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Mets, Nine Other Teams Attended Zack Britton’s Showcase

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The Mets were among the ten teams that attended free agent left-hander Zack Britton’s showcase on Friday, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post. While the Mets have just lost their closer to a long-term injury, Heyman notes that the Mets’ level of interest in Britton is still unknown.

Britton, 35, was once one of the game’s top relief pitchers, but injuries have held him back in recent years, and he’s only thrown 21 innings over the past two seasons. That small sample was highly uneffective as well, as Britton owned a 6.16 ERA over those two seasons for the Yankees. Last year, in particular, was a frustrating one for the veteran, as Britton worked his way back from 2021 Tommy John surgery to throw, only to walk six of nine batters in his return and wind up back on the injured list for the remainder of the season with a shoulder injury.

With those injury concerns fresh in the memory, it’s tricky to predict just what sort of pitcher Britton can be moving forward. There’s no question about his dominance during his prime, as Britton put in year after year of consistently elite relief work between 2014-20, working to a 1.84 ERA over 367 1/3 innings.

With that sort of track record, a healthy Britton would make sense for a number of teams to take a chance, including the Mets. Brooks Raley is the only left-hander currently projected to make their bullpen, so another southpaw would make some sense. They do have TJ McFarland and Zach Muckenhirn as left-handers in camp with the team, but Britton would represent a clear upgrade on both. They’re also down a man after Edwin Diaz’ season-ending injury suffered in the World Baseball Classic. One case against signing a veteran like Britton is the fact that out of their currently projected bullpen, only John Curtiss and Drew Smith have minor league options remaining, so the team may prefer to add an arm with options remaining to allow for a bit more flexibility in the bullpen ahead of a long season.

Of course, that’s only looking at the Mets, and it’s worth remembering that nine other teams also attended his showcase and would have some level of interest. It’s also worth noting that attendance at a showcase is far from a confirmation of any firm interest in a player, and there’s no indication yet that the Mets are actively pursuing the two-time All Star, although they do make a fair bit of sense.

Mets Claim Dennis Santana

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The Mets have claimed right-hander Dennis Santana off waivers from the Twins, tweets Dan Hayes of The Athletic. Santana is out of minor league options, and the Twins apparently attempted to pass him through waivers after deciding he wouldn’t break camp with the club. Minnesota claimed Santana off waivers from the Braves earlier in spring training.

Santana, 27 next month, once ranked as one of the top pitching prospects in a stacked Dodgers system but has begun to bounce around the waiver circuit after tough stints both in Los Angeles and Texas. He’s appeared in parts of five big league seasons but logged a 5.12 ERA (4.43 SIERA) in 139 innings.

Last season with the Rangers, Santana averaged a blistering 97.7 mph on his four seamer and 96.7 mph on his sinker. However, he still posted a below-average 21.2% strikeout rate with a bloated 11% walk rate en route to a 5.22 earned run average. Command has been an issue throughout his big league career, evidenced by his penchant for free passes (career 11.8% walk rate). That said, he’s consistently generated swinging strikes at an above-average rate (11.4% in 2022, 11.7% career) and induced chases on pitches off the plate at a high level as well (34.3% in 2022, 33.3% career).

Since Opening Day 2021, Santana has gone from the Dodgers to the Rangers (by way of a small trade), to the Braves (in exchange for cash), to the Twins (via waivers) and now to the Mets. This latest claim certainly doesn’t mean he’s a lock to win a bullpen spot with the Mets over the next two weeks, although the injuries to Edwin Diaz and Sam Coonrod have thinned out the Mets’ relief corps and opened up some competition.

Santana will join a group of candidates including righties Jeff Brigham and Stephen Ridings — both on the 40-man roster — as well as non-roster veterans like Tommy Hunter, T.J. McFarland and Jimmy Yacabonis. If he doesn’t win a spot, the Mets could attempt to pass him through waivers to retain him as organizational depth, just as both the Twins and Braves have unsuccessfully attempted to do this spring It wouldn’t at all be surprising to see GM Billy Eppler add further pieces from outside the organization. The Mets are known to have scouted Zack Britton as recently as yesterday — their third time watching him throw since the calendar flipped to 2023.

