Yankees Sign Gerrit Cole
The Gerrit Cole sweepstakes has reached an end just over a month after the start of free agency. The Yankees have agreed to sign the ace right-hander to a nine-year, $324MM contract, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports. It includes a full no-trade clause and an opt-out clause after the fifth year, per Jeff Passan of ESPN.
It’s a historic pact for Cole, a Scott Boras client who has landed the largest deal ever for a pitcher and the second-greatest payday in the history of major league free agency. Cole has smashed the seven-year, $245MM contract righty Stephen Strasburg signed with the Nationals earlier this week, and he nearly matched the $330MM guarantee outfielder Bryce Harper received from the Phillies last offseason. But Harper’s money will come in over 13 years, meaning Cole has easily eclipsed him in average annual value. Cole will take home a whopping $36MM per year.
For the Yankees and general manager Brian Cashman, the addition of Cole brings to an end a years-long pursuit of the Southern California native, who was a fan of the club growing up. The Yankees selected Cole in the first round of the 2008 draft, but he elected to attend UCLA instead. It proved to be a wise decision for Cole, who further improved his stock as a Bruin and wound up as the No. 1 overall pick of the Pirates in 2011.
Cole, who debuted in the majors in 2013, generally thrived in Pittsburgh through 2017. However, the Pirates knew they wouldn’t be able to reach an extension with Cole, so they traded him to Houston prior to the 2018 campaign. The Yankees were among the teams the Astros upended to acquire Cole, which proved costly for New York. Thanks in large part to Cole, the Astros took down the Yankees in this fall’s American League Championship Series, though Houston fell to Strasburg and the Nationals in the World Series.
The Yankees couldn’t beat Cole, but he’ll now join them after he found another gear in Texas. Cole became a truly elite pitcher as a member of the Astros, with whom the flamethrower posted back-to-back 200-inning seasons of sub-3.00 ERA ball. He was particularly amazing in 2019, when he amassed a jaw-dropping 326 strikeouts with a 2.50 ERA/2.64 FIP across 212 1/3 frames. That performance wasn’t enough to defeat then-teammate Justin Verlander for AL Cy Young honors, but it was enough to help earn Cole an absolutely massive payday. This deal blows past the eight-year, $256MM that MLBTR predicted Cole would receive this offseason.
The Yankees now have a lights-out workhorse to accompany Luis Severino, James Paxton and Masahiro Tanaka as their top four starters, and the Cole signing indicates they and owner Hal Steinbrenner aren’t concerned about paying the luxury tax going forward. With Cole’s money factored in, Jason Martinez of Roster Resource estimates the Yankees are on track to spend just under $250MM in 2020, which is without having made any other additions. If that holds up, the Yankees will exceed the highest tax penalty of $248MM next season. Doing so would subject the Yankees to a 42.5 percent overage tax for outspending the threshold by $40MM or more. It’s possible, however, that the Yankees will shave off some of their tax bill if they’re able to trade $17MM left-hander J.A. Happ, a rumored candidate for a change of scenery who now looks all the more likely to exit now that Cole is in the fold.
The Cole pickup represents an act of free-agency aggression that late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner would have saluted. It’s also a sign the Yankees are all-in toward returning to the top of the major league mountain for the first time since 2009. Not only does Cole look as if he’ll greatly strengthen their roster, but it’s a major blow to their biggest AL competition, the Astros. Undoubtedly, Cole’s decision is also an enormous disappointment to both Los Angeles-based teams, who all along joined the Yankees as the most obvious-looking fits to sign him. Those two teams will now have to look elsewhere in a free-agent market that has moved much quicker than in recent years, and has already seen several of its best players sign in a matter of weeks.
While Cole should have a hugely positive effect on the Yankees’ near-term chances, it’s clear this deal presents a sizable risk for the club. Assuming Cole doesn’t opt out after the fifth season, the 29-year-old will pitch almost the entirety of his 30s on this contract. The good news for the Yankees is that Cole has never had anything as major as Tommy John surgery. However, he did miss a large portion of 2016 with injuries, including to his elbow. Cole has since bounced back with three consecutive 200-inning seasons, though signing pitchers to long-term, big-money contracts is nonetheless risky, which will leave the Yankees to hope he continues to hold up as he ages.
