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Mets Rumors: Springer, McCann

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Free-agent outfielder George Springer could be the No. 1 offseason target for the Mets, according to SNY’s Andy Martino, who writes that the longtime Astro “remains heavily in the mix.” Meanwhile, Martino hears that the Mets are more aggressively going after catcher James McCann than fellow backstop J.T. Realmuto.

Springer would join an already loaded Mets outfield that includes Michael Conforto, Brandon Nimmo, Jeff McNeil and Dominic Smith as potential options for 2021. Nimmo was the only member of that group to line up in center field last season, though he struggled to minus-five Defensive Runs Saved and a minus-4.1 Ultimate Zone Rating over 308 1/3 innings there. Conversely, Springer posted six DRS with a minus-0.4 UZR across 338 innings, and he has typically performed well at the position since he first debuted there in 2014.

Of course, anyone who signs Springer wouldn’t be doing so primarily because of his defense. Rather, that team would be adding him on account of the immense impact Springer has made with his bat. This past season was the latest tremendous offensive effort for the 31-year-old Springer, who slashed .265/.359/.540 (146 wRC+) with 14 home runs in 222 plate appearances.

The Mets seem to have a bigger need behind the plate than in their outfield, as Wilson Ramos and Robinson Chirinos are free agents. The most established catcher on their roster is Tomas Nido, who owns a woeful line of .197/.234/.319 (46 wRC+) in 270 MLB plate appearances. That suggests the team will upgrade from outside the organization in the coming months. McCann, who’s coming off an impressive season, should cost far less than Realmuto, but he won’t be easy to acquire for the Mets and deep-pocketed owner Steve Cohen. At least six teams have shown interest in McCann early this offseason, so there will be plenty of competition to sign him.

Hensley Meulens Out As Mets’ Bench Coach

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The Mets will have a new bench coach in 2021, as the club informed Hensley Meulens that he will not return to their staff, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today.

It was a short stint with the Mets for Meulens, a longtime San Francisco assistant who spent just one year with his new club. Before his hiring as a bench coach last offseason, the Mets and the Red Sox interviewed Meulens for their managerial positions. The Mets ultimately chose Carlos Beltran before quickly replacing him with Luis Rojas, though, while the Red Sox went with Ron Roenicke.

While Meulens’ time on Rojas’ staff didn’t work out, it shouldn’t be too long before the 53-year-old finds another job. Meulens, after all, is a well-respected, three-time World Series-winning assistant who speaks five languages. It’s unclear whom the Mets will tap to replace him.

Chris Young Withdraws From Mets’ GM Search

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Former big league pitcher Chris Young, who interviewed last week for the Mets’ GM vacancy, has now withdrawn his name from consideration, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports. Sherman suggests that Young was indeed intrigued by the position but prefers not to move his family from Dallas to New York at this time.

Young, 41, called it quits in 2017 after a 13-year career on the mound and quickly went to work for Major League Baseball. He was first appointed as the league’s vice president of on-field operations, initiatives and strategy, wherein he oversaw “the application of playing rules and regulations, on-field standards and discipline, pace of play and other special projects.” When MLB chief baseball officer Joe Torre moved into an advisory role in early 2020, Young added “senior” to his title and took on a larger slate of responsibilities within the same realm.

There’s little clarity about the Mets’ ongoing front office search at this point. Young and former Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill were the two known candidates to have interviewed prior to today’s report. However, it’s not clear whether Hill was interviewing for the GM post or for the president of baseball operations vacancy that will now not be filled. Incoming president Sandy Alderson, who is returning after two years away from the team, indicated last week that he’d shifted gears and would now focus on hiring only a GM, rather than a president of baseball ops. New owner Steve Cohen acknowledged last week that he’s had some difficulty getting candidates in the door, as other clubs have denied permission to interview candidates from within their organizational ranks.

At Least Six Teams Showing Interest In James McCann

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Yadier Molina has drawn the most headlines among catchers early in free agency, in part due to the willingness of both him and his agent to go on-record to discuss the veteran’s market. However, James McCann is drawing interest from a similar collection of teams, per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link), with the Yankees, Mets, Cardinals, Angels and incumbent White Sox among the clubs to express some interest in the free-agent backstop. The Phillies would have interest in the event that J.T. Realmuto signs elsewhere, Heyman adds.

Given that each of these clubs, with the exception of the White Sox and Phillies, has already expressed interest in Molina, it’s not much of a surprise that they’d also at least gauge McCann’s asking price. There’s been speculation about the Yankees moving on from Gary Sanchez for months, while the Mets currently lack a starting-caliber backstop on their roster. The Angels got a big year out of Max Stassi in 2020, but that was obviously a rather limited sample and Stassi’s prior track record is less impressive.

