Mets Rumors

Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger Win Rookie Of The Year Awards

By Jeff Todd | November 13, 2017 at 7:54pm CDT

In news that won’t come as a surprise to many, Aaron Judge of the Yankees and Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers were named the rookies of the year in the American League and National League, respectively. Each received unanimous support from the voting members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

Andrew Benintendi of the Red Sox and Trey Mancini of the Orioles followed Judge in the A.L. ROY voting. The other finalists for the N.L. award were the Pirates’ Josh Bell and Cardinals’ Paul DeJong.

Judge was as obvious a victor as you’ll ever see. The 25-year-old slugger swatted 52 home runs and posted a .284/.422/.627 batting line in 678 trips to the plate. That output was good enough to make him a finalist for the MVP award — the results haven’t yet been tabulated — and a shoe-in to be chosen as the top rookie.

Over on the National League side, Bellinger was an easy choice for the hardwear after 548 plate appearances of .267/.352/.581 hitting to go with 39 dingers and ten steals. A 2013 fourth-round draftee, Bellinger only turned 22 in mid-July and opened the season at Triple-A, adding to the impressiveness of his accomplishment.

Because he did not start the season in the big leagues, Bellinger will fall shy of a full season of MLB service. That means he won’t reach arbitration until 2020 (as a Super Two) and will be controlled via the arb process through 2023. Judge had already spent some time in the majors in 2016, so he’s set to reach the open market a year earlier, though he also won’t see an arbitration pay bump until 2020.

East Notes: Mets, Red Sox, Orioles

By Kyle Downing | November 11, 2017 at 10:53am CDT

Following a 92-loss season, the Mets will reimagine the way they use their pitching staff, says Marc Carig of newsday.com. The so-called “philosophical shift” may in part be driven by the Mets’ recent hire of former Indians pitching coach Mickey Callaway as their new manager. According to one of Carig’s sources, Mets starters not named Noah Syndergaard or Jacob deGrom may be shielded from facing lineups more than twice through the order, following a continuing trend throughout the league. In order to compensate for potentially fewer innnings from their starters, the Amazins plan to employ an eight man bullpen. The dramatic change in plans comes after the team posted a 5.01 combined ERA (the second-worst mark in the National League in 2017) despite watching deGrom finish as one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. Carig lays out the opponent OPS for each Mets pitcher per times through the batting order as well.

Mets Unlikely To Swing Impact Trade

By Connor Byrne | November 10, 2017 at 8:01pm CDT

While the Mets could be on the hunt for a second baseman, odds are they won’t be the team that acquires Gordon, Anthony DiComo of MLB.com writes. The Mets have neither the prospect capital nor payroll flexibility necessary to put together a deal for Gordon, reasons DiComo, who estimates that the club has around $30MM to spend this offseason with needs at second or third base, the corner outfield/first base, the rotation and the bullpen.

Bruce Could Be Too Expensive For Indians

By Steve Adams | November 9, 2017 at 4:22pm CDT

Jay Bruce’s camp is reportedly setting its sights high and asking for a five-year deal worth $80-90MM, ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick reported yesterday. High asking price notwithstanding, Heyman reports today in his weekly notes column that the Blue Jays, Giants, Mariners and Cardinals are four potential landing spots for Bruce in free agency. Heyman notes that Bruce should be able to comfortably land a three-year commitment that could price him out of the comfort zones of the Mets and the Indians.

Rangers Exercise Option On Perez, Decline Options On Barnette, Napoli

By Steve Adams | November 6, 2017 at 2:06pm CDT

The Rangers announced that they’ve exercised their $6MM club option on left-hander Martin Perez. The 2018 options of Tony Barnette ($4MM) and Mike Napoli ($11MM) have been declined. Barnette will receive a $250K buyout, while Napoli receives a $2.5MM buyout.

Beyond the option decisions, the Rangers announced that catcher A.J. Jimenez and right-hander Austin Bibens-Dirkx have cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A Round Rock.

In coaching staff news for the Rangers, Texas also announced that it has hired former Mets pitching coach Dan Warthen as its new assistant pitching coach and hired former big league right-hander Colby Lewis as a special assistant to GM Jon Daniels.

The 26-year-old Perez hasn’t exactly made good on his once lofty prospect status, but he’s developed into a dependable back-of-the-rotation starter. Given the affordable nature of his option and the steep $2.35MM buyout that was associated with that option, it’d have been nothing short of shocking to see his option declined.

The 2017 season saw Perez log a team-high 185 innings with a 4.82 ERA, 5.6 K/9, 3.1 BB/9 and a 47.3 percent ground-ball rate. Obviously, his run-prevention numbers weren’t anywhere near where Perez or the team would’ve hoped, but he’s made 65 starts across the past two seasons for a Rangers team that is in desperate need of innings. Andrew Cashner and Miguel Gonzalez are free agents, leaving Perez and Cole Hamels as the only true locks for the Texas rotation. Other options include Nick Martinez, A.J. Griffin and Yohander Mendez, but the Rangers very clearly need to add multiple arms to the rotation for the coming season.