Should Cole exercise his opt-out provision in the 2024-25 offseason, the Yankees will have the opportunity to void that decision by extending him for an additional year and $36MM, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports (Twitter link). Cole would need to be willing to walk away from four years and $144MM at age 34 for that clause to be relevant, and the Yankees would likewise need to be willing to pay him a total of $180MM for his age-34 through age-38 seasons to void the opt-out decision. It doesn’t seem particularly likely that the clause will come into play, but in the event that it does, Cole would earn $360MM over a decade-long term with the Yankees.
While all free agents bring some level of concern, that hasn’t stopped Boras from securing a windfall of cash for his clients this offseason. After helping get Harper his contract last year, Boras has seen Cole and Strasburg collect a combined $569MM this winter. He may help negotiate yet another $200MM-plus deal next for third baseman Anthony Rendon, who just took over as the No. 1 free agent available now that Cole’s off to the Bronx.
Reds Sign Wade Miley
An already impressive Reds rotation became deeper Wednesday, as the team announced the signing of left-hander Wade Miley to a two-year contract worth a guaranteed $15MM. (The Reds, unlike most clubs, revealed the basic contractual terms themselves.) The pact also contains a club option for the 2022 season that is reported to be worth $10MM and comes with a $1MM buyout. Miley, a client of O’Connell Sports Management, will earn $6MM in 2020 and $8MM in 2021, and he can reportedly take home another $500K annually via an incentives package. The contract nearly matches the two-year, $16MM prediction MLBTR made for Miley at the outset of free agency.
Miley, 33, gives the Reds a southpaw option to add to a rotation that already included a highly talented quartet of right-handers: Luis Castillo, Sonny Gray, Trevor Bauer and Anthony DeSclafani. At least on paper, plugging in Miley as the last member of the group upgrades the Reds’ rotation and improves their chances of breaking a six-year playoff drought in 2020.
Miley was also a free agent in each of the past couple offseasons, but this is the best the well-traveled hurler has done on the open market thus far. After settling for a minor league deal and reviving his career as a member of the Brewers in 2018, Miley joined the Astros for a $4.5MM guarantee last winter.
That proved to be a decent deal for both sides, as Miley — despite continuing to throw fastballs in only the 90 mph range — helped the Astros to an AL West title with 167 1/3 regular-season innings of 3.98 ERA/4.51 FIP ball with 7.53 K/9, 3.28 BB/9 and a 49.7 percent groundball rate. He wasn’t without his warts, though, as a brutal stretch of starts in September eventually led to Miley being omitted from the Astros’ World Series roster. Nevertheless, Miley’s body of work over the past two seasons is undeniably solid and has clearly convinced many in the industry that he’s again a viable rotation piece.
For Miley, heading to Cincinnati reunites him with pitching coach Derek Johnson. It was Johnson, then Milwaukee’s pitching coach, who helped bring Miley’s career back to life a couple years ago. And now that the Reds’ rotation appears to be complete, they’re free to turn their focus to other needs (shortstop? Catcher? Outfield? Bullpen?) as they continue to seek a return to relevance.
From a payroll vantage point, the team should have some financial breathing room in order to further add to the existing roster. Roster Resource’s Jason Martinez projects a $124MM Opening Day payroll that is a stone’s throw away from last year’s Opening Day mark of roughly $126MM, but owner Bob Castellini and the Reds’ front office have preached aggression as they’ve moved from a longstanding rebuilding effort and shifted into a win-now mentality in what looks to be an increasingly vulnerable NL Central division.
MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand first reported the agreement and the terms (Twitter link). Joel Sherman and Ken Davidoff of the New York Post added details on the incentives and option value (Twitter links).
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Blue Jays Sign Tanner Roark
DECEMBER 18: This deal is now official.
It includes equal $12MM salaries, Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet reports (Twitter links). There are some minor award-based incentives included as well.
DECEMBER 11: The Blue Jays have agreed to a deal with free-agent right-hander Tanner Roark, Ben Nicholson-Smith and Shi Davidi of Sportsnet report. It’s a two-year, $24MM accord, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network. Roark is a client of Matt Colleran.
This is a better payday than expected for Roark, who MLBTR predicted Toronto would sign to a two-year, $18MM contract at the outset of the offseason. Nevertheless, if Roark’s history is any indication, he should give the Blue Jays some much-needed stability in their rotation. The rebuilding club, whose starting staff looked like an enormous weakness entering the winter, has shown some level of interest in just about every free-agent rotation piece. The Blue Jays have added two so far between Roark and fellow righty Chase Anderson, whom they acquired in a trade with the Brewers, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see Toronto pick up yet another notable starter before the offseason’s out.