The Cardinals may raise some eyebrows, given their interest in retaining Molina, but it’s only logical that with Molina exploring other options they’d do the same. Should Molina get the two-year deal he’s seeking from another club, the Cards could pivot to McCann or simply remain in-house and turn the keys over to 26-year-old Andrew Knizner.

As for the White Sox, their interest in keeping McCann is well known, but it’s unlikely to result in a deal. The ChiSox signed Yasmani Grandal to a franchise-record four-year, $73MM contract last winter, and with three years remaining on that arrangement there’s simply no room for McCann to get everyday at-bats. McCann spoke earlier this offseason about his free agency, telling NBC Sports Chicago’s Chuck Garfien that he feels he’s earned the opportunity to be a team’s starting catcher. The White Sox can’t offer that with Grandal under contract.

It’s hard to dispute McCann’s feelings after a pair of terrific seasons with the South Siders. While he was non-tendered by the Tigers after a dismal 2018 campaign, McCann has more than bounced back in Chicago; he’s taken his game to new heights. McCann was a bit shy of a league-average bat as Detroit’s primary catcher in 2017, but he’s broken out with a .276/.334/.474 batting line in 587 plate appearances with the White Sox (116 wRC+).

He’s made strides in terms of hard-hit rate and exit velocity, supporting that offensive breakout, and McCann also improved defensively quite a bit this past season. He’s always been adept at controlling runners (career 35.8 percent caught-stealing rate), but McCann prioritized improving his pitch-framing this past offseason, and the results were strong. Statcast reflects that McCann went from one of the worst catchers in the game at framing pitches on the bottom of the zone to one of the game’s best. It’s a small sample, to be sure, but it’d be a reach to suggest that McCann simply lucked his way from getting 44.8 percent of such pitches called all the way up to 61.8 percent.

The Phillies probably aren’t the only club who view McCann as a “Plan B” to Realmuto, but there also figure to be teams that know they cannot afford Realmuto and are thus willing to act more quickly. McCann and his agents will have to determine whether they’re better served taking one of those early offers or holding out until Realmuto is off the market. The latter route could lead to increased interest, but it’s also possible some teams that are willing to act now will have already filled their need at catcher or spent the majority of their offseason budget by that point.

Alderson: Mets Will Focus More On Free Agency Than Trades

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Mets owner Steve Cohen and team president Sandy Alderson have made it clear that the team is intent on being big players this offseason, though Alderson provided a bit more clarity about these winter plans in an interview with Jim Bowden and Jim Duquette on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM (partial audio link).

“We expect to be somewhat active in the free agent market as opposed to the trade market.  We don’t want to give up our young guys,” Alderson said, noting that the Mets plan to “recommit to our farm system and try to stay away from…our really prospects in significant trades.”

While Alderson stated that the organization’s lack of “patience…to allow these players to develop” dates back beyond just “the last couple of years,” the obvious implication is that the Cohen/Alderson Mets aren’t planning any of the blockbuster prospect-for-star trades that defined Brodie Van Wagenen’s tenure as the team’s general manager.  (Namely the Robinson Cano/Edwin Diaz trade with the Mariners and the deal that landed Marcus Stroman from the Blue Jays.)

It could be that this strategy was also somewhat born out of necessity, as the Mets don’t have a ton of blue chip minor league talent.  Baseball America ranked the Mets 20th in their August ranking of all 30 organizations, and MLB.com doesn’t have any Mets prospects ranked within the top half of the top-100 prospects list (though Ronny Mauricio, Francisco Alvarez, and Brett Baty all appear later in the list).

“There are only two currencies in baseball: players and money,” Alderson said.  “Right now, especially in the upper levels of our system, we don’t have the players.  We have some money at this point.  So, we’re going to sort of balance those two things.”

This is surely music to the ears of free agents, as the Mets are expected to be bidders on multiple big names on the open market.  Cohen’s financial resources could also play a big role in trades, however, given how many teams will be looking to cut costs this winter and might be open to moving some of their higher-salaried players.  If the Mets are willing to eat a larger portion of those contracts, rival teams could give up some noteworthy talent for a relatively meager prospect return.

Matz A Good Bet To Be Tendered A Contract?

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  • After a tough 2020 season, Mets left-hander Steven Matz has been mentioned as a possible non-tender candidate, as New York might prefer to seek out other rotation options rather than pay Matz a projected $5.1MM arbitration salary.  However, Newsday’s Tim Healey (Twitter links) doesn’t think the team’s decision is that hard, as Healey would “be surprised if [Matz] doesn’t get tendered a contract.”  Matz posted solid numbers as a starter in three of the previous four seasons heading into 2020, but he lost his rotation job during an injury-shortened season that saw him post an ugly 9.68 ERA and surrender 14 home runs over only 30 2/3 innings.  Retaining Matz would give New York some added rotation depth while they wait for Noah Syndergaard to return from Tommy John surgery, though the Mets are expected to be active in seeking out free agents, including pitchers.  The rotation already got a boost when Marcus Stroman accepted the Mets’ one-year, $18.9MM qualifying offer.

