The Mets made an offer to free agent reliever Brad Hand that was “right in the ballpark” of the one-year, $10.5MM deal he agreed to with the Nationals, reports Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter link). New York was linked to Hand throughout the offseason, with team president Sandy Alderson acknowledging the club might’ve claimed him last fall had the team’s ownership change been finalized at the time Hand was available on waivers. After missing out on their top lefty bullpen target, the Mets could look into a Justin Wilson reunion, Heyman posits.
More news and notes from the game’s East divisions:
- Elsewhere on the Mets, free agent center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. is “on their radar,” hears Heyman (Twitter link). That’s hardly an indication New York is actively engaged in the bidding for Bradley, but he does make sense as a potential target for the Mets after they missed out on George Springer. Outfield isn’t necessarily an area of need, but acquiring a true center fielder would push current projected starter Brandon Nimmo into a corner role for which he might be better suited. Bradley is one of the game’s best defenders and coming off a strong 2020 season at the plate.
- The Yankees tried to acquire Joe Musgrove and Jameson Taillon in a package deal with the Pirates before Pittsburgh traded Musgrove to the Padres, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post (Twitter link). New York ended up pulling in Taillon for a package of four prospects this morning. Taillon and free agent signee Corey Kluber have been New York’s most important rotation pickups this winter.
- The Rays are hiring former major league outfielder Denard Span as a special assistant in baseball operations, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. A Tampa native, Span spent part of the 2018 season playing for the Rays. The former first-rounder also played for the Twins, Nationals, Giants and Mariners over an eleven-year MLB playing career. Span explained his decision to retire as a player last June.
wow, shocker, not everyone wants to play for Cohen or in New York.
and by that i mean above any specific other owner/city at the same price. not a dig at him or NYC.
I see you’ve thrown out the lolmetz lure. Gotta catch them all, right? =}
Or simply wanted an opportunity to be the closer.
Maybe he just saw an easier path to the closer role in Washington.
With that bullpen, he’s without a doubt the closer there.
Tanner Rainey isa more likely closer considering hand is our only good lefty
It is possible he thinks Nats are going back to the postseason, even more so than the Mets. Maybe they made him aware of intentions to get other big-named free agents (JT?) and he sees opportunity for a WS ring + the job he wants. With the Mets, he sees the opportunity for the WC game and maybe, if they play well, division series loss.
Do you really think teams inform free agents of their intention to sign other free agents as a way to lure them to sign? They likely share a very general outline with certain free agents but would never give any details, specially when it comes to big name ones
If he wanted to go to postseason. I now see why he didn’t sign with the Yankees!
Absolutely. Maybe not down to specific players but teams do let players know what they plan to do. When Nolan Arenado re-upped with the Rockies, ownership made promises to him to be a competitive team. Why do you think he’s been so pissed? Competing agents also share information with one another.
@MetsFan22- Oh yeah that’s right the Yankees are never in the postseason. Are you sure your not talking about that 3rd best in NY, that you root for never making the playoffs? Smh
No, JT was in parentheses, if you notice. I said, “other big-name free agents” which teams frequently will tell other players they are attempting to sign to compete for a WS. It literally happens all the time. JT was my postulation
And for a Mets fan to refer to a player NOT going to the Yankees because he wants to go to the playoffs is…. laughable.
You fail to include a very important piece of information here…. he wanted to close…
Well, @MetsFan22, we certainly don’t think this will cut into your 96-win prediction. Or are you already going to start backtracking or pretend you never said that?
Reports are saying Hand wanted a closer role to build up value and become a FA next year. Nothing to do with Cohen and money. He wasnt going to be a clear choice to close for the Mets. Nats need him a lot worse in their disasterous bullpen….
Maybe he wants to be a closer and Diaz’s presence with the Mets didn’t make that possible. It’s not always about ownership or the city. It might be situational
With the tax structure in NY (state, city and residential) and the quality of life differences, the Mets offer if the same $…is actually not even close to the same as the Nationals
Is bidding time !