The 33-year-old Roark will head north after dividing the first seven seasons of his career among Washington, Cincinnati and Oakland. Roark produced sub-3.00 ERA results three times as a member of the Nationals toward the beginning of his career, but he has settled into more of a mid- to back-end type in recent seasons. Roark notched an ERA and a FIP somewhere in the 4.00s in each of the previous three seasons, also totaling 160-plus innings in all of those years.
Most recently, Roark fired 165 1/3 frames between the Reds and Athletics in 2019, when he posted a 4.35 ERA/4.67 FIP with a career-best 8.6 K/9 against 2.78 BB/9, though he did manage a personal-worst groundball rate of 36.2 percent. The latter figure helped lead to a career-worst 15.5 percent home run-to-fly ball rate, but Roark was hardly alone in giving up more long balls than ever during a homer-happy year across the majors.
The Blue Jays are no doubt hopeful Roark’s HR/FB rate will return closer to his lifetime mark of 11.3 percent going forward. Regardless, he’s now the most accomplished starter on a starting staff that bid adieu to Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez in trades over the summer. Among Jays holdovers, only the relatively unproven Jacob Waguespack and Trent Thornton piled up 70 or more innings as starters in 2019.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
MLBTR Poll: Grading The Corey Kluber Trade
The extraordinarily fruitful Corey Kluber era just came to an end for Cleveland. The Indians decided over the weekend to trade the two-time American League Cy Young-winning right-hander to the Rangers for a package consisting of righty reliever Emmanuel Clase and outfielder Delino DeShields.
At least on paper, the Rangers now have an extremely formidable rotation. Lance Lynn and Mike Minor were among the premier starters in the game last season, but the Rangers struggled to complement them with capable options. However, the team has since added three credible big league starters in Kluber and free-agent signings Kyle Gibson and Jordan Lyles, and suddenly owns one of the best-looking staffs in the majors as a result.
To secure the 33-year-old Kluber, who will be expensive in 2020 ($17.5MM salary) and comes with an $18MM option or a $1MM buyout for 2021, the Rangers parted with at least one intriguing player in Clase. Just 21 years old, Clase made a brief major league debut in 2019 and proceeded to toss 23 1/3 innings of 2.31 ERA/3.43 FIP ball with 8.1 K/9, 2.3 BB/9 and a 60.6 percent groundball rate. All of those numbers stand out, as does the 99.3 mph average fastball velocity Clase posted in the process.
Clase seems to have the makings of a dominant big leaguer, whereas the 27-year-old DeShields has mostly hovered around replacement-level value over the past couple seasons after making a solid debut in 2015. Nevertheless, the Indians are banking on the fleet-of-foot DeShields putting it all together in their uniform, as they’ll control him through the 2021 season via arbitration.
Beyond the Clase and DeShields acquisitions, the small-market Indians saved a substantial amount of money in getting rid of Kluber. The Indians opened last season with a payroll around $120MM, per Cot’s, but they’re estimated to begin next year in the $91MM range, according to Jason Martinez of Roster Resource.
Cleveland could use some of the money that had been earmarked for Kluber to address at least one other need (second base? Outfield?). Plus, the Indians are already accustomed to life without Kluber, who didn’t pitch beyond May 1 last season after suffering a fractured forearm. Kluber had a surprisingly difficult time during that one-month span, as his 5.80 ERA over seven starts shows, and the Indians then saw Shane Bieber turn into a star, Mike Clevinger further establish himself as an excellent starter, and Aaron Civale and Zach Plesac make encouraging debuts. They’re also slated to welcome back the consistently outstanding Carlos Carrasco, who missed the majority of 2019 because of a leukemia diagnosis, to their rotation.
Now, both the Rangers and Indians seem to have set their starting fives well before the beginning of next season. In your opinion, though, did one team make out better than the other in the trade?
