Mets Rumors

Alderson On Mets’ Offseason, Moustakas, Asdrubal, Colon, Bullpen

By Mark Polishuk | February 1, 2018 at 6:02pm CDT

Speaking to fans and media (including the New York Post’s Mike Puma and MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo) today at Citi Field, Mets GM Sandy Alderson addressed several questions about his team’s winter moves and what might still be yet to come. Some highlights…

Alderson downplayed the idea of signing Mike Moustakas, noting that “the draft-choice compensation and the loss of international pool money, both are key to us improving what is now a less-than-robust farm system, so we have to be careful there.” As per the rules of the new CBA, the Mets would have to give up $500K in international bonus pool money as well their second-highest pick in the 2018 draft to sign a free agent (like Moustakas) who has rejected a qualifying offer. Alderson also noted that the Mets are looking for multi-position versatility, whereas Moustakas only plays third base.
To that same end, Alderson was “glad to hear” Asdrubal Cabrera’s recent comments about preferring to play second base rather than his currently-intended third base position. “We thought he played pretty well [at third], we wanted to try to anchor that position in the event David Wright can’t come back,” Alderson said. “So we were a little reluctant to approach him about moving off of third if we were to find somebody to play third, so now that we know he would be happier at second, it broadens the scope of what we might be able to do.” While the Mets have largely been focused on second base targets this winter, many of the players linked to the team (such as Josh Harrison or Eduardo Nunez) can play more than one position. The re-signed Jose Reyes is also available as an option at multiple infield positions.
A reunion with Bartolo Colon doesn’t seem likely, even on a minor league contract for the veteran right-hander. Colon has expressed interest in returning to his former team, to the point that the Mets are reportedly the only club Colon would consider accepting such a minors deal to pitch for, though it doesn’t seem as if there’s any present interest on the Mets’ side.
Alderson feels there could be quite a bit of further player movement at both the top and bottom of the free agent market in the coming weeks as teams drop players off their 40-man rosters to accommodate new signings. Like other clubs, the Mets will monitor the market, with Alderson noting that they could pursue a veteran left-handed reliever. The Amazins are notably short on southpaws, as Jerry Blevins and Steven Matz are the only left-handed pitchers on their entire 40-man roster.

Pirates Acquire Josh Smoker

By Mark Polishuk | January 31, 2018 at 12:57pm CDT

The Pirates have acquired southpaw Josh Smoker from the Mets in exchange for left-hander Daniel Zamora and cash, the two teams announced. Smoker was designated for assignment by the Mets earlier this week to clear roster space for the re-signed Jose Reyes.

The hard-throwing Smoker has a 5.02 ERA, 11.7 K/9, and 2.58 K/BB rate over 71 2/3 relief innings in the big leagues, all with New York in 2016-17. Despite that big strikeout total, Smoker had issues keeping the ball in the park, with 14 homers allowed in his brief career. He also posted a 5.1 BB/9 rate last season and struggled with control at times over his nine minor league seasons. Smoker isn’t exactly a young hurler (he turned 29 in November) but he still clearly has some upside in his arm given his big strikeout potential.

He’ll have an opportunity to continue in the big leagues given the lack of left-handed options in the Pirates’ bullpen. Closer Felipe Rivero, starter Steven Brault, and Jack Leathersich are the only other southpaws on Pittsburgh’s 40-man roster, though Brault could end up in the pen if he doesn’t make the starting rotation.

Zamora was a 40th-round pick for the Pirates in the 2015 draft. He has posted impressive numbers (2.96 ERA, 10.3 K/9, and 3.50 K/BB rate) over his first 115 2/3 pro innings, all as a reliever. He briefly cracked the Double-A level last season, tossing three innings for Altoona.

NL East Notes: Marlins, Bour, Cabrera, Mets, Joseph, Braves

By Mark Polishuk | January 31, 2018 at 8:00am CDT

It was no secret that Christian Yelich wasn’t happy with the Marlins’ latest fire sale, and the team felt that Yelich could’ve become a clubhouse distraction had he remained on the roster, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports. This is why trading Yelich was more of a priority than dealing catcher J.T. Realmuto, as “the Marlins believe Realmuto will be a good soldier if he isn’t traded.” Of course, Realmuto has reportedly asked for a trade as well, though Miami is reportedly holding out only for a big return if the catcher is to be moved. Jackson also notes that first baseman Justin Bour (a popular target for teams calling the Marlins) hasn’t asked for a trade.