As for the Twins, Santana’s departure could re-open the door for hard-throwing righty Trevor Megill — the brother of Mets righty Tylor Megill — to make the Opening Day roster. It’s also possible that a non-roster player like Jeff Hoffman, Danny Coulombe or Jose De Leon could take that spot. Additionally, Minnesota has at least mulled the possibility of a six-man rotation, and there’s now an open roster spot that could be allocated to towering righty Bailey Ober, who looks like the sixth starter behind the projected front five of Pablo Lopez, Sonny Gray, Joe Ryan, Tyler Mahle and Kenta Maeda.

Edwin Diaz Undergoes Surgery To Repair Patellar Tendon

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Mets closer Edwin Diaz underwent successful surgery to repair the patellar tendon in his right knee this afternoon, the team announced. The general timeline for recovery is around eight months, although in certain cases it’s possible to return in closer to six months. The team is not providing a specific timeline for Diaz’s return for the time being. He and doctors will formulate a rehab program next week. SNY’s Andy Martino first tweeted that Diaz was dealing with an injury to his patellar tendon.

Diaz closed out Wednesday’s World Baseball Classic quarterfinal matchup pitting his native Puerto Rico against the Dominican Republic with a scoreless frame. He was injured during the subsequent celebration. Diaz was helped to his feet by teammates and trainers before eventually being placed in a wheelchair and taken off the field.

It’s a devastating loss for the Mets and the worst fear of any team allowing a star player to participate in the World Baseball Classic. Diaz was baseball’s most dominant reliever in 2022, punching out a comical 50.2% of his opponents en route to a 1.31 ERA and 32 saves. It was his second sub-2.00 ERA of the past three seasons — the first came in just 25 2/3 frames during the shortened 2020 campaign — and a strong enough showing to convince the Mets to re-sign the 28-year-old fireballer on a record-setting five-year, $102MM deal just one day after the 2022 World Series concluded.

With Diaz sidelined for what could be the entire season, the Mets’ bullpen will instead lean on veterans like David Robertson and Adam Ottavino in the late innings. New York was already set to experience a good bit of turnover after seeing Seth Lugo, Trevor May, Mychal Givens, Joely Rodriguez and Trevor Williams depart as free agents. None from that bunch, of course, is as impactful a loss as that of Diaz. His absence will place a strain on the relief corps as a whole and perhaps spur the Mets to explore the market to bring in some bullpen help from outside the organization.

The free-agent market has been largely picked over, though former All-Star Zack Britton remains unsigned and the Mets (perhaps not coincidentally) attended a workout he held for teams earlier today, per Mike Puma of the New York Post. There aren’t any impact relievers known to be available via trade at the moment, though the Mets could always try to pry a high-end reliever away from a rebuilding club like the Pirates (David Bednar) or Royals (Scott Barlow). More likely, the Mets will ride veteran arms like Robertson and Ottavino through the season’s early stages and revisit the market for bullpen additions this summer, when the supply of available arms will be considerably larger.

From a payroll vantage point, it’s worth emphasizing that players who participate in the World Baseball Classic are covered under an insurance policy regardless of the severity of their injury, as Jorge Castillo of the L.A. Times reported back in February. Insurance, or lack thereof, is the reason that Clayton Kershaw did not participate in this year’s tournament, as his injury history was deemed too high-risk to be covered under the umbrella policy. Kershaw looked into taking out a personal insurance policy but ultimately announced that he would not be a part of Team USA.

The insurance coverage is a silver lining for the Mets, but given owner Steve Cohen’s apparently limitless appetite for spending, likely only a small one. The broader concern is the subtraction of one of baseball’s most talented pitchers from a roster that’s expected to vie for a title in one of baseball’s most competitive divisions. The Mets are joined by the 2021 World Series champion Braves and 2022 NL champion Phillies in the National League East, and they’ll now be without both Diaz and lefty Jose Quintana (out until at least July) for significant periods of time — quite likely the whole season for Diaz — as they look to capture their first division crown since 2015.

Zack Britton Throwing For Teams Again

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Free-agent lefty Zack Britton is hosting yet another workout for teams seeking bullpen help, as first reported by Mike Puma of the New York Post (via Twitter). The Mets will be in attendance, he adds. They’ll be joined by around seven other clubs, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic adds.

It’s at least the third time that Britton has auditioned for clubs this offseason. He held a broad-reaching showcase back in January and a narrower workout for six teams almost one month ago to the day. That session — reportedly attended by the Mets, Angels, Cubs, Giants, Rangers and Dodgers — either didn’t produce the big league offer Britton is said to be seeking or didn’t produce one that he found to his liking.

