On the heels of an early morning trade, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world today:
1. Mets press conference later today:
The Mets are holding a press conference at 1pm local time to introduce star infielder Bo Bichette after his three-year deal with the club became official yesterday. Bichette himself and president of baseball operations David Stearns are both slated to be in attendance for today’s presser. Stearns surely will also wind up fielding questions regarding yesterday’s late-night acquisition of Luis Robert Jr. from the White Sox in exchange for a package headlined by former top infield prospect Luisangel Acuña. With Bichette and Robert both in the fold, it will be interesting to hear from Stearns regarding whether he sees the team adding more to the lineup or if he now plans to turn his attention towards a starting rotation the club has been looking to upgrade with a front-end arm.
2. Red Sox presser later today:
In addition to the Mets, the Red Sox will also be hosting a press conference later today. The reason for the presser has not yet been stated, but after this morning’s Tristan Gray trade cleared a 40-man roster spot for Boston it seems likely that the club is poised to make the signing of southpaw Ranger Suarez official. The press conference is scheduled for 11am local time and could also provide an opportunity for chief baseball officer Craig Breslow to offer some insight into the team’s plans for the rest of the offseason. Presumably, the club’s top priority at this point is replacing Alex Bregman on the infield, though Marcelo Mayer and Kristian Campbell could at least theoretically be called upon to take up third base and second base, respectively, if the club relies exclusively on internal options.
3. Dodgers 40-man move incoming:
While Bichette’s deal was made official last night and the Suarez deal figures to be made official later this morning, the Dodgers’ deal with star outfielder Kyle Tucker has not yet been finalized. That will surely happen in the coming days, but before then Los Angeles will need to make a 40-man roster move. That can be achieved by simply designating a player for assignment, but a minor trade similar to the Gray swap Boston made this morning is another possibility.
The Mets are really putting together a great team for the 2023 season
It is impressive how quickly they moved on from players who weren’t winning. I’m a bit jealous of that.
Joe – Red Sox have done the same. They are practically blowing up the team. Last season began with Giolito, Buehler, Bernardino, Fitts, Bregman, Devers, Winck, Refsnyder … who are now all gone. And Casas, Campbell, Bello, Yoshida, Wong and Duran or Abreu might not be on the OD team either.
I guess last year’s Sox team wasn’t as great as some people thought.
Hey the Yankees did eventually move on from Oswald Peraza and DJ LeMahieu. It could have been worse. They could have been starters right until the end of their contracts.
After the Roberts trade, I’m wondering what Scott Boras is thinking of today. He’ll likely frame it as a loss of options for the Yankees, which should enhance Bellinger’s position, but it’s not clear to me that the Yankees would ever have traded for Roberts and now there’s likely one fewer bidder.
Mike – Call me crazy, I’m still thinking Belli to the Royals.
I think that’s crazy but I love crazy and theres a glaring fit! Thank you
yogi – According to Heyman there’s two mystery teams in on Belli, one of them likely the Jays.
Jays wouldn’t be a real mystery. I’d agree that KC could be as well as the Giants.
Heyman’s last pitch for Bellinger-has-multiple-suitors was 15 hours ago on X. I think the Roberts trade changes the math,
Sal – I think mystery just means the team name hasn’t been publicly revealed. Probably because the team wants to keep it confidential.
Mike – Agreed, it’s probably down to 3 teams now.
I think that’s interesting. Royals have occasionally spent, it’s not a bad landing place for Belli. Not crazy at all.
Yankees aren’t desperate imo. We have the internal options of Jasson and Jones, lesser free agents are still available, others like Kwan probably available in trades. I also don’t think Roberts was really much on the radar, so that trade shouldn’t affect the Yankees outlook here.
At the samd time it takes the mets out of the equation and they’re a big time spender. Way worse for beli than the yankees
It doesn’t strengthen his position as there is presumably one less suitor for Belli’s services.
@MLBTR Staff – There seems to be an issue with the MLBTR website today where you can’t post comments. Instead of seeing the Post Comment section at the bottom of the comments, it just says “waiting…”.
The good news is that you can still post comments in the App (as you can see), but I primarily use the website because of its ability to edit your comment within 5 minutes of posting. Just wanted to bring this to your attention.
Dorothy I’m not having that problem and I use the website as well. Might be on your end.
Dotty – I’ve been using my PC for comments all morning, no issues here.
Sorry, it says “loading…” and not “waiting..”.
Exactly why I like to use the website so I can proofread and correct any mistakes in my original posts ;-).
I’ve had this problem a few times in the last couple of months. Delete your browsing data, clears it up.
“David, does the Robert Jr. trade mean that you are out on Bellinger?”
“We cannot speak on any specific free agent, but we never stop looking to improve our team.”
———————
Stock question, stock answer.
They certainly have the economic resources to do what they want, but the Roberts trade seems a replacement for a Bellinger signing. If you are just talking money, a $20M investment (or 2 for $42M) plus, if he performs, a QO is a lot better than $150M+ for 5 (or more). If you like what you see after Year 1, Mets use the leverage of the option to extend–and if Roberts won’t go for it….then the worst you have is a Year 2 without committments
It’s so cute when people complain about the Dodgers spending and wish that the Blue Jays won the World Series – all while they were one of the other top spending teams in baseball. Seriously, what’s wrong with trying to win – and doing it fairly? Don’t blame the Dodgers, blame Manfred. The guy that allowed the cheating Astros to keep their World Series championship and their “just a piece of Metal” World Series trophy. Manfred is the problem, not the Dodgers.