(Poll link for app users)
Grade the Kluber trade from the Rangers' perspective
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A 57% (14,354)
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B 30% (7,691)
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C 9% (2,225)
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D 2% (633)
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F 2% (491)
Total votes: 25,394
(Poll link for app users)
Grade the Kluber trade from the Indians' perspective
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D 32% (7,521)
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C 32% (7,468)
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F 18% (4,179)
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B 14% (3,198)
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A 5% (1,132)
Total votes: 23,498
Madison Bumgarner On Signing With Diamondbacks
Longtime Giants left-hander Madison Bumgarner is staying in the National League West. He’s just not going to pitch in San Francisco anymore. Surprisingly, Bumgarner elected over the weekend to join the Diamondbacks – who haven’t made the postseason since 2017 or won a playoff game since 2011 – on a five-year, $85MM guarantee.
Although the Diamondbacks haven’t experienced much recent success on the sport’s biggest stage, Bumgarner – one of the greatest playoff pitchers in the game’s history – told reporters Tuesday that he targeted them entering free agency. Bumgarner even preferred going to Arizona than staying in San Francisco, where he won three World Series titles and cemented himself as a franchise icon.
“It was the No. 1 place for me,” the 30-year-old said of Arizona (via Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group). “I did tell (my agent) that. We talked about that often.”
Once the Diamondbacks showed serious interest, Bumgarner revealed that he “was done” looking for a team. Bumgarner entered free agency reportedly looking for a guarantee of $100MM or more. While he’s not going to reach that total in the desert, perhaps he would have had he signed elsewhere. He stated Tuesday that “we definitely left some money on the table. You can say that,” per Zach Buchanan of The Athletic (subscription link).
Now that Bumgarner’s officially in the fold for the Diamondbacks, he’ll be part of an impressive-looking rotation that’s also slated to include Luke Weaver, Robbie Ray, Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly. Moreover, because Bumgarner’s contract includes deferrals and is backloaded (he’ll make $6MM in 2020), the Diamondbacks still have the financial room to make other upgrades to a roster that won a respectable 85 games last season. By agreeing to such a team-friendly salary for next season, Bumgarner showed off “his commitment to winning,” general manager Mike Hazen observed.
Latest On James McCann
White Sox catcher James McCann was quietly one of the most productive backstops of 2019, during which he slashed .273/.328/.460 with 2.3 fWAR across 476 plate appearances. But McCann’s offensive numbers petered out as the year progressed, and he’s now done as the team’s No. 1 option after it signed fellow catcher Yasmani Grandal to a club-record guarantee worth $73MM over four years just under a month ago.
Despite adding Grandal as their undisputed first-string catcher, the White Sox appear perfectly content to retain McCann as a backup. According to Jon Heyman of MLB Network, it would take an overwhelming offer for the White Sox to part with McCann, who’s entering his final year of team control (in which he’ll earn a projected $4.9MM).
Even though the free-agent market for catchers has shrunk (Grandal and Travis d’Arnaud are among those who have signed), odds are good that no one will bowl over Chicago in an effort to get McCann. After all, before heading to the Windy City, McCann was largely a below-average producer with the Tigers from 2014-18 – a 1,658-plate appearance span in which he managed a meager .240/.288/.366 line. That subpar performance helped influence the Tigers to non-tender McCann a little over 12 months ago. Behind the plate, McCann has regularly fared well at throwing out would-be base stealers. The 29-year-old has caught 36 percent of runners (compared to a 29 percent league-average mark) since he first cracked the majors. However, McCann has typically earned poor overall defensive marks from Baseball Prospectus.
While McCann does have his flaws, he could nonetheless keep garnering a solid amount of playing time if the White Sox keep him. Grandal’s locked in as their top catcher, but he’s a good enough offensive hitter to pick up reps at DH and/or first base should the club try to limit his wear and tear, which would open up playing time for McCann.
Royals Re-Sign Humberto Arteaga, Erick Mejia
The Royals have re-signed infielder Humberto Arteaga and outfielder/infielder Erick Mejia to minor league contracts, the team announced.
Both players have quickly returned to the Royals two weeks after the club non-tendered them. The two debuted in the majors last season, but the 25-year-old Arteaga garnered more experience. Arteaga totaled 135 plate appearances, but he batted a nonthreatening .197/.258/.230 without a home run during that span and managed minus-0.7 fWAR along the way. The light-hitting Arteaga didn’t pack much of a punch over 302 PA in Triple-A ball, either, as he slashed .299/.333/.394 with five HRs and 11 stolen bases.