The Mets’ interest in Britton will take center stage, given Edwin Diaz’s likely season-ending knee surgery and the fact that Britton, not long ago, was considered to be perhaps baseball’s best reliever — just as Diaz is now. Previously, the Mets had been focused on bullpen help that had minor league options, not wanting to limit the flexibility of their relief corps with another veteran addition. Diaz’s inevitable shift to the 60-day injured list could perhaps change that calculus.

Of course, it can’t emphasized enough that it’s been several years since Britton was in peak form. The now-35-year-old lefty had his elbow scoped in March 2021, which cost him the first two months of that season. He returned in June but quickly went down with a hamstring strain that sidelined him another few weeks. The return from that balky hamstring proved similarly short-lived, as an elbow strain again sent him to the injured list.

In Sept. 2021, Britton underwent surgery to address that second elbow issue. The hope was that, like the arthroscopic procedure in March, removing some bone spurs would alleviate the issue. Instead, surgeons determined that Britton’s ulnar collateral ligament had suffered enough damage that a Tommy John surgery was required. He missed almost all of the 2022 season but did make an improbable late-September return. However, that amounted to just three games, during which time Britton walked six of nine batters faced before going back to the injured list yet again. He averaged 92.8 mph on his fastball in that time — nowhere close to the 94.9 mph he averaged during his last healthy season in 2020 (and even further from the 96.9 mph on his sinker at its peak).

From 2014-20, Britton notched a superhuman 1.84 ERA in 367 1/3 frames. He punched out 24% of his opponents against a 9.2% walk rate in that time, and Britton’s 76.2% ground-ball rate over that period cemented him as the best ground-ball pitcher since 2002, when batted-ball data of that nature began being carefully tracked. Britton posted a laughable 80% ground-ball rate in 2016 and was at 79.1% in 2015 and 77.2% in 2019 — the three highest single-season marks ever posted by a qualified pitcher.

It stands to reason that the group of clubs watching Britton throw this time around will be different in composition. Beyond the fact that there are as many as eight teams turning up this time, each of the Angels (Matt Moore), Rangers (Will Smith) and Cubs (Michael Fulmer) have all signed relievers since that time. The Cubs were still open to adding a lefty even after signing Fulmer, so they could remain in play for Britton, but both Anaheim and Texas are less clear fits following their deals with Moore and Smith.

With just two weeks until Opening Day, it’s unlikely that Britton could sign with a team and be ready to pitch by the time the season gets underway. The extent to which he’s built up isn’t known, but given that this is his third workout for teams since January, he’s clearly been on a throwing program for some time now. Even if he’s not ready come March 30, it’s feasible that he could join a big league bullpen at some point in April, health permitting.

Edwin Diaz Helped Off Field With Right Knee Injury

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Star reliever Edwin Díaz was carted off the field after tonight’s World Baseball Classic contest. The Mets closer threw a perfect inning to save Puerto Rico’s 5-2 win over the Dominican Republic and injured his right knee while the team celebrated its victory on the mound (video provided by Fox Sports MLB). The Mets announced he’s going for further imaging on Thursday.

Díaz was helped off the field by trainers without putting weight on his right leg. He was helped into a wheelchair and taken off the field in a surreal scene, one which turned from jubilation for the Puerto Rican players and fanbase into dismay. Players from both teams were visibly distraught by the injury, with Díaz’s younger brother Alexis Díaz breaking down in tears as Edwin was taken off the field.

Obviously, it’s far too soon to know the extent of the injury. Marly Rivera of ESPN tweets that Díaz was evaluated at the stadium by an on-site orthopedic specialist. Andy Martino of SNY tweets that he also went in for x-rays on Wednesday night.

Needless to say, a serious injury to Díaz would be a massive blow for the Mets. The 28-year-old righty is the sport’s best reliever. He’s coming off one of the greatest relief seasons in recent memory, throwing 62 innings of 1.31 ERA ball while striking out more than half his opponents. The Mets retained him this offseason on a five-year, $102MM contract days before the start of free agency. That marked the largest commitment to a relief pitcher in MLB history.

Read The Transcript Of Our Chat Hosted By Former Mets And Orioles GM Jim Duquette

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Jim Duquette played baseball at Williams College in the 80s.  In the early 90s, he began working for the Mets, a long tenure outside of a one-year stint as Astros director of development.

