Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Mets Rumors

Mets Agree To Terms With Second-Rounder Isaiah Greene

By | at

The Mets have agreed to terms on a bonus with second round selection Isaiah Greene, according to MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo (via Twitter). He’ll receive $850K.

The 69th overall selection used to nab Greene came with a $929,800 pool allocation. Accordingly, the New York organization will actually save some funds to apply to other drafted players.

That seems like a solid result for the Mets, given that they had to convince Greene to turn pro rather than attending the University of Missouri. The club has yet to lock up its first two selections, high school outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong and Mississippi State hurler J.T. Ginn.

Entering the draft, Greene was on the rise. He reached 62nd on the MLB.com board and 49th on the ranking of Baseball America. Greene is said to have strong existing hit and speed tools, real potential to stick in center field, and some power projection.

Additional Amateur Draft Signings: 6/16/20

By | at

We caught up on draft signings earlier today, but a few more trickled out this evening …

  • The Tigers have a deal with third-rounder Trei Cruz, per MLB.com’s Jim Callis (via Twitter). A shortstop out of Rice University, Cruz will secure a $900K bonus that lands just over the slot value of $857,400. None of the major draft pundits ranked Cruz among the hundred best draft-eligible prospects, but the Detroit organization was obviously intrigued. If you’re a believer in bloodlines, you can’t do much better than this. Cruz will aim to follow his father, grandfather, and great uncles in appearing in the majors.
  • Mets fourth-rounder Matthew Dyer is on board with a $350K bonus, per MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo (Twitter link). That’ll save the New York org nearly $230K to apply to other draftees. Dyer, an Arizona product, ranked 333rd on Baseball America’s final draft board. Mayo credits him with a strong throwing arm and good athleticism for a backstop.
  • The Blue Jays have added Zach Britton — not to be confused with Yankees reliever Zack (formerly Zach) Britton. This new Zach Britton landed $97,500 from the Toronto organization, freeing the club to allocate the rest of the $410,100 slot value elsewhere. Britton spent time in the outfield and behind the dish at Louisville. BA graded him just inside the top 200 prospects available for selection this year. Britton was slashing .322/.446/.542 when the season was cut short.
  • Fifth rounder Jeff Hakanson is in agreement with the Rays on a bonus, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (via Twitter). Dollar values aren’t yet known publicly, but it seems likely to be an under-slot deal. Hakanson, a righty out of Central Florida, wasn’t ranked on any of the major boards. His slot comes with a $340K bonus pool allocation.
  • The Cardinals announced an agreement with their own fifth-round selection, Long Beach State outfielder LJ Jones IV. MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo tweets that Jones has picked up a $100K bonus, meaning the Cards have another $250,300 to work with in signing other players. Jones didn’t merit mention in any rankings either, though the redshirt sophomore never really got a chance to showcase himself in college owing to injuries and the coronavirus situation.

Undrafted Free Agent Signings: 6/16/20

By | at

This year’s five-round draft left a lot of deserving players looking for deals on the open market. Here’s a roundup of some of the many recent undrafted players who have reached agreements with MLB organizations:

Mets Sign Third-Rounder Anthony Walters

By | at

  • The Mets have signed third-round pick Anthony Walters for $20K, Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com tweets. It’s a stunningly low amount for a player whose pick, No. 91, was said to be worth $647,300. The total Walters received only matches the maximum sum an undrafted player can get this year. Walters, a former San Diego State shortstop, didn’t rank among Baseball America’s top 500 before the draft. However, Mayo observes that Walters brings “good hands” as a defender and “sneaky pop” at the plate.

Jeff Wilpon On Potential Mets Sale

By | at

Although Mets owners Jeff Wilpon and Fred Wilpon have had the franchise on the block for months, the club remains under their control. It does appear that will change sometime soon, however.

During a panel for UJA-Federation of New York on Thursday, Jeff Wilpon said, “The team will have some kind of transaction,” according to Yaron Weltzman of Bleacher Report. “There’s four or five suitors that are out there to do something with.”

Unsurprisingly, Wilpon didn’t reveal who’s pursuing the team. A report earlier this week linked Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils owner Josh Harris to the Mets. David Blitzer, who also has ownership stakes in the 76ers and Devils, could join Harris’ group. There’s also the famous duo of Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez, who are reportedly working with senior bankers from JPMorgan Chase to put together a Mets bid. Rodriguez and Lopez are aware of the interest Harris and Blitzer have shown in the Mets, but A-Rod and J-Lo are still confident they’ll be able to submit a legitimate offer, per Ted Holmlund of the New York Post.

It’s not clear how much money it would require to buy the Mets, especially because it’s uncertain whether the Wilpons will be open to giving up any part of the SNY network in a deal. A few months ago, it looked as if the Wilpons were on the cusp of selling 80 percent of the franchise to Steve Cohen for $2.6 billion. Those talks fell through, however, and with the coronavirus having wreaked havoc since then, the Wilpons may not make out as well as they hope on a possible sale.