Mejia, whom the Royals acquired from the Dodgers in a 2018 three-way trade, went to the plate 27 times at the big league level in 2019 and hit .227/.333/.273. Like Arteaga, the 25-year-old Mejia also produced at a below-average rate in Triple-A ball, where he put up a .271/.339/.382 line and logged seven long balls with 19 steals over 556 PA.
Top 10 Remaining Free Agents
At least in terms of free-agent signings, this is the fastest-paced offseason Major League Baseball has seen over the past couple years. Of the 50 players MLBTR ranked as the premier free agents entering the winter, more than half (26) have already left the board in the month-plus since the market opened. That includes the handful of elite free agents (Gerrit Cole, Anthony Rendon, Stephen Strasburg and Zack Wheeler), the latest $100MM-plus players in baseball. But now that they’re among the players who have found homes, who are the most appealing performers without deals? Let’s reorder the top 10 based on the rankings MLBTR put together coming into the offseason and see where they stand…
5. Josh Donaldson, 3B: With Rendon no longer available, Donaldson has taken over as hands down the most effective hitter on the market. The former Athletic, Blue Jay, Indian and Brave may well replace Rendon in Washington after posting his latest excellent season with division-rival Atlanta. Otherwise, anyone from a group of teams consisting of the Braves, Twins, Rangers, Phillies or Dodgers could end up with the 34-year-old.
8. Nicholas Castellanos, OF: Age (28 in March) and a quality offensive track record are on Castellanos’ side. Defensive prowess isn’t, on the other hand, but struggles in the field shouldn’t stop Castellanos from securing a multiyear contract worth a sizable sum. The Cubs, with whom he thrived late last season, as well as the Marlins, Rangers, Giants and Diamondbacks are among the clubs that have been connected to Castellanos in free agency.
9. Hyun-Jin Ryu, LHP: With Cole, Strasburg, Wheeler and Madison Bumgarner no longer seeking employment, Ryu has assumed the mantle as the No. 1 pitcher without a contract. Ryu will turn 33 in March, and injuries have been problematic for him at times, yet there has been talk of a four-year contract worth at least $17MM per season for the career-long Dodger. Deservedly so, as Ryu finished second in NL Cy Young voting last season.
11. Marcell Ozuna, OF: Between the Marlins and Cardinals, Ozuna owns a years-long track record of posting above-average overall production. But the 29-year-old is more a good player than a star, which is likely why he’s still seeking a contract after most of the truly elite position players have already vacated the board. And the fact that Ozuna has a qualifying offer weighing him down surely doesn’t help.
14. Dallas Keuchel, LHP: A qualifying offer was among the reasons Keuchel didn’t find a contract until last June, when he finally signed with the Braves on a one-year, $13MM pact. The soon-to-be 32-year-old Keuchel didn’t have a banner season with the Braves, and there hasn’t been a ton of reported interest in him this winter, but the former AL Cy Young winner should do better this time with no QO hanging over his head.
21. Julio Teheran, RHP: Teheran, 29 in January, has amassed seven straight seasons of at least 170 innings while posting a career 3.67 ERA/4.23 FIP. He walks too many hitters (upward of four per nine in each of the previous two years), but if you’re in the market for a durable, passable mid- to back-end starter, you can do a whole lot worse than Teheran. That said, rumors on Teheran have been scarce since the Braves declined his $12MM option for 2020 a few days into November.
22. Will Harris, RHP: This isn’t a great offseason for free-agent relievers, especially considering Aroldis Chapman and Will Smith resolved their contract statuses weeks ago. But the underrated Harris, 35, has been rather strong over the past several years. A former Rockie, Diamondback and Astro, Harris logged a 2.84 ERA/3.03 FIP with 9.58 K/9, 2.32 BB/9 and a 49.6 percent groundball rate from 2012-19. Despite that success, though, Harris has drawn very little reported interest this offseason. If you look at Harris’ MLBTR archive, Minnesota has been the only known pursuer thus far.
25. Corey Dickerson, OF: Injuries were a problem for Dickerson in 2019, a 78-game season split between the two Pennsylvania teams, but there’s little doubt he can hit. The well-traveled 30-year-old owns a .286/.328/.504 line with 115 home runs in almost 3,000 plate appearances since debuting in 2014. Nevertheless, Miami is the sole club that has shown rumored interest in Dickerson since free agency.