With the Mets, Duquette rose through the ranks to become the team’s GM in 2003.  He first landed the position when the Mets fired incumbent Steve Phillips that summer.  As interim GM, Duquette’s moves included trading veterans Roberto Alomar, Jeromy Burnitz, Armando Benitez, Graeme Lloyd, and Rey Sanchez.

Mets owner Fred Wilpon removed the interim tag from Duquette’s title after the season, and he became the third-youngest GM in the game.  Coming off a 66-95 season, Duquette said, “This really is my dream job. I’m going to give it everything I can to improve the team, not only for the organization and our players, but for our fans. I’m confident we’re going to turn it around and we’re going to do it quickly.”

Duquette’s 2003-04 offseason free agent acquisitions included Kaz Matsui, Braden Looper, John Franco, Todd Zeile, and Mike Cameron.  Duquette was active at the July trade deadline in ’04, moving Scott Kazmir in a deal for Victor Zambrano.  He also acquired Kris Benson and Jeff Keppinger in a deal with the Pirates.

The ’04 Mets didn’t do much better, however, and Wilpon brought in Omar Minaya to head up baseball operations toward the end of the season.  After a year working under Minaya, Duquette moved to the Orioles to become vice president for baseball operations under Mike Flanagan.  Key club acquisitions during Duquette’s two years in that position included Corey Patterson, Jeff Conine, Kevin Millar, Kris Benson, Jay Payton, Aubrey Huff, and Jeremy Guthrie.

After 17 years in MLB front offices, Duquette began a career as a member of the baseball media.  He’s written for MLB.com and The Athletic, served as an analyst for Mets games, and had a long-running show on SiriusXM Radio.  You may also know Jim’s cousin, Dan, who served as GM of the Expos, Red Sox, and Orioles.

I asked Jim to join us for a live chat, and he agreed!  Click here to read the transcript.

If you’re a former MLB GM, we’d love to have you come on for a chat!  Click here to contact us.

Sam Coonrod Diagnosed With High-Grade Lat Strain

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The Mets announced to reporters, including Tim Healey of Newsday, that reliever Sam Coonrod has a high-grade strain of his right lat. The club has yet to provide a timeline but even mild lat strains usually lead to weeks-long absences.

For Coonrod, 30, it’s a concerning and frustrating development as its two years in a row now with a similar beginning. He also dealt with a shoulder strain in March of last year while with the Phillies and didn’t return to a big league mound until August. He ended up posting a 7.82 ERA in 12 appearances down the stretch and got designated for assignment in January.

The Mets decided to take a flier and grabbed Coonrod off waivers. Though his 2022 campaign was frustrating, he was solid the year before, posting a 4.04 ERA over 42 appearances. He struck out 25.9% of batters faced in that time, walked 8.1% and got grounders at a 57.1% clip. The club was surely hoping that improved health could get the right-hander back to a performance like that and he looked to be on a good trajectory this spring. He tossed five scoreless innings, striking out seven batters while allowing just a single walk and two hits.

Unfortunately, that progress will now be put on hold for what could be a significant amount of time. The club will surely provide more updates eventually, but the MLB website features a guideline on lat strains, highlighting that a Grade 1 strain usually requires an absence of a few weeks, Grade 2 at least a month and Grade 3 even longer, perhaps requiring surgery. Once more information is revealed, there will be a clearer picture of what lies ahead, but it should be a meaningful time on the shelf either way.

The Mets weren’t relying on Coonrod to be a key piece of their bullpen, but they have tried to save a few spots for optionable arms. With Edwin Díaz, Adam Ottavino, David Robertson, Brooks Raley and Drew Smith likely having five jobs spoken for, there was potentially three spots available to be used by various relievers on a rotation basis. Since Coonrod has one option year remaining, he was going to be in that mix alongside guys like John Curtiss, Elieser Hernández, Jeff Brigham and Stephen Ridings. As long as Coonrod is out, it could open up more time for those guys or a non-roster invitee like T.J. McFarland, Tommy Hunter or Jimmy Yacabonis.

Offseason In Review: New York Mets

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The Mets had a huge number of players departing via free agency, but owner Steve Cohen signed off on new heights of spending to replenish the roster. In some cases, familiar faces were brought back, but there are also some intriguing new additions. The payroll almost went even higher, as the Mets took center stage in the middle chapter of the Carlos Correa saga. Even though that mega deal ultimately fell through, the Mets still shot way past previous spending records and the highest luxury tax bracket in their aim of putting together another competitive team for 2023.