Matt den Dekker Joins Charleston Southern Coaching Staff

By | at

Former Mets and Nationals outfielder Matt den Dekker has been named to the coaching staff at Charleston Southern University, the school announced today. He’ll work with the Buccaneers’ hitters and outfielders.

The 32-year-old den Dekker announced his retirement as a player last summer and, per CSU’s press release, returned to the University of Florida to serve as a student-assistant coach this past season. He’ll now take up a full-time coaching position at a Division-I program as he embarks on the next step in his baseball journey. At Charleston Southern, den Dekker will join a program that has produced a handful of draft picks over the past couple decades, including eventual big leaguers Tyler Thornburg, Bobby Parnell and R.J. Swindle.

“His time at Florida as a player and assistant yielded excellent results,” head coach Marc MacMillan said of den Dekker in today’s announcement, “and his Major League Baseball career earned him great respect from all that he came in contact with on a daily basis. The strong recommendations he received, his understanding of the importance of building relationships with our players; and both his knowledge and verbiage for hitting and outfield play made a lasting impression on me.”

We haven’t seen den Dekker in the big leagues since he briefly resurfaced with his original organization, the Mets, back in 2018. But he appeared in 166 games from 2013-18, batting a combined .223/.303/.337 while drawing plus marks for his defense at all three outfield positions.

What The Mets Owe In Player Contracts After 2020

By | at

2020 salary terms still need to be hammered out. But what about what’s owed to players beyond that point? The near-term economic picture remains questionable at best. That’ll make teams all the more cautious with guaranteed future salaries.

Every organization has some amount of future cash committed to players, all of it done before the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe. There are several different ways to look at salaries; for instance, for purposes of calculating the luxury tax, the average annual value is the touchstone, with up-front bonuses spread over the life of the deal. For this exercise, we’ll focus on actual cash outlays that still have yet to be paid.

We’ll run through every team, with a big assist from the Cot’s Baseball Contracts database. Next up is the Mets:

*Reflects signing bonus and salary deferrals in Jacob deGrom contract; contract includes partially deferred 2024 club option but deGrom can opt out after 2022

*Reflects remaining obligations to Robinson Cano retained by Mariners

*Reflects deferrals in Jeurys Familia contract

*Includes minimum value ($6MM) of variable-rate vesting/player option in Dellin Betances contract (Betances to receive $3MM buyout if he declines)

*Includes buyouts of club option over Wilson Ramos

*Includes player option of Brad Brach

*Does not include any money still owed Bobby Bonilla!

(click to expand/view detail list)

Ryan O’Rourke Announces Retirement

By | at

Former MLB southpaw Ryan O’Rourke announced last night on Twitter that he’s hanging up his spikes. MLBTR wishes him the best in his future endeavors.

O’Rourke made two appearances last year with the Mets before he was cut loose. He caught on with the Twins on a mid-season minors deal but never got the call to the MLB roster.

Most of O’Rourke’s experience at the highest level of the game came in his 2015-16 stint with the Twins. Over 47 frames in 54 appearances, he worked to a 4.98 ERA with 9.2 K/9 and 4.8 BB/9.

O’Rourke, a Massachusetts native and former 13th round pick, did find quite a bit of success at the Triple-A level. Through an even one hundred appearances over five campaigns, he posted a cumulative 3.29 ERA.

76ers, Devils Owners Eyeing Mets

By | at

Josh Harris and David Blitzer are “in the early stages” of compiling a bid for the Mets, Scott Soshnick of Variety reports. They join a still-amorphous A-Rod/J.Lo bidding group among known pursuers of the club.

There’s little question that Harris and Blitzer have ample experience in purchasing and running major sports franchises. The former is principal owner of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and NHL’s New Jersey Devils. The latter also has ownership stakes in those franchises. Both are shareholders in the Premier League side Crystal Palace F.C. There’s baseball experience, too: Blitzer co-owns the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate (the Scranton Wilkes-Barre RailRiders), an interest he’d likely have to divest to swing this deal.

The pair of potential Mets owners surely aren’t looking only for a fun place to park their capital. Both acquired their bankroll through their work at famed private equity shops (Apollo Global Management and Blackstone, respectively). And they’ve made out like bandits through their other sports-related investments.

New bidders generally represent good news for the current ownership group, led by Fred and Jeff Wilpon. Then again, it seems notable that this particular slate of candidates is only just emerging. Harris and Blitzer may well smell an opportunity.

It remains hard to imagine that the Wilpons will be able to wrangle the $2B asking price they’ve reportedly placed on the franchise — unless, perhaps, they waver on their desire to hang on to the SNY network. No doubt profit-minded investors will want the television revenue opportunity to be included in the package.

Each NL Team’s Top Recent Draft Class

By | at

With the MLB draft scheduled for next week, let’s take a look at each National League team’s most successful draft class in recent memory. Using Baseball Reference’s draft tracker, we can sum the combined career bWAR of each player selected by each team in a given year. It’s a simple shorthand, not a perfect measure, but it’ll give some insight into which teams have really hit on their picks in certain years.