Quick Hits: Colon, Fresno Grizzlies, MiLB

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The story hasn’t changed for 47-year-old hurler Bartolo Colon. Though he hasn’t pitched in the Majors since 2018, he desires to return and finish his career with the Mets, tweets MLB Insider Héctor Gómez. Colon felt the same way last May, however. It’s hard to imagine that his chances of suiting up again in New York have increased since then. A veteran of 21 seasons, the hugely-popular Colon turns 48-years-old in May. “Big Sexy” last appeared in the Majors with 146 1/3 innings for the Rangers in 2018. He posted a 5.78 ERA/5.47 FIP with 5.0 K/9 and 1.5 BB/9 that season. With that, let’s check on the latest updates from minor league baseball…

  • The Fresno Grizzlies are facing a tough decision: accept relegation from Triple-A to Single-A, or leave the Major League system entirely, according to J.J. Cooper of Baseball America. News of MLB’s ultimatum to the Grizzlies first came from Brianna Calix of the Fresno Bee, who obtained a letter emailed from deputy commissioner and chief legal officer for MLB Daniel R. Halem to high-ranking government officials in Fresno. In the letter, per Calix, Halem writes: “Because communications with the (Fresno) Grizzlies and City of Fresno have indicated they have no interest in operating a Single-A affiliate, we do not currently intend to offer any affiliation to the Grizzlies or Fresno.”
  • The Grizzlies remain committed in their stance to stay in Triple-A. The difference in league amounts to more home games, a higher profile, and likely more revenue. Fresno Mayor Lee Brand and Mayor-elect Jerry Dyer issued a statement in response to MLB, posted here on Twitter by Marek Warszawski of the Fresno Bee. It’s certainly easy to understand their desire to remain in Triple-A, but for MLB’s part, they’re trying to execute a restructuring plan that they think will bring more revenue to the game overall.
  • For a reminder on how the Grizzlies and other clubs got to this point, Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper walks through the timeline of negotiations between MLB and MiLB from December of 2018 to the present day. Cooper includes the latest development from last week when he reported on the changing dynamics for clubhouse managers.

Yadier Molina Says Five Teams Have Shown Interest

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Yadier Molina has long stated that he wants to remain with the Cardinals, and he reiterated that hope in an interview with Laura A. Bonnelly V. of Mas Que Pelota (hat tip to Deportivo Z 101’s Hector Gomez).  However, Molina also revealed four other teams who have shown interest in his services — the Yankees, Mets, Padres, and Angels.

The two New York clubs had already been linked to Molina’s market, and the Cards have been in talks for seemingly close to a year about another contract to keep Molina in St. Louis.  The Angels and Padres are new additions to the hunt, however, and each represents an interesting possible landing spot for the nine-time Gold Glover.

At first glance, San Diego already seems set at catcher, with Austin Nola behind the plate, former top prospect Francisco Mejia slated as the backup and star prospect Luis Campusano making his MLB debut this season.  Signing Molina, however, would add immeasurably more experience and some veteran leadership to a team that plans to contend for a championship in 2021.  While Nola’s ability to catch makes him a particularly valuable utility asset, he can also play several other positions around the diamond; the Padres could use Nola in a somewhat normal backup catcher role to spell Molina once a week, and then otherwise deploy him at other positions.

Molina has expressed interest in a two-year contract, but even if Molina were to land such a deal, that wouldn’t be much of a roadblock to Campusano as the Padres’ eventual catcher of the future.  Mejia could be the odd man out if Molina joined the team, as Mejia has yet to show much over parts of four MLB seasons with the Indians and Padres.  That said, Mejia has only 362 career plate appearances, only just turned 25, and was a consensus top-35 prospect as recently as the 2018-19 offseason, so he would still be an interesting trade chip if the Padres made him expendable.

There are some obvious family ties for Molina in Anaheim, as his brother Jose is the Angels’ catching coach, and his other brother Bengie spent his first eight MLB seasons in an Angels uniform.  Yadier would also be reunited with his old Cardinals teammate Albert Pujols for the final season of Pujols’ ten-year, $240MM deal with the Halos.

Beyond the personal connections, Molina would also fill a need for Los Angeles since Max Stassi could miss the start of the season after undergoing hip surgery in October.  Depending on how quickly Stassi recovers, the Angels could start Molina (and use Anthony Bemboom as the backup) until Stassi is ready, and then potentially move into something closer to a timeshare, though it’s probably safe to guess Molina might end up getting the bulk of the action.

