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Mets Notes: Grandal, Castellanos, Pollock

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Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen has not stopped knocking on a multitude doors as he keeps working to improve his just-inherited roster. The latest news involves the team’s efforts to upgrade behind the dish and to boost its outfield mix.

While J.T. Realmuto has been — and still is — a top target for the Mets, the club has also been connected to numerous other receiving possibilities on the open market. The New York org is “moving closer to resolution” of its catching situation, per Andy Martino of SNY.tv (Twitter links).

As Van Wagenen and co. narrow their options, top free agent Yasmani Grandal is said to be a “very serious” possibility. That’d mean topping the market for a player who is among the best in baseball at his position — postseason foibles aside.

Certainly, Grandal would be more than an adequate consolation prize if Marlins star J.T. Realmuto can’t be had. The 30-year-old switch-hitter has posted a strong 116 wRC+ since the start of the 2016 season. Despite his well-documented issues with, well, catching the baseball in October, Grandal is a gifted overall defender. He frames about as well as anyone and is good at limiting the running game.

If the Mets aren’t able to add offense behind the plate, Van Wagenen has suggested, that’d increase the need to do so in the outfield. It seems the club would like a right-handed-hitting bat, preferably one capable of lining up in center defensively.

Tigers outfielder Nicholas Castellanos certainly has the offensive game the Mets would desire, though he’s not an option up the middle and has graded quite poorly even in a corner. Still, the two teams have discussed trade scenarios, per Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free-Press (Twitter link), with the Detroit organization maintaining a steep asking price to this point in talks, which remain ongoing with multiple clubs.

MLBTR and contributor Matt Swartz project Castellanos to earn $11.3MM in 2019, his final season of arbitration eligibility. That’s a notable sum for a Mets club that’s seeking to pack in as much talent within its payroll limits (the specifics of which are not really known). But Castellanos would only require a single-season commitment, as he’ll be a free agent at the end of the ’19 campaign.

That’s not to say that the Mets have moved off of A.J. Pollock, who’d certainly be a cleaner fit for their roster but will require a much more significant commitment. Martino adds on Twitter that the club remains “serious” about the veteran center fielder as an option.

MLBTR graded both Grandal and Pollock among the ten best players on the open market this winter. We predicted that both would secure four-year deals, with the former at $64MM and the latter at $60MM.

Mets Sign Jeurys Familia

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TODAY: The deal is now official. Familia will receive a $2MM signing bonus and $6MM salary in 2019, with $11MM salaries in the two ensuing seasons, per Rosenthal (Twitter link). $1MM apiece of the 2020 and 2021 salaries is deferred to 2022. Familia can add $500K if he reaches fifty games finished and would receive a $1MM assignment bonus if traded.

YESTERDAY: The Mets are turning to an old friend to reinforce their bullpen, as the club has reportedly agreed to a deal with free agent right-hander Jeurys Familia, Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan reports (via Twitter).  The contract is pending a physical.  MLB.com’s Jon Paul Morosi reports that it will be a three-year pact, while The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reports that Familia will earn $30MM over the course of the contract (all Twitter links).  Familia is represented by the ACES agency.

Originally signed out of the Dominican Republic by the Mets in 2007, Familia spent his entire professional career with the organization before he was dealt to the A’s last July.  The right-hander posted a combined 3.13 ERA, 2.96 K/BB rate, and a career-high 10.4 K/9 over 72 innings for New York and Oakland, racking up a total of 18 saves along the way.

Familia had excellent numbers with the Mets from 2014-16, emerging as the team’s closer and recording 94 saves over those latter two seasons.  In a troubled 2017 season, he was suspended for the first 15 games under the league and players union’s joint domestic violence policy after being arrested on assault charges the previous fall.  Familia also spent over three months on the DL after undergoing surgery to fix an arterial clot in his throwing shoulder.