NL East Notes: Acuna, Harrison, Brinson

By Steve Adams | January 29, 2018 at 9:40am CDT

Ronald Acuna is widely regarded as the best outfield prospect in baseball (if not the best prospect overall), but he tells MLB.com’s Mark Bowman that he’s also cognizant of the fact that he could open the year in the minors for a few weeks for service time reasons. The Braves could keep Acuna in Triple-A for as few as 12 days to open the season and, in doing so, secure an extra year of control over the 20-year-old’s future. “I’ve talked to some people, and I think the debate is whether they should keep me [with Triple-A Gwinnett] for a couple weeks or a month or however that works, contractually, to benefit the team,” Acuna tells Bowman through his interpreter. “I’ve tried not to focus on any of that. My goal is just to compete for the roster spot and hopefully make the team.”

The Braves, of course, would hardly be the first team to aggressively employ service time manipulation of that form with its young talent, and there’s every argument for doing so under the current construction of the service time system — especially for a team that would need quite a few things to go its way to be in Wild Card contention.

Rosenthal’s Latest: Mets, Domingo, Nationals, Kipnis

By Kyle Downing | January 28, 2018 at 7:49pm CDT

Here are some of the latest hot stove whisperings overheard by Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, detailed in his latest column (insider subscription required and highly recommended)…

The Mets are “weighing” four players as potential solutions to their need at second and/or third base. They’re interested in free agents Eduardo Nunez, Todd Frazier and former Met Neil Walker, while also exploring the possibility of adding Josh Harrison via trade. The latter would require the Amazins to fork over young outfielder Brandon Nimmo, according to Rosenthal’s sources. Of course, the team has all of Yoenis Cespedes, Jay Bruce and Michael Conforto under control for at least the next three seasons, and Rosenthal posits that they shouldn’t cling too tightly to a fourth outfielder if trading him could help improve their chances in 2018. Furthermore, pivoting to Walker could “spark justifiable criticism” that the Mets are reassembling a losing team; they’ve already re-signed Jose Reyes and Bruce.
Trade speculation surrounding Brewers outfielder Domingo Santana has spiked ever since the team acquired Christian Yelich and signed Lorenzo Cain just minutes later. But although he slugged 30 homers last season and is just 25 years of age, his trade value may not be as high as one might think. Rosenthal quotes rival executives saying that Santana is “a bad defender” and “not a winning player.” Those comments come off a bit extreme, but it’s worth noting that he struck out in nearly 30% of his plate appearances last season while being worth -5 Defensive Runs Saved in the outfield.
While it’s been oft-reported that Nationals GM Mike Rizzo isn’t willing to part with top prospect Victor Robles in a trade, Rosenthal suggests that the club could be willing to give up Michael Taylor if his involvement in a deal would help the club net Marlins catcher J.T. Realmuto. On the other hand, some officials in the organization aren’t keen on giving up a player who’s a fairly safe option in the outfield while Adam Eaton is coming off a significant surgery and Bryce Harper is set to become a free agent next winter.
The Yankees reportedly showed some interest in Indians second baseman Jason Kipnis at some point this offseason. However, that interest has apparently cooled of late. While his contribution towards the luxury tax threshold isn’t significant ($8.75MM per season), his actual remaining salary ($30.5MM guaranteed over two years) might be considered somewhat of a risk for a bounce-back candidate; one rival executive says he’s worth a shot, but not at that price. The 30-year-old Kipnis spent significant time on the DL last season with shoulder and hamstring injuries, and hit just .232/.291/.414 last season when healthy.

NL East Notes: Mets, Acuna, Marlins

By Mark Polishuk | January 27, 2018 at 3:21pm CDT

Some items from around the NL East…

The slowed free agent market could benefit a team with seemingly limited payroll space like the Mets, Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News writes. If price tags fall due to the lack of movement, players like Jonathan Lucroy, Lance Lynn, or Alex Cobb could emerge on the Mets’ radar, especially if the team is willing to get “creative” with offers. For Mike Moustakas, for instance, Ackert wonders if the Mets could offer the third baseman a contract with an opt-out after the first season if Moustakas wanted to quickly test the market again; New York made a similar deal with Yoenis Cespedes two years ago.
The Mets’ methods of dealing with injured players has been a source of controversy for years, and while the club has made new hires in its medical department this winter, Ken Davidoff of the New York Post reports that ownership “micromanagement” and hyper-competitiveness will have to be curtailed in order for progress to be made. In particular, COO Jeff Wilpon is “more involved in medical matters — such as working on media releases about injuries.”
As you might expect, rival teams have been coveting Braves outfield prospect Ronald Acuna, with the Marlins most recently asking for Acuna in as part of a Christian Yelich trade package. Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos told reporters (including Gabriel Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution) that the team might still consider an outfield move “but [one] that’s not as big because we don’t want to block Acuna” in 2018. Arguably the top prospect all of baseball, Acuna is expected to debut in Atlanta’s outfield as early as Opening Day.
The Marlins could be an attractive destination for lower-tier free agents who are still trying to find a new team, the New York Post’s Joel Sherman writes, given their lack of big league-ready talent. Signing a couple of notable veterans to reasonable contracts would help the Marlins on several fronts, Sherman argues — the team could gain some trade deadline chips, add veteran leadership to a young roster, and alleviate criticism from the players’ union about a lack of spending.

