The latest from Queens…
- The Mets will send scouts to Corey Kluber’s showcase on January 13, MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo reports (Twitter link) and the club also had evaluators watching James Paxton when Paxton threw for teams two weeks ago. Both free agent pitchers are looking to bounce back from injury-shortened 2020 seasons, and Kluber also barely pitched (35 2/3 innings) in 2019. If healthy and effective, either pitcher would give the Mets another major arm to join Jacob deGrom and Marcus Stroman atop the rotation. Lots of other teams, of course, would have similar hopes of installing Kluber or Paxton as a rebound candidate, though it is unclear how this interest will manifest itself in terms of a contract given both pitchers’ health concerns. The Mets have deeper pockets than most clubs this offseason, however, and New York could conceivably sign Kluber or Paxton as something of a lottery ticket for the back end of the rotation while still targeting a higher-tier arm (such as a Trevor Bauer).
- The Mets announced their full coaching staff, including official confirmation of new hires Dave Jauss (as bench coach) and Tony Tarasco (as first base coach and an outfielders/baserunning coach). Ricky Meinhold will also join the staff as an assistant pitching coach, while retaining his prior job as a minor league pitching coordinator. Brian Schneider returns to the staff with a new assignment, moving from quality control coach to Major League field coordinator and catching coach.
- In case you missed some noteworthy Mets news from yesterday, the Amazins are reportedly no longer bidding on Tomoyuki Sugano, but they are interested in former Indians closer Brad Hand.
So how many teams is it that have said they will be at Kluber’s workout? 23 so far? A more interesting take would be who won’t be there.
It would be funny if the Blue Jays weren’t there…
Sorry that this (free) website wasn’t able to suit your needs.
here you go Mets fans. hope you are happy now.
Nope. I’m not.
If they sign Kluber and/or Paxton I’d be very disappointed
Glad they are kicking the tires. Ya gotta. Cost nothing. Did not want the unproven Sugaro.
I think he’ll outperform both by a considerable margin actually
I would role the dice on Kluber over Paxton. Hopefully he comes cheap enough for Bloom to sign him
Paxton is fools gold. another player whose perception is inflated too much by one great year.
He is an incredibly frustrating pitcher to watch. I think of the likes of Kenny Rogers, Javier Vazquez, Carl Pavano when I think about Paxton. He probably has a cy-young caliber season in him if he can put it together but even if he does I’m ready to move on and never look back.
I wouldn’t use Kenny Rogers as a comp for Paxton. Rogers managed to win 200+ games and didn’t even become a full time stater til his age 28 season and only twice in his career did he miss any significant time do to injury and the first time was during his age 36 season. In contrast Paxton is entering his age 32 season having never started 30 games in a season. It may be time for Paxton to transition to a bullpen role because i can’t imagine teams are lining up to pay him big money for starts they won’t get out of him
Rogers also had a perfect game on his ledger.
Doesn’t Paxton have a no hitter?
Agreed
Rogers also walked in the winning run to end a playoff series.
Oh I just meant it as comparisons at other Yankee pitchers that came in and underwhelmed that went on to have success afterwards with other teams. I know he is going to have a year or two that he is good with somebody who picks him up.
Come home Paxton you have the LF bleachers full whenever you pitch. Those crazy Canadians come down to watch him. The bald eagles maple leafs and maple tree branches with them. We will be happy to have you back.
I like Paxton, but it’s because I think he’s worth 10 mil a year. His xfip, fip, era, and siera all stay constant, so his run allowed stats aren’t misleading. He has a high-strikeout rate though with that he also has a high walk rate and high HR rate. Not a good combo altogether, but it is definatley worth 10 mil AAV. I’d love the Rangers to take a chance on him at that price.
The issue with Paxton is he needs to learn to be more crafty which is what older pitchers do. The stuff is there but control isn’t. He doesn’t need to alwayd throw 95+.
He needs to learn how to stay healthy, he’s been hurt with something his whole career! Need an incentive based contract on games started & innings pitched.
@DarkSide with that in mind, it’d be so typical if the Phillies replace Arrieta with Paxton.