The 29-year-old had a brief DL stint due to shoulder soreness again in 2018, but overall looked healthy and more or less his old self on the mound.  Familia averaged 96.2 mph on his fastball (making him one of the harder-throwing relievers in the game), while posting a 14.1% swinging strike rate that topped his 13.6% career average.  The focus on strikeouts led to a drop to a 46.3% grounder rate, after Familia posted no worse than a 57.3% ground ball rate over his previous four seasons.

Familia will be returning to Citi Field as a setup man, now that the Mets have added Edwin Diaz to serve as their new closer.  The combination of Diaz and Familia gives the team an impressive combo for the eighth and ninth innings, and already provides a big upgrade to a bullpen that struggled with consistency in 2018.  It wouldn’t be surprising to see New York explore other moves to augment the relief corps, as Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman might be the only current relievers who could be considered locks for the Opening Day roster.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Latest On Mets' Pursuit Of J.T. Realmuto

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The Mets’ ongoing pursuit of Marlins catcher J.T. Realmuto has dominated headlines this week, and Tim Healey of Newsday sheds more light on the teams’ talks. While the Marlins are interested in all three of Amed Rosario, Brandon Nimmo and Michael Conforto and reportedly want more than one of those players for Realmuto, it doesn’t seem that’s going to happen, per Healey. Rather, only one member of that trio – likely Nimmo or Conforto – would headline Miami’s return, according to Healey, who adds that the Marlins also like Mets infield prospects Andres Gimenez, Ronny Mauricio and Mark Vientos. All three of those players rank among the Mets’ top prospects, with MLB.com placing Gimenez first, Mauricio sixth and Vientos eighth.

Mets Unlikely To Shop At Top Of Market For Lefty Reliever

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Rangers, Mets Have Discussed Pitching Swaps

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  • It seems the Rangers and Mets have chatted about possible matches over the past few days, with pitching the topic of conversation. MLB.com’s TR Sullivan hints via Twitter that the Texas club would be interested in young hurlers such as David Peterson and Anthony Kay. But the Mets evidently would only be interested in parting with such long-term assets if the Rangers put closer Jose Leclerc on the table. It’s worth noting that, having now already made two significant relief acquisitions, the Mets may be less inclined to do what’d be needed to get the Rangers to cough up the controllable and flame-throwing Leclerc.

Mets Notes: Catchers, Syndergaard

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  • In another chat with media today, Dombrowski told Alex Speier of the Boston Globe (Twitter links) and other reporters that was happy with his starting outfielders and his catching mix, and wasn’t looking to make any changes.  In regards to the latter position, the Red Sox have received at least some interest in their catchers from the Mets (as per MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo) as New York continues to explore secondary plans if the club can’t land J.T. Realmuto from the Marlins.
  • Even after agreeing to a reunion with J.A. Happ today, Yankees GM Brian Cashman told reporters (including Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News) that the team isn’t necessarily done adding starting pitching.  The Happ deal “gives me more comfort,” Cashman said, though “It doesn’t mean that we would be out of the market all together….That doesn’t preclude us from being open minded to any other options that develop over time. In the meantime, it does allow us to pivot and focus further on other aspects of our roster, too.”  Some of the bigger-name pitchers associated with the Yankees, however, don’t appear to on the radar at the moment.  Sources tell Ackert that the Yankees balked at the Indians’ asking price for Corey Kluber or Trevor Bauer, while another source describes a trade with the Mets for Noah Syndergaard as “extremely unlikely.”

Mets Rumors: Sanchez, Jones, McCutchen, Lagares

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Rumors about a discussed three-team trade between the Mets, Marlins, and Yankees set the baseball world abuzz on Monday, though most recent reports have cast those talks are much more speculative in nature.  If Mets fans were stunned at the idea of Noah Syndergaard potentially going to the Yankees as part of those three-team rumors, how would Yankees fans feel about Gary Sanchez going to Citi Field?  The Athletic’s Marc Carig (Twitter link) reports that one of the many permutations of the Mets/Yankees talks saw Sanchez becoming the Mets’ new catcher.  It isn’t known if the Marlins were involved in this scenario, or if it would’ve resulted in J.T. Realmuto or Syndergaard going to the Yankees, but whispers continue to swirl that the Yankees could be looking for a change at catcher, no matter how firmly GM Brian Cashman has continued to stand by Sanchez.