Barnette, 34 later this week. made his Major League debut with the Rangers in 2016. A former Diamondbacks farmhand, Barnette never cracked the Majors early in his career and instead went overseas to find enormous success pitching in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He earned a two-year Major League contract with the Rangers as a result of efforts in Japan and was every bit worth that investment in his first year with the club.

In 2016, Barnette pitched to a 2.09 ERA with 7.3 K/9 against 2.4 BB/9 with a 46.3 percent ground-ball rate in 60 1/3 innings out of manager Jeff Bannister’s bullpen. However, his strand rate plummeted in 2017 as his BABIP rose, causing his ERA to spike to 5.49. Barnette’s strikeout rate actually improved in ’17, and metrics like FIP and xFIP didn’t feel he was all that much worse than he was in 2016. However, the disappointing bottom-line results and a need for more bullpen stability caused the Rangers to move on. Barnette’s strong 2016 season and promising uptick in punchouts could generate him some interest on big league deals with a low base salary this winter, but many teams will likely hope to bring him into camp on a minor league contract.

The 36-year-old Napoli swatted 29 homers in his return to Arlington this season but saw his batting average check in south of the Mendoza Line and his OBP land in the upper .200s. Overall, the benefit of his considerable power (.235 ISO) was counteracted by a .193/.285/.428 batting line and below-average baserunning. Both Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference pegged him slightly worse than replacement level. Napoli struck out at a career-worst 33.6 percent clip and also popped up at a career-high 15.6 percent pace. A troublesome 38.1 percent of his trips to the plate resulted in a punchout or an infield fly. He’d already been informed that his option would be declined (as previously detailed on MLBTR), and he’ll now return to the open market in search of a new team for the 2018 campaign.

Mets To Hire Gary DiSarcina As Bench Coach

By Connor Byrne | November 5, 2017 at 8:05am CDT

The Mets are hiring Gary DiSarcina as their new bench coach, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports. Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe first suggested the Mets would tab DiSarcina to replace previous bench coach Dick Scott (Twitter links).

The 49-year-old DiSarcina spent 2017 as the bench coach for the Red Sox, but he lost the position when the team fired manager John Farrell after the season. Previously, DiSarcina held other roles with the Boston organization, including serving as its Triple-A manager in 2013. He also worked with the Angels on a couple of occasions, most recently as a third and first base coach on Mike Scioscia’s staff from 2014-16, after spending his entire playing career with the Halos as a shortstop from 1989-2000.

Thanks to his experience in multiple high-level positions, DiSarcina has drawn managerial interest in the past, even landing on the Phillies’ radar when they were searching for a manager last month. That job ultimately went to Gabe Kapler, paving the way for rookie Mets skipper Mickey Callaway to hire DiSarcina as his right-hand man.

Mets Sign Phillip Evans To Minor League Deal

By Jeff Todd | November 4, 2017 at 8:20am CDT

Infielder Phillip Evans is heading back to the Mets on a minors deal that includes a spring invite, per a club announcement. He made it up to the majors for the first time and had some success in a brief run. Evans spent the bulk of the year at Triple-A — his first action at the highest level of the minors — and ended with a .279/.341/.418 slash over 510 plate appearances.

Mets Exercise Club Options On Asdrubal Cabrera, Jerry Blevins

By Steve Adams | November 3, 2017 at 4:02pm CDT

4:02pm: New York has announced that it has picked up its options over both Cabrera and lefty Jerry Blevins.

Blevins, 34, was an easy call at a $7MM price tag (with a $1MM buyout). He has turned in consecutive sub-3.00 ERA campaigns for the Mets. In 2017, he ran up 12.7 K/9 (on a career-best 12.7% swinging-strike rate) against 4.4 BB/9 on the season, holding lefties to a miserly .195/.250/.205 slash with his fastball-curve combination. (Alas, Blevins was not so successful against right-handed hitters, who knocked him around for a .288/.447/.545 batting line.)

1:22pm: The Mets are set to exercise their $8.5MM club option over infielder Asdrubal Cabrera, tweets FanRag’s Jon Heyman. Reports over the past month have suggested that the team was likely to do so, though there’d yet to be a firm indication that the team had definitively elected to do so. Their alternative was a $2MM buyout, meaning it boiled down to a $6.5MM decision for the Mets.

Cabrera’s option looked fairly likely to be declined late in the season, but a blistering hot finish likely helped to bring about this outcome. As of Aug. 23, the soon-to-be 32-year-old’s OPS sat at a dismal mark of .705. However, over his final 132 plate appearances, Cabrera caught fire and turned in a .366/.435/.607 slash with five homers, a dozen doubles and a 20-to-15 K/BB ratio. The massive uptick in his productivity boosted his season-long production with the bat from 10 percent below average to 11 percent above-average, by measure of wRC+.