Heard the Phillies were in on Taillon. Really would have been a nice pick up
I’ve been wanting the Phillies to buy low on him for several years. He very well could be the pickup of the offseason if he is healthy.
Hand wanted to close, and that probably wasn’t going to be the case with the Mets.
Span could hire by the Rays
Good to see Span get a job and stay in the game. Class act all around.
You are correct, class act, wonderful to the community, good addition. Maybe a path to something more down the road for Span.
What’s wrong with Hand that I’m just not getting? He made 500k more than he was originally supposed to be paid by the Indians. Everyone passes on him while on waivers. And statistically he’s been very good. I’ve seen a lot of relievers get paid what he’s gotten that didn’t have half a 4 year stretch than he’s had.
He got COVID’d. No one knew how the market would play out in October. Mets didn’t have their owner in place. I also wonder if there’s also some limit of health information that’s exchanged on a waiver claim(total speculation) vs free agent negotiations. Hand had a large multi year velo decline to explain, and If those records weren’t fully available, it could have been harder for teams to jump that gun early
Now, we have a decent shot at seeing some fans in most stands this year. Way more likely than last October, I’d wager. Owners also expect 162, so higher revenue potential there as well. Teams have shown they will spend on the arms that have signed, and Hand was able to sell his track record. He came out 1.5M better, so easy to say Clev should have held him and traded him later. But that’s playing the hindsight game
Good point, but I guess what I was hinting at is like you mentioned, lack of information regarding his health. Stoked that the Nats are trying to stay competitive even if half their payroll is allocated to their three starters. Strasburg has to be healthy for them to even have a chance for a wildcard.
Part of it could also be that teams had a certain amount of money to work with and holes that needed to be filled. Now they’ve had a chance to fill some of those holes, so before you weren’t sure you’d have 10m to spend on a reliver and now, since you’ve been able to fill those holes cheaper than you may have thought, you have enough to sign someone you might have seen as a luxury.
Why do teams always do this? “Awww shucks, we didn’t sign the free agent you’ve been asking for, for months, but… at least we tried. Isn’t that what you wanted to hear? Yay! We came in 2nd place! The player acknowledged us!” Everybody knew the Rangers were in Rendon’s market for weeks, and the same can be said about the Mets and Hand. So why do we need sources asking if they tried to sign him? OF COURSE THEY TRIED! I’d rather just hear the GM or PoBO just say “We made an offer that (x player) turned down, but now we’re on to the next best thing. Gotta get to work.” A little pet peeve of mine I guess you could say.
Honestly, I blame fans for this. That desire for every bit of info leads to reporters feeling like anything is noteworthy. Then ego/reputation/whatever you want to call it takes over
It’s the same logic applies to “why do so many rumors prove false?” Fans have become so obsessed with knowing everything about the team, that someone like Heyman knows if he reports the losing offer first, he also gets a little “credit”. Or if a guy reports a trade is happening, but the package wasn’t quite right- he was still first
As Lurking said, part of that is on the fans and their expectations. If you see some of the RS ‘fans’ in here, every time someone signs elsewhere, it is ‘basement Bloom’ again.
The fact is, there is too much we don’t know. Theoretically, every GM should be interested in every FA, at a certain price. And, theoretically, every GM should pass on every FA, at a certain price. We just don’t know any of the interest.
I have no doubt that 29 GMs responded to PT’s offer of Taillon. But there will only be one great match. Maybe the RS made an offer for Kluber, but felt that 2021 would be a poor year for him, and wanted a 2nd year option for him. While maybe the NYY felt he would have a good 2021.
That’s why I don’t pay much attention to the misses. The RS could ‘be in’ on Bauer, but only if he will take $60M/3. It doesn’t mean they are hyped about him, but would gladly make a move if he suddenly fell.