Even if it involves a rare trade with a crosstown rival, it seems clear that new Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen is certainly looking at every possibility to upgrade his roster.  Some more Mets-related rumblings…

  • Adam Jones and his representatives have opened a line of communication with the Mets, Mike Puma of the New York Post reports (Twitter links). (Puma initially reported the sides had met face to face, but later retracted that aspect of the discussions.) With Yoenis Cespedes a health-related question mark for 2019, the Mets are looking at Jones and other right-handed hitting outfielders.  Jones is hitting the open market for the first time in his career after spending the last 11 seasons with the Orioles.
  • Andrew McCutchen was another name on the Mets’ list, according to Fancred Sports’ Jon Heyman (Twitter link), though at a much lower price tag than the $50MM deal McCutchen received from the Phillies.
  • The Mets already have a right-handed hitting outfield option in the form of Juan Lagares, though MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo (via Twitter) hears that the Mets have been trying to find a trade partner for Lagares.  2018 was a lost year for the defensive specialist, as a torn plantar plate in his left big toe resulted in season-ending surgery after just 30 games.  Given the injury and the $9.5MM owed to Lagares in salary next season, the outfielder will be a tough sell in trade talks, unless New York eats some money or deals him for another bad-fit type of contract.

Dodgers “Actively” Attempting To Trade Yasiel Puig, Matt Kemp

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TODAY: Aside from Puig, the Dodgers and Reds have also discussed Alex Wood in trade talks, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand tweets, though Feinsand’s source says “nothing serious at this point” has developed.

TUESDAY, 10:53pm: The Mets aren’t in on Puig, Andy Martino of SNY tweets.

10:27pm: The Dodgers are “actively” attempting to trade either or both of Yasiel Puig and Matt Kemp, according to Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. Los Angeles would presumably have a much easier time moving the mercurial Puig, who’s the younger, less expensive and better of the two outfielders.

The 28-year-old Puig is projected to make an affordable $11.3MM in 2019, his last season of team control, and is reportedly “open” to playing for another club after developing a distrust of Dodgers management in 2018. The right-handed Puig has fallen flat against left-handed pitchers in back-to-back years, but nevertheless, he didn’t like that the Dodgers limited his playing time versus southpaws in 2018. Despite that, Puig still turned in another quality offensive season, hitting .267/.327/.494 (123 wRC+) with 23 home runs and 15 stolen bases in 444 plate appearances. Since then, the Indians, Mets and Reds have been connected to Puig.

Kemp, 34, was similarly effective at the plate in 2018, as he bounced back from a rough 2017 in Atlanta to bat .290/.338/.481 (122 wRC+) with 21 long balls in 506 PAs. However, Kemp tailed off in the second half of the season, continued to struggle in the outfield and is due an unreasonable $21.5MM next year. The Dodgers figure to have trouble dealing Kemp, then, unless they eat a large portion of his salary or swap him for another team’s undesirable contract.

Jettisoning one or both of the Puig-Kemp duo would still leave the Dodgers with other outfield-capable players in Joc Pederson, Cody Bellinger, Chris Taylor, Enrique Hernandez, Andrew Toles and high-end prospect Alex Verdugo. Plus, given the Dodgers’ ability to spend, they may add to the group by signing Bryce Harper, the best, most expensive outfielder available in free agency. Incidentally, the Dodgers reportedly offered Puig to the Nationals for Harper at last summer’s trade deadline.