Which year was that? I’ll take Paxton 2017, 2018 or 2019 on my team, especially at a discounted rate.
As a Yankees fan, Paxton was very frustrating. Here is Paxton in a nutshell: give up two runs in the first, pitch like a cy-young caliber pitcher for the next four, and then Boone leaves him in for the sixth where he gives up four more.
For the last two years his first innings were mind boggling.
I agree on all that you said, except the last part is more on Boone and what he does with every pitcher. It’s why Boone is a terrible manager
I’m with you on Boone. I don’t know why they keep him around (I guess he toes the company line). One thing I always liked about Girardi is when pitchers performed poorly across time he would rarely go to them. You had to fight your way back pitching in meaningless games. Boone just does the same things over and over.
This assessment is exactly right! It was painful to watch.
If the Mets are forced to sign Yankees retreads, I’d much rather they sign Tanaka than Paxton.
Except that scenario never happened with Paxton in a Yankee uniform.
Just bring back big sexy lol
I’ll take it lol. If we aren’t going to be good let us be entertaining.
Signing both Kluber and Paxton could pay off huge dividends for the Mets if they can return to somewhat of their old forms
same logic with Wacha and Porcello that did them in last year
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. It worked pretty well in the Bronx in 2012 with Freddy Garcia and Big Sexy.
Another luke warm darkside take. You can find them on every single post on this site. Yes every single article, there’s darkside, with his 5 word sentence fragment.
With the Cohen money, Mets don’t need to sign more rebound projects. That was disastrous for them in 2020.
Except all the big Cohen money was smoke and mirrors. They passed on Realmuto for the cheaper crappier James McCann. They pass on Sugano for dumpster diving with Paxton and Kluber LMAO! Same old Mets dumpster fire, new owner. I’m glad my team has SP depth and doesn’t have to dumpster dive
Sugano probably said no to them. McCann was a better signing than JTR. If they don’t get a Springer and another big purchase then you can say that but until then lets see what they do.
It doesn’t make sense to criticise the Mets offseason when the free agent market has developed so little up to this point. All top 5 FA’s are still available and Sugano just isn’t good enough to use as proof that Cohen is all talk.
I’m hearing this all over the place, but not a single big FA signed anywhere. The Mets have not whiffed on anything. I don’t understand the logic. Plenty of time for Cohen to make a splash.
@BadBenjamin You can’t say the McCann signing was better when we don’t know what Realmuto’s deal looks like yet.
@vonpurplehayes
I still think short of a pillow contract he is still not gonne be less than 15AAV or 20AAV. Also if the Mets get Springer in concert with Springer or 2 of the upper tier pitchers. I like Sugano i dont think it was a huge mistake because it seems majority of the far east players the mets have signed has not worked out as expected for them.
I am kind of hoping they get Molina to tandem with McCann for 2 years and train the kid they have coming up. But i dont think he Molina would take backup catcher money . was kinda hoping 5ish mil deal but would go back to the cards for that deal. This will keep the wear and tear down on McCann and is there anyone better to learn from than the big name of the Molina family?
The Mets don’t need Springer. That would be a bad signing overpaying a 31 year old CF for what he did on another team. Need to have common sense here. Especially when Conforto and Syndergaard are in their walk year.They need arms because their starting pitching took a major step back when BVW let Wheeler walk to a division rival.
@MrMet1979 2
Soooo overpaying a 30 yr old pitcher for what they did for the reds over a season and a half? Overpay for an injury prone 32 yr old pitcher for what he did for their prior prior team in the mariners? over pay for a pitcher that is 32 yr old pitcher that has been a hair away from an 18 month recovery time for the last few years? Because of the depressed market for pitching and the over pay for those missed out on on Bauer those guys will get overpaid.
Springer upgrades your entire defense and potentially offense as well for 2 or 3 years. Springer bumps Nimmo to left, Smith to first (who is a better defensive first baseman) pushing alonso to first bat off the bench or dh if it happens. If not you will have smith who is a first baseman in left field and nimmo that is at best mediocre CF. Springer brings some power and speed to the lineup and is an established leadoff hitter and hopefully will create a more consistent lineup. Something like below with 3-6 changing depending on matchup.