Latest On Mets Front Office

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Freshly minted Mets owner Steve Cohen seems to be having a blast in his new role atop the organization, but that doesn’t mean it’s all coming easy. While the club looks to be a prime landing spot for industry executives, Cohen and president Sandy Alderson have not had the easiest time of recruiting new baseball operations leadership.

Cohen acknowledged as much in comments this evening, as Mike Puma of the New York Post covers on Twitter. “I thought it would be a little bit easier than it has been,” Cohen said of his efforts to build out a new staff, including a replacement for outgoing general manager Brodie Van Wagenen.

The problem, per Cohen, is that it’s tough to get qualified candidates in the door for a chat. “Baseball is kind if funny,” he says, “where you have to ask for permission and we are not getting a lot of permission.”

It’s interesting to wonder whether the deep-pocketed Cohen is facing stiffer-than-usual headwinds in his rookie offseason. Regardless, it appears that the Mets have been stymied at least in holding exploratory talks with several intriguing potential targets.

That explains why the club recently decided to drop the concept of hiring a president of baseball operations in favor of pursuing a GM. Then again, it may not only be a matter of being thwarted by fellow teams. Zack Meisel of The Athletic indicates (subscription link) that Indians GM Mike Chernoff elected on his own accord not to pursue the president of baseball ops opening in New York.

At the moment, relatively little is known about the Mets’ preferred candidates for the top remaining baseball ops openings. Former hurler and league executive Chris Young is known to have interviewed recently, but he’s the only publicly identified GM possibility. (Michael Hill is also known to have interviewed, though it may be that he was being looked at for the now-abandoned president of baseball operations gig.)

There is one new name to keep an eye on. Former club exec J.P. Ricciardi is on the radar of Cohen and Alderson, according to SNY.tv’s Andy Martino. Ricciardi is certainly a familiar face, having served as a special assistant to Alderson for the entirety of the latter’s original tenure as GM.

Though the market is open, it doesn’t seem the Mets feel much urgency in this arena. Martino says the organization is active in pursuing improvements but isn’t yet close to making significant additional front office hires.

Mets Reportedly Interviewed Chris Young For GM Vacancy

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Mets president Sandy Alderson revealed earlier this week that his team would not hire a president of baseball operations and would instead focus its front office search on hiring a general manager. It’s already known that Alderson and new owner Steve Cohen have spoken to former Marlins president of baseball ops Michael Hill, and Mike Puma of the New York Post now tweets that former big league pitcher Chris Young has also interviewed for the position. Alderson said earlier this week that six candidates have interviewed.

The 41-year-old Young would be mark a second straight outside-the-box hire were he to eventually be the choice, following the Wilpon family’s surprise hire of agent Brodie Van Wagenen two years ago. That said, Young hasn’t been simply sitting back and reminiscing on a solid, 13-year playing career since retiring after the 2017 season. Rather, he’s been working for the league itself. Major League Baseball announced in May 2018 that Young had been named the league’s vice president of on-field operations, initiatives and strategy — a role in which he focused on “the application of playing rules and regulations, on-field standards and discipline, pace of play and other special projects.”

Young reported directly to MLB’s chief baseball officer, Joe Torre, for the first two years he was in that position. Back in February, Torre moved into an advisory role, serving as a special assistant to commissioner Rob Manfred. Young, in turn, took on a greater role within the league’s hierarchy and was promoted to senior vice president of on-field operations, initiatives and strategy.

While Young would be an unorthodox hire, his candidacy isn’t a total shock, either. SNY’s Andy Martino noted more than a month ago that Young and Alderson maintain a strong relationship after getting to know one another during their time with the Padres’ organization, and Martino has since reported that the veteran pitcher and Princeton grad is a candidate for some type of role in the Mets’ new front office.

Hiring Young as the GM, however, would somewhat fly in the face of Cohen’s previous comments about his club’s search for a baseball ops executive. At his introductory press conference earlier this month, Cohen suggested he preferred an experienced candidate, telling reporters (link via Newsday’s Tim Healey): “I’m not crazy about people learning on my dime.” Young’s work in the league office gives him more relevant experience than most recently retired players, but he’d still be a rookie in a team’s baseball ops department. Even with guidance from an experienced vet like Alderson, he’d be “learning on Cohen’s dime,” though perhaps that’s more palatable for Cohen if Alderson heads up baseball ops himself for the early portion of an incoming GM’s tenure.

Turning to other potential candidates, Martino reported this morning that Rays special assistant Bobby Heck, who’d previously been under consideration, is no longer seen as a candidate for the job. He’s expected to remain with the Rays.

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