Mets Notes: Maldonado, Realmuto, deGrom

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  • The Mets had a meeting with Martin Maldonado and his camp yesterday, Fancred Sports’ Jon Heyman tweets.  Maldonado was originally mentioned as a Mets target earlier this winter, and the club could now be circling back towards a more defensive-oriented answer at catcher rather than continue making a big push for J.T. Realmuto.  As per Heyman, the Mets “are [starting] to lose a bit of confidence in Realmuto talks” with the Marlins.  In another tweet from earlier in the evening, Heyman cited the Mets as seemingly “the most aggressive team” in pursuit of Realmuto, with the Braves and Yankees in the next tier down, and the Yankees perhaps in the mix only for the purposes of flipping Realmuto to another club.
  • In other Mets news, the team spoke with Jacob deGrom’s camp yesterday, James Wagner of the New York Times reports (Twitter link).  SNY.tv’s Andy Martino described the meeting as “very preliminary” in nature, and not exactly proper “extension talks” just yet.  As Wagner notes, Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen is staying out of any extension negotiations with deGrom due to Van Wagenen’s former role as deGrom’s agent, so it will be particularly interesting to see how things unfold between the two sides.  DeGrom has two years of arbitration eligibility remaining before he hits free agency, so while there isn’t any immediate rush for a long-term deal, the Mets might prefer to lock up one ace before potentially looking to deal another in Noah Syndergaard.

NL Notes: Reds, Mets, Cubs, Maeda

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With news that the team is contemplating a rare foray into the big-game portion of the offseason’s free agent market, and today’s reports that the club is interested in acquiring Dodger outfielder Yasiel Puig, the Reds have moved to the fore of the offseason’s hot stove.  As The Athletic’s C. Trent Rosecrans details, it’s a unique position for a team that’s spent the last four years in the cellar of the NL Central. The Reds, to no one’s surprise, are said to be pursuing a center fielder, but quotes from President of Baseball Ops Dick Williams suggest the player need not be of the defense-first variety: “That’s one of the factors in not being comfortable in paying Billy (Hamilton) what we were paying him,” he said. “You could argue we can have room for a little more offense, a little less defense out of our center fielder.” One player said to be in the plans is blue-chip prospect Nick Senzel, a third baseman by trade who apparently offers enough athleticism to handle the position, though the options surely remain numerous at this juncture.

In other news from around the NL . . .

  • Per Joel Sherman of the New York Post, the Mets continue to ruminate internally about whether or not top prospect Andres Gimenez will be able to make the jump to the parent club in 2019, which would allow the team to dangle current shortstop Amed Rosario in a deal to reel in the trade market’s big fish, Miami catcher J.T. Realmuto. Such a scenario would, in all likelihood, necessitate the signing of a stopgap, defense-first shortstop, though 24-year-old Luis Guillorme, a supposed virtuoso with the leather, would seem to fit the bill as well as any. Gimenez, who spent nearly half of last season in Double-A as a 19-year-old, has a scouting report that reads quite similar to the one originally stamped to Rosario: a plus glove, with questions surrounding the bat.
  • Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times cites sources who claim the Cubs would like to acquire two “established” but “not high-end” relievers, though such moves might not happen until next month. The Cubs’ pen delivered strong results last season (an NL best 83 ERA-), though much of the success may be ascribed to a combination of luck and sterling defense — the unit’s .277 BABIP, after all, was tied for the second lowest in the league, and its collective 106 xFIP- ranked in the league’s bottom half. Brandon Morrow, arguably the team’s best reliever in his limited action last year, is already scheduled to miss time next season after undergoing elbow surgery in November.
  • Per Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts (via the LA Times’ Jorge Castillo on Twitter), righty Kenta Maeda will begin next season in the Dodger rotation. Maeda, 30, was yo-yoed between the bullpen and rotation last year despite mostly excellent (10.62 K/9, 3.30 FIP) results as a starter. His contract, which includes a series of incentive bonuses for each additional 10 IP after reaching the 90-inning plateau for a season, plus $1MM each for making his 15th, 20th, 25th, 30th, and 32nd starts of the year, may have been a factor, though the club’ll be hard-pressed to again limit the Japanese hurler if he reprises his dominance from a season ago.
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