Mets Re-Sign Jose Reyes

By Jeff Todd | January 26, 2018 at 9:11pm CDT

9:11pm: Bob Nightengale of USA Today Sports has the scoop on the incentives in Reyes’ contract. The veteran will earn an additional $250K after reaching 500 plate appearances during the 2018 season, and an additional $250K for hitting the 550 PA mark.

Jan. 26, 4:07pm: The Mets have announced the signing.

Jan. 25: The Mets have agreed to re-sign infielder Jose Reyes, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). It’s a one-year, $2MM deal that also includes up to $500K in achievable incentives, Jon Heyman of Fan Rag tweets.

While this move may not bring quite the impact Mets fans have been hoping for from an infield signing, it seems the plan is not to utilize Reyes as a regular. Instead, per Rosenthal, the club still hopes to find an everyday choice to line up at second base.

Presumably, then, Reyes will join Wilmer Flores as a roving infield asset. Both players could see time at second and third, while the former may also see action against lefties at first base.

Reyes, a 34-year-old switch-hitter who starred for the Mets earlier in his career, obviously has a strong relationship with the New York organization. After all, the team agreed to bring him back in 2016 after Reyes served a lengthy suspension for an awful domestic abuse incident. He’ll now open his third-straight season (and twelfth overall) with the Mets.

Last year, Reyes ended up seeing quite a lot of action as the Mets dealt with injuries and ultimately traded away several veterans. In 561 plate appearances, he slashed .246/.315/.413 (good for a 94 wRC+) with 15 home runs and 24 steals. It is worth noting, too, that he performed much better in the second half after a rough opening to the season. (Of course, that may mostly be explained by the shifting winds of fortune; Reyes carried a .222 BABIP through 323 plate appearances and .323 thereafter.)

Interestingly, defensive metrics split widely on Reyes’s effort last year, as he split time between short, third, and second. DRS viewed him as markedly subpar infielder, while UZR graded him as a more or less average performer. Accepting the marks of the Defensive Runs Saved system, Reyes was a roughly replacement-level player. Working from Ultimate Zone Rating, on the other hand, and mixing in highly-rated baserunning, led Fangraphs to credit Reyes with 2.0 fWAR in 2017.

NL East Notes: Degrom, Lagares, Marlins

By Kyle Downing | January 26, 2018 at 6:50pm CDT

The Mets attempted to work out a long-term contract extension with talented right-hander Jacob deGrom this offseason, Mike Puma of the New York Post writes. However, those talks apparently never gained much traction. At this point, it appears as though deGrom expects to test the open market after his remaining three arbitration years are up. “As of right now, it looks like it’s going to be a year-to-year thing,” deGrom told reporters on Thursday. “I have got this year and two more, so I am still going to be here a while. If they want to extend past that, I guess we’ll see where it goes.” While those comments still imply that deGrom is keeping an open mind, the nature of his words seem to cast doubt on any chance of him giving the Mets some of his free agent years in advance the 2020-2021 offseason. He avoided arbitration this offseason by agreeing to a one-year, $7.4MM deal for 2018. The 29-year-old righty reached the 200-inning threshold for the first time in 2017 while pitching to a 3.53 ERA and 3.23 xFIP. During his four major league seasons, deGrom has been worth an average of over 4 fWAR. Since reaching the majors in 2013 (and ultimately winning the NL Rookie of the Year Award), he’s posted a sparkling 2.98 ERA, having struck out 9.67 batters per nine innings while walking just 2.33.