JoeBrady, I have already seen a Dodger fan refer to Andrew Friedman as “Fraudman” because he let Hand slip away to the team that beat the Los Angeles Chokers in the 2019 post-season. Ugh, fans. I’ve learned to read such stuff through Elvis Costello’s glasses: “I used to be disgusted, And now I try to be amused.” I also don’t buy into rumors that, to me, seem like something Friedman wouldn’t actually do. It’s as if some fans have no knowledge of the team they follow.
I don’t really follow college basketball anymore, but it used to drive me crazy when fans would praise their team’s coach for landing two five-star recruits, only to want him fired when the next five-star guy chooses a different school. Yep, gotta try to be amused. Which is why I love New York Mets fans. All that unintentional humor.
I disagree that every GM should be interested in every FA, even at a certain price.
There are several factors that probably lead a front office to not consider players.
-Their agent. Have you noticed that there are certain clubs that sign a bunch of Scott Boras clients, and some that go out of their way to not sign them? The players agent is often considered.
-Their personality. Some teams simply don’t want guys whose personality will obviously clash with their clubhouse. Guys like Puig or even Bauer (potentially) may be considered persona non grata in front offices. Guys who simply aren’t worth the headache. Coincidentally, both Puig and Bauer share an agent.
-Injury history. Some teams have obviously done better at signing players post-injury than others. Some injuries are just too big, too concerning, and not worth any amount of money for clubs.
As we consider all we don’t know, that hole gets way deeper. But I would argue that there is a good list of FAs that every GM would refuse to sign, for a various amount of reasons.
I think part of it, like many have said, is that the fans get hyped up about free agency, and want to see good players pick their teams.
But I also think it shows a level of due diligence to fans. It reveals that the front office is doing what it takes to put a competitive team on the field and that they are making offers.
Mets fans rightly don’t want good relievers to go to a division foe. So when the Nationals get someone like Brad Hand, who the Mets reportedly were interested, goes somewhere else, Mets fans might be a bit miffed. Whether or not that’s reasonable, I’ll let you decide. But such a comment reveals that the Mets made a legitimate offer to the player, and that the player ended up choosing to go somewhere else.
These type of responses fall on the fans, not the front offices. And frankly, there’s a good reason why the response is always super generic. It’s because they know they need to give an answer to the media, but don’t want to dwell on something that is done and over with.
For what it’s worth, I’d wager there are a half dozen or so teams who made no attempt to sign Brad Hand, or at least not a reasonable one. So the idea of them trying may not be so obvious.
Count me among the Denard Span fans. Great guy, can only have a positive influence on an organization.
The Mets seem to be replacing the Blue Jays as the team attached to everyone, but…
@lordd99 McCann, May, Lindor, Corrasco. Not to mention Stroman’s QA.
When the Yanks ducked under the CBT previously, Cashman left himself ~ $8 mil. & that was a fiasco lol
Remember:
– Sugar Shane Robinson
– Cashman limiting September call-ups for fear they’d take the Yankees past the penalty line
– salary dumping Adam Warren to a playoff competitor at the trade deadline
– having to include Zach Littel to the Twins in order to get them to consume salary in a version of baseball bizarro world
& so now Cashman has maybe a couple million & the plan is to just ride it out, huh. That just can’t be right, man.
Next year, Ducky, next year. We will own the offseason.
This is a real bummer; if he wanted to close in NY then he should have been given 2 years and the chance. Diaz is NOT the answer and it pains me to see him still there.
He had an atrocious start to 2020 and then they handpicked his appearances in low leverage situations; secondly in 2020 he did not face due to the COVID schedule some of the better teams in the league like the Dodgers who won the WS.
The Mets have had a good offseason, but when some of your fans and beat writers are predicting that you’re going to get everyone on the market, it makes what you did look like very little.
How about certain Mets fans tempering your stupidity, and stop predicting that you’re going to sign everyone and win 95+/- games so when that isn’t what happens, you don’t get disappointed, and then feel the sting of fans mocking you for being such a blowhard when people pointed out you were expecting more than what is realistic of any team? Life would be better, wouldn’t it?