First, a quick note on the methodology. For simplicity, we’re limiting this search to the 2006-2015 classes. A player’s value is only included if he signed with the club, although he needn’t have actually played for his drafting team in the majors. (So, the 2008 Yankees don’t get credit for drafting but failing to sign Gerrit Cole, while the 2007 Red Sox do get credit for drafting and signing Anthony Rizzo, even though he was traded before ever playing an MLB game for Boston). Of course, a player drafted in 2006 has had more time to rack up value than one drafted in 2015, so we’ll note in each team’s capsule if a more recent class is on the verge of taking over from an older class. On to the results…

  • Braves: 2007 (76.6 bWAR) – Hitting on Jason Heyward and Freddie Freeman in the first two rounds goes a long way. Heyward has been a disappointment with the Cubs but had some electrifying seasons in his early days in Atlanta (and his year in St. Louis), while Freeman has emerged as a fixture in the Braves’ lineup as one of the best hitters in baseball over the past decade.
  • Brewers: 2009 (30.7 bWAR) – This was period of some underwhelming draft returns for Milwaukee. The 2009 class tops the list thanks to Khris Davis, Mike Fiers and Scooter Gennett, all of whom are better known for their play (or whistleblowing, in Fiers’ case) elsewhere.
  • Cardinals: 2006 (56.3 bWAR) – By virtue of putting up baseball’s best record in 2005, the Cardinals sat at the back of every round in 2006. No matter, as they managed to find a handful of highly productive big leaguers. First-rounder Adam Ottavino didn’t work out in St. Louis but went on to a strong career as a reliever in Colorado. Tommy Pham (16th round) and Jon Jay (2nd round) have each carved out strong careers, while Allen Craig (8th round) had a brief but productive peak.
  • Cubs: 2007 (54.4 bWAR) – Unfortunately for the Cubs, this class is almost all about Josh Donaldson, who did none of his damage in a Chicago uniform. Perhaps Javier Báez (2012 draft) or Kris Bryant (2013 draft) will match or exceed Donaldson’s stellar career in time.
  • Diamondbacks: 2009 (73.1 bWAR) – Paul Goldschmidt (8th round) went on to become the top position player in franchise history. First-rounder AJ Pollock had a couple star-level seasons of his own before injuries knocked him off track, while Chase Anderson (9th round) has emerged as a solid back-of-the-rotation starter.
  • Dodgers: 2006 (70.6 bWAR) – The Dodgers only signed two big leaguers from the 2006 class. When one of them goes on to become arguably the best pitcher of his generation, you can more than get away with it. Clayton Kershaw’s Hall of Fame plaque will boast at least three Cy Young Awards and an NL MVP.
  • Giants: 2008 (65.6 bWAR) – The late-2000’s draft classes set up the crux of the Giants’ three World Series titles the first half of the next decade. None was more impactful than 2008, when SF grabbed Buster Posey and Brandon Crawford in the first and fourth rounds, respectively.
  • Marlins: 2010 (56.1 bWAR) – Christian Yelich and J.T. Realmuto have matured into two of the best players in baseball, so the Marlins’ 2010 class (which also boasted late-blooming A’s slugger Mark Canha) has a chance to be really special. Of course, none of those players are still in Miami.
  • Mets: 2010 (50.5 bWAR) – Seventh overall pick Matt Harvey was briefly the ace the Mets hoped they were adding in 2010. As it turns out, Jacob deGrom (9th round) had a lot more staying power atop their rotation.
  • Nationals: 2009 (44.9 bWAR) – First overall pick Stephen Strasburg has more than made good on that selection, culminating in a World Series MVP effort in 2019. The 2009 class also brought in a handful of role players, including Drew Storen and Michael Taylor.
  • Padres: 2007  (38.9 bWAR) – Another team for whom the top player simply got away, the crown jewel of the Padres’ 2007 class was Corey Kluber (4th round). Obviously, even San Diego didn’t him expect him to go on to win a pair of Cy Young Awards.
  • Phillies: 2014 (24.2 bWAR) – There were some tough results for the Phillies on draft day in recent seasons, but 2014 looks to be a notable exception. Aaron Nola went seventh overall and has emerged as a high-level starter, while Rhys Hoskins (fifth round) looks like the Phils’ long-term answer at first base.
  • Pirates: 2011 (29.7 bWAR) – The Pirates’ 2011 class is almost exclusively about the contributions of first overall pick Gerrit Cole, but he obviously reached his peak after being traded to Houston. Josh Bell (2nd round) looked to have turned the corner at the plate in the first half of 2019.
  • Reds: 2007 (43.1 bWAR) – The Reds found three future everyday players in the 2007 class. Todd Frazier (supplemental first-round), Zack Cozart (2nd round) and Devin Mesoraco (1st round) all went on to become productive players in Cincinnati.
  • Rockies: 2009 (47.4 bWAR) – The Rockies graduated six players from the 2009 class to the big leagues, although only one proved a smashing success. Finding a player of Nolan Arenado’s caliber in the second round makes for a great draft even if the rest of the players taken underwhelm.
Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top