28. Daniel Hudson, RHP: Rumors centering on Hudson, who became an unexpected hero for the World Series-winning Nationals after they acquired him from the Blue Jays at July’s deadline, had been scarce until Tuesday. While a return to Washington has looked like a no-brainer for both sides this winter, they remain apart in contract talks. The hard-throwing Hudson, 33 in March, wants a multiyear pact and may be able to find one with another team if the Nats don’t meet his demands.
33. Robinson Chirinos, C: Yasmani Grandal and Travis d’Arnaud are among the free-agent catchers who have found new homes, and it shouldn’t be long before the 35-year-old Chirinos follows them. Although defense isn’t Chirinos’ calling card, his above-average offensive track record leaves him as arguably the best backstop left on the market. At least a few teams have shown interest this offseason in Chirinos, including the AL-winning Houston club that benefited from adding him in 2019.
Pirates Name Oscar Marin Pitching Coach, Justin Meccage Bullpen Coach
Dec. 17: The Pirates have announced Marin’s hiring, adding that Justin Meccage has been named the team’s new bullpen coach. The 39-year-old Meccage was a Yankees draftee back in 2002 and has been with the Pirates organization in various capacities since 2011. He spent the 2018-19 seasons as Pittsburgh’s assistant pitching coach, so he’ll bring some continuity to a largely restructured big league staff.
Dec. 16: The Pirates will hire Oscar Marin as pitching coach, Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. Marin will take over for the much-ballyhooed Ray Searage, whom the Pirates parted with after last season, and will clearly be a key hire for rookie manager Derek Shelton.
Still just 37 years old, Marin only has one season of major league coaching experience under his belt. That came in 2019, when he served as the Rangers’ bullpen coach. Before that, Marin was the Mariners’ minor league pitching coordinator for two years (2017-18) and a longtime assistant in the minors for the Rangers, with whom he initially worked from 2010-16.
Now in his first stint as a big league pitching coach, Marin will oversee a staff which struggled in 2019. Unfortunately for Marin, the Pirates’ group of pitchers doesn’t look to be in great shape heading into 2020. That could be all the more true if the team – led by new general manager Ben Cherington – elects to trade right-hander Chris Archer.
Latest On Dellin Betances
7:52am: Betances is hoping to secure a one-year deal in the $10MM range, Heyman tweets. That’s the same guarantee Blake Treinen just landed with the Dodgers, although while Treinen had a down season in 2019, he was at least healthy and pitched 58 2/3 innings in 2019.
Dec. 17, 5:55am: The Mets are now considered unlikely to sign Betances, Heyman tweets. SNY’s Andy Martino hears similarly, tweeting that it doesn’t sound as though the Mets will be the team to land the right-hander.
Dec. 16: A report at the end of November indicated the Phillies were among the teams chasing free-agent reliever Dellin Betances. That remains the case, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network (by way of Jack Curry of the YES Network), as he relays that they and the NL East rival Mets are “prominent” in the Betances sweepstakes.
Heading to Philadelphia would reunite Betances with skipper Joe Girardi, who managed the hard-throwing right-hander with the Yankees from 2011-17. Betances had some of the best years of his outstanding career during that stretch, but he’s now coming off an injury-ravaged season in which he barely pitched. Shoulder, lat and Achilles problems limited the 31-year-old Betances to a total of two-thirds of an inning in 2019, leaving him as a strong candidate to sign a short-term deal this winter. MLBTR predicts he’ll ink a one-year, $7MM contract, which should be a reasonable gamble for the Phillies or any other team in need of bullpen help.
A $7MM price tag for a reliever fresh off a limited campaign may have looked somewhat steep for the Mets earlier in the offseason, but they’ve come into some money in recent days with the reworking of outfielder Yoenis Cespedes‘ contract. Cespedes, who went through two injury-wrecked years from 2018-19, had been slated to earn $29.5MM next season. However, Cespedes and the Mets just agreed to an amended contract that will guarantee him a far more team-friendly sum (less than $10MM) in 2020.
The Mets have more to work with as a result of Cespedes’ pay cut, and a source told Ken Davidoff of the New York Post that they’re “nowhere near done” after signing starters Rick Porcello and Michael Wacha. Perhaps they’ll use some of the money that had been earmarked for Cespedes on Betances, who – at least on paper – would vastly improve the back end of a bullpen that was a frequent issue last season. Notably, new Mets manager Carlos Beltran was once teammates with Betances as a Yankee.