Major League Signings

2022 spending: $144.5MM
Total spending: $498.17MM

Option Decisions

Trades And Claims

Extensions

Notable Minor League Signings

Notable Losses

The Mets had a very strong season in 2022, winning 101 games, their second-highest tally in franchise history. However, it ended with a few sour notes. Though the Mets were leading the National League East for most of the year, a scorching-hot Atlanta club blasted past them in the final days of the season to capture the division title and secure a bye through the Wild Card round. That left the Mets to face off against the Padres in a three-game series that they eventually lost.

In the aftermath of that tough finish, the Mets were looking at a challenging offseason scenario, with a great number of impending departures. Brandon Nimmo was the most notable position player heading into free agency, but he was potentially going to be joined by a huge chunk of the pitching staff. Jacob deGrom opted out of his contract, while Chris Bassitt and Taijuan Walker each declined options. The club decided to trigger their option over Carlos Carrasco to prevent a fourth departure. In the bullpen, Edwin Díaz, Adam Ottavino, Trevor Williams, Joely Rodriguez, Mychal Givens, Seth Lugo, Trevor May and Tommy Hunter were all headed out the door. That left general manager Billy Eppler a huge to-do list, but owner Steve Cohen greenlit unprecedented spending in order to get things back in order.

First up was Díaz, who was already one of the most-feared relievers in MLB before taking his game to new heights in 2022. He posted a 1.31 ERA over 61 appearances with a ridiculous 50.2% strikeout rate. Based on that monster campaign, the Mets wasted little time in bringing him back aboard. The day after the World Series ended, the Mets and Díaz were already in agreement on a five-year, $102MM deal, a record-setting guarantee for a relief pitcher in terms of both annual value and total guarantee.

There would still be more work to do in the bullpen, but the switched to the rotation following the Díaz deal. In a span of less than two weeks in early December, deGrom signed with the Rangers, Walker with the Phillies and Bassitt with the Blue Jays. The Mets effectively replaced them by signing free agents Justin Verlander, Kodai Senga and José Quintana.

The deGrom and Verlander moves amount to a swap of aces, though they come at different point in their careers. deGrom will turn 35 in June but has been limited by injuries over the past two years. Nonetheless, he secured a five-year deal from the Rangers. Verlander, on the other hand, is now 40. He essentially missed the entire 2020-2021 seasons, making just a single start in the former season before Tommy John put him on the shelf. Incredibly, he returned to the mound in 2022 and made 28 starts with a 1.75 ERA, earning a Cy Young Award in the process. He tied Scherzer’s record-setting average annual value from the Mets, but on just a two-year guarantee.

Overall, this flutter of moves left the Mets with a strong on-paper rotation, but one with lots of risk. Senga has been an excellent starter in Japan, with a career ERA of 2.42 in NPB and a 1.94 figure last year. However, the move over the Pacific doesn’t always go according to plan, making Senga less than a sure thing. Quintana is coming off a great 2022 campaign but had a real rough showing in the two prior seasons.

There’s also the general looming risk of pitcher injuries to consider, which is present for every team but will be particularly notable with this group. Of the projected starting five, Senga is the only one who’s under 34 years old. Though Senga is just 30, he will be making the transition from Japan where pitchers usually take the ball once a week, to the five-day rotation preferred in North America. It’s virtually impossible for any five-man rotation to stay 100% healthy for an entire season, and this club’s relatively older group might need some extra focus on this department.

It looks like they might have to lean on their depth right out of the gate, as Quintana is set to undergo bone graft surgery to address a benign lesion on his rib and will be out until at least July. Fortunately, the Mets have a solid group of depth starters like David Peterson, Tylor Megill and Joey Lucchesi. They also acquired Elieser Hernández from the Marlins this winter, giving them another option.

In the midst of all that rotation shuffle, the club also took the Díaz approach to Brandon Nimmo, outbidding the field to keep him in the fold. There’s certainly risk in giving an eight-year deal to a player who has long had the injury-prone label, but he’s avoided lengthy absences in the past few years and he was easily the best center fielder available. High-risk options like Cody Bellinger and Kevin Kiermaier were the primary free-agent alternatives, and the trade market lacked options. The Mets clearly preferred to just stick with Nimmo and put down $162MM to prevent him from getting away.