Other notable items from around the NL East…

Elsewhere in the Big Apple, Mets center fielder Juan Lagares has faith in his newly-overhauled swing, Puma writes in a separate piece. Lagares reportedly spent ten days in California with Craig Wallenbrock, a well-known hitting coach. His new approach (in line with a recent trend around the league) involves an objective to hit the ball in the air more often. “The last couple of years I have hit the ball super hard, but on the ground, so I am just trying to get it a little more in the air,” he says. While it’s certainly true that Lagares’ past approach has elicited a far greater percentage of ground balls (50.8) than fly balls (28.8), his claim that he’s hit the ball “super hard” seems a bit far-fetched. Via Fangraphs, the soon-to-be 29-year-old owns a hard contact rate of just 27.5% for his career, and his figure from last season (29.6%) was just north of that.
A small handful of current and former Marlins front office executives are set to run marathons in seven consecutive days on seven different continents, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports. The “183.4-mile racing odyssey,” as Jackson calls it, will be led by Jeff Conine; he’ll be joined by ex-Marlins-president David Samson and ex-broadcasting-executive P.J. Loyello, along with two current Miami officials and 11 other people in a fascinating enterprise that will benefit 11 charities at the expense of an immense physical toll on their bodies. “You can’t pass up a life experience like this. I’ll never have the opportunity to do something like this ever again,” Conine offered on the subject. “Why not?”

Mets Designate Josh Smoker For Assignment

By Steve Adams | January 26, 2018 at 4:14pm CDT

The Mets have designated left-hander Josh Smoker for assignment to clear space on the 40-man roster for infielder Jose Reyes, as James Wagner of the New York Times first reported shortly before the move was made official (Twitter link).

Smoker, 29, averages roughly 95 mph on his heater and has averaged 11.7 K/9 in his two big league seasons. However, he also averaged more than five walks per nine innings in 2017 and has been tagged for 1.76 HR/9 in his two MLB seasons. Control is an issue for Smoker, but given his velocity, penchant for missing bats and the fact that he has a minor league option remaining could very well lead to intrigue from other teams around the league.

With Smoker off the 40-man roster, the Mets’ lone southpaw option for the bullpen is Jerry Blevins, so they’ll assuredly hope he clears waivers and can remain with the organization. If not, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Mets pursue some affordable left-handed depth options to compete for a spot in new manager Mickey Callaway’s bullpen in Spring Training.

Open Market Notes: Yankees, Boras, Gomez, Tillman, Mets

By Jeff Todd | January 24, 2018 at 1:53pm CDT

True, the market remains quiet, but perhaps we’re reaching the point where the looming onset of Spring Training will begin to apply some real dealmaking pressure. Here’s the latest chatter:

The Yankees have had “minimal” contact with potential free-agent infielders, according to a report from Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (subscription required). Rosenthal suggests that New York is rather optimistic about its internal options at second and third base, though of course it stands to reason that the club will look hard at a variety of avenues to upgrade. Rosenthal also weighs in on the trade value of Christian Yelich and a few other topics.
In a separate post, Rosenthal discusses the still-quiet offseason for Scott Boras and his clients. One of the super-agent’s major points of contention this winter has been that top players don’t (as a general matter) simply cease being productive in their early thirties. Over at Fangraphs, Craig Edwards provides some analysis that tends to support Boras’s position. Though massive and lengthy commitments obviously still come with ample risk, Edwards says the data shows that “good players in their 20s are likely to remain good players in their early 30s.”
It seems that outfielder Carlos Gomez is maintaining contact with the Rangers — even if it requires some extra effort. According to Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News, Gomez hitched a ride on a helicopter recently to hold a brief face-to-face chat with Texas GM Jon Daniels and others. It still seems there’s a potential match, though perhaps both sides are waiting to see how things look once higher-priority players make their decisions.
The Blue Jays have expressed some level of interest in righty Chris Tillman, according to Jon Morosi of MLB Network (Twitter link). Several other organizations are reportedly eyeing a pitcher who may be the top bounceback candidate on the market. There was nothing at all to like about his 2017 work, but the 29-year-old Tillman has a long history of solid innings and might represent an excellent value if his shoulder can stay fit.
While the Mets are looking into bolstering their rotation mix, it likely won’t be in a manner that excites the fanbase. Per Mike Puma of the New York Post, on Twitter, the organization is looking to find one or two starters willing to take minor-league contracts. At this point, though, the Mets don’t even have a firm idea of who they’ll go after, per the report. All told, that approach isn’t surprising. After all, the Mets have other more pressing needs and certainly have the talent to fill out a five-man staff, making depth the key need.
Meanwhile, the Mets seem not to view Mike Moustakas as a plausible free-agent target, Puma notes on Twitter. But the team still thinks it could end up landing Todd Frazier, who’s not an altogether dissimilar player from Moustakas but is expected to command a shorter contract entering his age-32 season.

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