Springer – mcneil – Conforto – Davis – Smith – Nimmo – McCann – Gimenez – Pitcher
Peter Alonso on the bench? Wtf are you smoking? And for the record when did I ever say that I wanted Bauer, Paxton or Kluber? But we do need two starters. I don’t know if you watch a lot Mets games but they lose more games because of pitching than anything else. Springer is an upgrade on offense and defense no doubt but its no point in having an elite offense if your starters can’t get into the 6th inning. Losing Wheeler created major problems. I hate BVW smh. More importantly signing Springer until he’s 36-37 would give the Mets a proper excuse to let Conforto walk. I don’t think Met fans would like that very much. Letting homegrown talent walk sends the wrong message to your fanbase.
@Roll: in your scenario, the Mets are signing Springer so they can move Alonso to the bench? Pure insanity. Which is better?
What they have now:
1B – Alonso
2B – McNeil
LF – Conforto
RF – Smith
CF – Nimmo
What you want:
1B – Smith
2B – McNeil
LF – Nimmo
RF – Conforto
CF – Springer
With Alonso on the bench for some reason.
And you want them to shell out $125 million for that marginal improvement? You proved @MrMet1979’s point. Springer is not a need. He’s a luxury, but they need to address the rotation first.
Springer is a “marginal improvement” over Alonso? Yeah ok
Agree but it’s either springer or baurer we are not definitely not getting both. Seeing as our offense was better then our pitching which was putrid I think baurer should be a priority
Matz comes back strong with a make it or break it year…… Thor comes back healthy by June. We can only hope. Cohen, Talk to the hand!
I think a lot of Mariner fans would love to see a reunion with both Paxton and Walker.
There’s room for both, but it’s probably more likely that Seattle will add just one starter this offseason and see if they can get starts/innings out of Flexen, at least initially. Gilbert will come into the picture pretty quick.
Marco, Justus, Yusei, Justin, Flexen, Nick, Logan and Ljay. I think you have room for one more starter on a one year deal. Unless you’re trading/signing TOR stuff. You want to see for sure what you have with with all these young guys here. Plus you have Williamson, Kirby, Hancock and Then all maybe 1-2 years away.
Throw Paxton on the pile with AJ Burnett, Michael Pineda, Javier Vasquez, Jared Wright, and the dung heap of guys great 15 starts a year who make 2-4 DL visits a season
Vazquez started over 30 games a season for every year of his career except one (26 GS when he was 22). Not sure where you think this multiple DL stints are coming from Vazquez. Burnett was injury prone in his early years with the Marlins but he averaged over 32 starts a season from age 31–37.
Maybe he meant Carl Pavano? Vazquez was on the team around the same time i believe.
Pavano is in a whole category of his own lol
He had to been thinking of Pavano. He robbed the Yankees. They paid him $38 million for 26 starts. The irony is he started at least 32 games for the next three seasons after he left NY.
I’m talking about in terms of being kinda high profile disappointments for guys we thought would be solid number 2 or 3 starters with potential ace caliber stuff (which is why I left randy johnson and Kevin Brown off list, cuz they were supposed to be aces).. I should have prefaced my comment with that…but I’d put Vazquez as biggest disappoint of all of them, as he helped us choke in 2004, was advertised as 4 pitch weapons guy, had bad losing way about him that couldn’t handle NY…someone who didn’t watch him for both stints in NYY,might at quick glance see he made 1 all star team going 14-10, then 10-10 in his next stint.. and think that’s not horrible..but those were world series caliber teams,and Vazquez pitched not 1 big game,he was an anti-big game pitcher,and had yankees not had big hitting line ups,he would’ve been way worse…and his quote unquote durability pitching 30 games brought absolute zero value..and for record, I’ll take paxton any day over Vazquez
Vazquez, though terrible on the Yankees was actually a solid durable middle of the rotation starter. Everyone else you mentioned did (or does in Pineda’s case) have durability issues. Jaret Wright turned into a solid reliever though
Don’t forget about Rich Hill when you make that list.