There was one other outfield addition to come later, with Tommy Pham being brought in. He’s long been a strong option against left-handed pitchers and could perhaps take over that specialist role that Darin Ruf was supposed to fill last year. With left-handed hitting Daniel Vogelbach seemingly lined up to be the primary designated hitter, Pham could take the small half of a platoon there, while also occasionally giving the regular outfielders time off on occasion.

The club also decided it was time to move on from the James McCann experiment. He parlayed two good years with the White Sox, one of which was the shortened 2020 season, into a four-year deal with the Mets. But the first two years in Queens were quite dismal and it was decided to make a switch. The Mets signed Omar Narváez and traded McCann to the Orioles, eating most of his contract in the process. That’s a defensible move from a pure baseball perspective, but it’s an expensive one. The Mets will essentially have both catchers on the books and will be paying significant taxes on each, given where their payroll eventually ended up.

Circling back to the bullpen, bringing Díaz back was an impactful move, but there was still much more to do. The club would eventually re-sign Ottavino, in addition to adding David Robertson via free agency. Trades also brought aboard Brooks Raley and Jeff Brigham, while Sam Coonrod and Stephen Ridings were claimed off waivers and Zach Greene was selected in the Rule 5 (though he’s since been returned to the Yankees). There will also be a pseudo new addition in John Curtiss, who was signed a year ago but missed all of 2022 recovery from Tommy John surgery.

As mentioned, all of these moves shot the payroll up to incredible new heights, but it almost went even higher due to the unprecedented Carlos Correa free agency. Correa seemed destined to be a Giant for a time, as he and the club agreed to a 13-year, $350MM deal in December. However, the club raised concerns about something in his physical, later revealed to be his right ankle. The Mets swooped in and agreed to bring Correa aboard for $315MM over 12 years, slightly less than his first agreement. The club already had a shortstop in Francisco Lindor but was planning to install Correa at third, displacing Eduardo Escobar. Correa’s agent Scott Boras reportedly contacted Cohen directly as the latter was vacationing in Hawaii, with Cohen both greenlighting the agreement and discussing it publicly with the media. “I felt like our pitching was in good shape,” Cohen said at the time. “We needed one more hitter. This puts us over the top.”

The holiday slow-down period arrived without the deal becoming official and reports started to emerge that the Mets had similar concerns to the Giants. In a stunning twist, the Mets and Correa’s camp couldn’t get the deal over the finish line and he eventually signed with the Twins on a much smaller $200MM guarantee. The six-year deal with Minnesota is just half the length of his agreement with the Mets, though there are four vesting options that could potentially take the contract to the ten-year mark.

With that deal falling through, the Mets will go into 2023 with a position player mix that’s fairly similar to last year’s club. Pham is a new addition but Dominic Smith is out after being non-tendered. Narváez will swap in for McCann behind the plate and Danny Mendick will be in the mix for a reserve infield role.

The pitching staff has seen much more turnover, but the outlook doesn’t appear to be drastically different. With Max Scherzer still around, the club can still deploy a strong one-two punch at the top of the rotation, with Verlander slotting into deGrom’s place. Carrasco is back and hanging onto a spot, and Senga will replace one of Bassitt or Walker. A healthy Quintana could eventually offset the loss of the other, but the Mets will test their depth early in the season. Peterson and Megill are both solid options who’d likely have rotation jobs elsewhere, and either could capably hold down a spot while Quintana mends. The bullpen ended up retaining Díaz and Ottavino, while players like Robertson and Raley will try to make up for the departures of Lugo, May, Rodriguez and others.

It can be debated about whether the 2023 roster is stronger or weaker than the 2022 version, but it seems to be in roughly the same area. The Mets are still good and should be in competition with Atlanta and Philly for the division yet again — but keeping pace with those clubs wasn’t cheap. Even without Correa on the books, Roster Resource pegs the Mets for a pure payroll of $355MM and a competitive balance tax figure of $374MM. Both of those numbers are well beyond anything in baseball history.