The switch-hitting Cabrera also demonstrated his value to the Mets by showing a willingness to play third base in the wake of injuries around the roster. While he didn’t necessarily shine as a top-flight defender, the Mets were reportedly pleased with his aptitude at the new position, and defensive metrics felt he was at least passable there (+1 Defensive Runs Saved, -2.5 Ultimate Zone Rating).

Given the uncertainty surrounding the Mets’ infield mix heading into 2018 — David Wright’s injury status is a complete unknown, while Neil Walker was traded in August and T.J. Rivera underwent Tommy John surgery — Cabrera gives the Mets some stability and some offseason flexibility. The fact that New York likely feels comfortable with Cabrera playing either second base or third base widens the range of targets the team can pursue this winter, rather than forcing GM Sandy Alderson and his staff to zero in solely on a third baseman or a second baseman.

Mets To Hire Ruben Amaro Jr. As First Base Coach

By Steve Adams | November 3, 2017 at 8:22am CDT

Ruben Amaro Jr. will leave the Red Sox’ coaching staff and join the Mets as their new first base coach and outfield/baserunning coach, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). Amaro, long the general manager of the Phillies, has spent the past two seasons as the first base coach in Boston. While his path from the front office to a big league coaching staff is anything but conventional, but his experience in a front office will add a unique perspective to rookie manager Mickey Callaway’s staff. It was reported yesterday that the Mets were also promoting Pat Roesseler to hitting coach and hiring veteran pitching coach Dave Eiland.

The Red Sox will have a former big league manager on their staff to support rookie skipper Alex Cora, the team announced yesterday. Former Brewers manager Ron Roenicke, who spent the 2016-17 seasons as the Angels’ third base coach, will serve as Cora’s bench coach. Former Mets first base coach Tom Goodwin will join Boston’s staff as the first base coach and outfield instructor, effectively meaning the Mets and Red Sox have swapped first base/outfield coaches. The Sox also announced that Carlos Febles, who managed their Double-A affiliate in 2017, will join the club as its new third base coach and infield instructor. Bullpen coach Dana LeVangie, will return for his sixth season in that role. He’ll also serve as a catching instructor and assist in advance scouting.

Mets To Promote Pat Roessler To Hitting Coach, Hire Dave Eiland As Pitching Coach

By Steve Adams | November 1, 2017 at 6:45pm CDT

6:38pm: New York will name Dave Eiland as its next pitching coach, according to Carig (Twitter link). Eiland had held the same position with the Royals since the start of the 2012 season, but Kansas City decided not to retain him into the future. The ten-year MLB veteran also previously served as the Yankees’ pitching coach.

3:31pm: The Mets are expected to promote Roessler to become the team’s hitting coach, Puma of reports on Twitter. Ricky Bones will remain as the bullpen coach, he adds.

9:55am: Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News reports that there will be some continuity on the coaching staff, as assistant hitting coach Pat Roessler is finishing up a two-year deal to return to the Mets. Roessler’s responsibilities with the team “will expand,” per Ackert, though it’s not clear if he’ll simply step into the hitting coach vacancy created by Long’s departure. Ackert does note that Roessler turned down an opportunity within the division to be a big league hitting coach last winter.

9:33am: Mike Puma of the New York Post tweets that first base coach Tom Goodwin is unlikely to return to the team as well. Like Carig, he’s also heard that Long isn’t likely to return. Puma notes in another tweet that the Mets could bring Tim Teufel back as an infield coach and possibly as a replacement for Goodwin.

7:31am: After being passed over for the Mets’ managerial vacancy, hitting coach Kevin Long is now unlikely to return to the team in 2017, reports Newsday’s Marc Carig. The organization had reportedly promised a 2018 job to Long even in the event that he was not named the successor to Terry Collins, but Long’s contract expired at the end of October and he’s yet to sign a new one.

Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post presented one alternative opportunity for Long yesterday, reporting that he’s in the running to become the division-rival Nationals’ new hitting coach. Long also interviewed for the managerial vacancy in D.C., though he came up short to another well-respected coach who is getting his first managerial opportunity: longtime Cubs/Rays bench coach Dave Martinez. George A. King III of the New York Post reported over the weekend that Long could also return to the Yankees, for whom he served as the hitting coach from 2007-14. King suggested that Long could potentially be a managerial candidate there, but could also return to his old post as the hitting coach in the Bronx as well.

The Mets, of course, figured to have a new-look coaching staff under first-time manager Mickey Callaway even in the event that Long had been retained. As Carig notes, the only coach that is under contract beyond the 2018 season is third base coach Glenn Sherlock, so Long’s reported departure could put the Mets on the lookout for a number of replacements at key coaching positions, including pitching coach, bench coach, bullpen coach and first base coach.

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