The Mets are indeed preparing to tender righty Matt Harvey a contract, Jon Heyman of Fan Rag reports. MLBTR’s Steve Adams examined the matter just yesterday, explaining why the club likely sees the 28-year-old as a worthwhile investment despite his marked struggles. GM Sandy Alderson had already made that rather clear, but Heyman suggests it’s all but a done deal and adds some context. New York, he says, may mostly plan to rely on the team’s slate of internal rotation options while investing instead in the bullpen.
More from the NL East:
- It seems likely the Mets will move on from Terry Collins, as we’ve also heard recently, but Mike Puma of the New York Post gives the clearest indication yet that the veteran skipper will probably depart. Per the report, ownership is not expected to override the baseball ops department, which seemingly intends to notify Collins of its decision shortly. The club’s precise plans for the potential managerial vacancy remain unknown, though Puma says it’s fairly likely that New York will look to bring in a new skipper that has previous “ties to the organization.” He lists Robin Ventura, Alex Cora, Kevin Long, Bob Geren, and Chip Hale as potential candidates.
- Marlins righty Nick Wittgren underwent surgery to remove a bone spur from his elbow, as he himself tweeted. Notably, Wittgren fills us in on one underappreciated aspect of the work of Dr. James Andrews: the famed surgeon was thoughtful enough to send his patient home with the malevolent spur. Wittgren, 26, will have a full offseason to get healthy (as well as a new trophy). He had an interesting 2017 season, recording 9.1 K/9 against 2.8 BB/9 over 42 1/3 innings, but managed only a 4.68 ERA. As the Miami organization looks for ways to make its roster leaner, Wittgren holds out some hope of providing useful relief innings at a budget rate of pay.
The Mets position talent is so awesome I can understand why the discussion would be solely focused on their pitching staff.
Don’t care much if Collins is gone or not as I don’t see good things on the horizon for the Mets anyway, but the way this is now playing out is pretty bushleague.
Who actually thought they wouldn’t tender Harvey a contract? Is anybody really that dumb?
Have you been introduced to#MetsTwitter?
Speaking of his recent injury history, and severe performance drop, it wouldn’t surprise me if they didn’t tender him a contract.
Mets are considering Robin Ventura for their upcoming managerial vacancy? As a player he had some great moments in Flushing, but unless they’re looking to tread water for a while I’d take a pass on him as mgr.
I wonder if the Mets would consider someone like Larry Rothschild (the Yankees pitching coach) he’s done a great job with that rotation and bullpen this year
Kevin Long?! No thanks.
Why? Why, exactly, do the Mets need to bring back someone with previous “ties to the organization”?? What has this organization accomplished in the last 30 years that would make “previous ties” an important pre-requisite?? This kind of limited thinking is one of the many reasons the Mets will never be a long-term contender.
The only reason I can think of (and it’s not a very good one) is that they want someone who understands the dynamics of the NY media/fanbase.
Because the Wilpons look out for their frands
The Mets pen issues in 2017 have been a result of the rotation issues – not in addition to it. No pen can pitch 4 IP/game and look good – but the Mets starters sucked so badly this year that the pen got destroyed too.
The kids they added in the salary dump trades look pretty worthless, though, and Robles has proven himself incapable of being trusted — so I’d hope for another 8th inning arm to support Ramos & Blevins in getting to Familia.
Plus all the injuries they had to go through.
Nolan Ryan for team President and Robin Ventura for manager.
As a white sox fan, let me just say that the mets definitely don’t want Ventura as their manager
I like Alex Cora. I still remember Hernandez saying he thinks he would be a great manager and that was when he was playing his quick stint on the Mets years ago. I think having some Spanish leadership will be good too for a little change. Bring in a new pitching and hitting coach and see what happens with that.
The 2015 NY Mets were the worst team to ever go to the World Series and Mets Manager Terry Collins deserves much of the credit getting them there.
Not true at all.
Ya that’s not true. There’s been plenty of worse teams in the last decade alone
In all fairness, the ’73 Mets were the worst team to win the pennant. Seaver 19 wins, no one else had more than Koosman (14). No one batted .300, had 100 RBIs, or scored 100 runs, and yet, the Yogi Berra led team took the mighty A’s to game # 7 !!! Amazing = )
2015 Mets had Harvey (when he was good), rookie Syndergaard, an all star Jacob DeGroom, and Bartolo Colon. They also had an amazing closer (at least in the regular season). They also 6 guys with 12+ homeruns, including Cespedes who they got at the deadline.
Smart move to keep Harvey, his value is a its lowest point and he had TOS which is a tricky thing to come back from. but if he comes back the upside is huge!
It’s gotta be Cora, Jose Oquendo, or somebody similar. Sorry, but with the current political landscape and what’s going on in this country, I guarantee MLB will be behind the scenes to make sure it’s a minority manager…and that’s just the way it is.
Maybe Bobby Bonilla could earn his salary!
Sports and politics should not mix whatsoever. ESPN and the NFL are literally killing themselves and each other by mixing the two.
Where’s Ron Gardenhire on this list?