry, he’ll only opt out if he plays well.
Opt out could work for Mets. They would lose the 85th pick this year, but gain a 30 something next year, if they QO him. Thats if he’s good, if he’s bad . . .
If I were a GM, I’d be happy to give Drew and opt-out clause. Of course only if the team has the same option.
If I were a GM, I’d be happy to give Drew and opt-out clause. Of course only if the team has the same option.
Drew is going to go for the best deal he can get. But the team that gives him three years downside protection while he gets the opt-out after one year if he has a good season is truly foolish.