MLBTR = Mets League Baseball Trade rumors
Ha! Mets out on a legitimate pitcher (Sugano) but in on a washed up former star. New owner, same old Mets schtick with the dumpster diving. I thought at first Cohen was going to awesome but he’s turning into a Twitter loving Jeff Wilpon.
How do you know he’s a legitimate pitcher and will translate to MLB? Hideki Irabu was the Japanese Nolan Ryan when he came over… haha
*Rolls eyes*
The biggest free agent signings so far has been by Cohen. On top of that, the free agent market has developed so little that the top 5 free agents are still available but already you’re decrying Cohen as a fraud. Don’t you think you should at least reserve your judgement until some of those more productive free agents have landed somewhere?
Did you really type “rolls eyes”?
You have “laughing out loud” in your user name. Pot. Kettle.
He has too. He can’t believe the stupidity on this site.
Metsfan is right. I’m not even a Mets fan but for anyone to dismiss Cohen like that is beyond premature.
Sugano is an unproven entity. Way to early to second guess Cohen.
Kluber has as much upside as any other FA pitcher on a one year deal. Guy was one of the best pitchers in baseball prior to getting hurt in 2019-2020. He’s 34 now, but at least #2 upside and #4 downside if he’s able to pitch.
Me thinks Cohen has only several million left
You should just say “I think” and stop trying to be cute. No one is amused.
I’m still waiting for Dan Hunter to be correct about the Pirates trading Starling Marte to the Mets…after all, it was a done deal according to him. Since then, Marte has been trade to the D-Backs and then to the Marlins. I guess the Marlins have to trade him back to the Pirates so they can trade him to the Mets for Dan Hunter.
Saying Me thinks is correct English.
From Merrian Webster
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me·thinks | \ mi-ˈthiŋ(k)s \
past methought\ mi-ˈthȯt \
Definition of methinks
archaic
: it seems to me
First Known Use of methinks
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined above
History and Etymology for methinks
Middle English me thinketh, from Old English mē thincth, from mē (dative of ic I) + thincth seems, from thyncan to seem — more at I, THINK
Pretty sure he didn’t go through the rigorous approval process for ownership only to be bankrupted (in owner terms) by signing Trevor May and James McCann.
In reference to the person who uses ‘me thinks’ i Agree with lolzmets its 100% annoying, not aggravating and worth arguing over, but definitely annoying enough to where it should be addressed…good call lolzmets
I’d sign both Paxton and kluber. The upside is there. If both pitch well, trade both at the deadline.
There’s always the deGrom/Kluber Stetson connection.
Kluber has barely pitched in two years. No matter how he does at his showcase, he cannot expect anything but a very team friendly deal. One year, maybe $2 mil with several performance incentives.
Kluber is the big name that I guess the Mets are looking at. Maybe they’ll also sign Cole Hamels, trade for Evan Longoria for 3B, and re-sign Yoenis Cespedes for CF.
Cole Hamels would be a good signing for the Mets. He’d come a whole lot cheaper than Kluber. Hamels was good for the Cubs when healthy. Good gamble IMHO. Would prefer he return to my Phillies, but I doubt that’s in the cards. Plus, with the Mets, maybe he could teach Matz a new trick (i.e. Hamel’s killer change up).
BTW, I’m already on record as saying the Mets will be NL East champs. in 2021.
I wonder if there’s a way to pry Eovaldi from the red Sox… if you can do that and sign say Taijuan Walker, wed be in decent shape
degrom
stoman
Eovaldi
peterson
walker
matz
mcwilliamson
thor in june that gives us enough experienced deph
With the current state of the Red Sox pitching staff they would likely have to over pay to get Eovaldi. Almost definitely two (or more) ML ready Pitchers would have to go to Boston in the deal
I agree with the slow process selection the Mets are taking on Bauer. Yes, he’s an addition I’d like to see but if the price range reported is accurate I’d pass up. We have both Noah and Stroman to consider long term.