Since the Mets paid the luxury tax in 2022, they will be a second-time payor in 2023. The new collective bargaining agreement significantly pushed the tax thresholds but also added a fourth tier, colloquially dubbed the “Steve Cohen tax,” as it has been seen by many as an attempt to rein in baseball’s richest owner. However, it doesn’t seem to have been terribly effective, given that the Mets have blown past that $293MM tier. As a second time payor, the Mets’ taxation tiers at the four different thresholds are 30%, 42%, 75% and 90%. The CBT isn’t calculated until the end of the season, so midseason moves will change the calculus, but the club is currently facing a tax bill of about $102MM on top of that $355MM payroll. They will also certainly have their top 2024 draft pick pushed back ten slots, as is the case for any clubs going over the third CBT tier.

This staggering commitment to winning is surely welcomed by segments of the fanbase, especially those who were so critical of the Wilpon family for not acting like a big market club during their tenure as owners prior to selling to Cohen. But not everyone around the majors is as enthused, with some of the league’s less-spendthrift owners recently forming an economic reform committee. The goal of this huddle seems to be some early game-planning for the next CBA, with some desiring a hard salary cap that would more adequately handcuff Cohen. That might be difficult to achieve with the MLBPA understandably having no real desire to allow such a cap to come into being, but it’s clear that Cohen’s imprint on the game is going to have reverberations. The current CBA lasts through the 2026 season, so it’s not a short-term concern, but it seems this offseason from the Mets has contributed to a future collision course.

How would you grade the Mets’ offseason? (Link to poll)

In conjunction with the Mets’ offseason review, we hosted a Mets-focused chat on March 15. You can click here to read the transcript.

José Quintana Out Until At Least July Due To Rib Surgery

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March 14: Eppler today provided reporters with more information, including Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. Quintana will undergo bone graft surgery on his rib and isn’t expected back until July at the earliest.

March 13, 3:15 pm: General manager Billy Eppler tells reporters, including Tim Britton of The Athletic, that the report of the three-month shutdown is “premature.” They are still talking to doctors about next steps.

1:30 pm: The Mets are planning to shut down starter José Quintana for the next three months, reports Mike Puma of The New York Post. The left-hander had recently been diagnosed with a stress fracture in one of his ribs and was sent for more imaging. It seems the injury is significant enough that he will miss roughly the first half of the season. However, Andy Martino of SNY has a slightly different viewpoint, reporting that the club is still considering different scenarios and will decide what to do in the next few days, with the three-month shutdown being one of the options being considered.

Quintana, 34, has long been a steady and reliable big league starter, primarily with the two Chicago clubs. From 2012 to 2019, he tossed 1,485 innings between the Cubs and White Sox with a 3.72 ERA. Outside of his rookie season in 2012, he made at least 31 starts and reached the 170-inning mark in each of those campaigns. That was followed by a couple of frustrating seasons, with a thumb injury holding him back in 2020 and the lefty struggling to get back on track in 2021. However, he finally got back into a good groove last year, tossing 165 2/3 innings between the Pirates and Cardinals with a 2.93 ERA, 20.2% strikeout rate, 6.9% walk rate and 46.4% ground ball rate.

The Mets were facing a great deal of rotation uncertainty this winter, with Jacob deGrom opting out of his contract while Chris Bassitt and Taijuan Walker each declined options. With all three of those hurlers reaching free agency and eventually signing elsewhere, the Mets spent aggressively to rebuild their rotation around incumbents Max Scherzer and Carlos Carrasco. They gave Justin Verlander an $86.67MM guarantee, $75MM to Kodai Senga and $26MM to Quintana, the latter on a two-year deal.

That gave the Mets a strong on-paper rotation but one with risk. Four of those five starters are over 34 years of age, while the 30-year-old Senga is going to be transitioning from a once-a-week throwing schedule in Japan to the five-day cycle of North American ball. We’re still not through spring and the Mets are already going to be turning to their depth options with Quintana set to miss significant time. Whether Quintana is ultimately shut down for three months or not, he’s likely facing an extended absence either way. Assuming Quintana is back to health in three months as planned, he will return to the mound in June. But he will then have to effectively redo his Spring Training, taking a few weeks to build back up to a starter’s workload, meaning the Mets will possibly have to look to other options until July or so.

Fortunately, the Mets have some solid depth options to turn to, such as David Peterson or Tylor Megill. The left-handed Peterson made 19 starts and nine relief appearances last year, posting a 3.83 ERA while striking out 27.8% of batters faced, walking 10.6% of them and getting grounders at a 49.4% clip. However, Puma reports that the club appears to be leaning towards Megill taking the rotation spot at this time. His 5.13 ERA from last year isn’t terribly impressive at first glance, but it’s possible that injuries played a role in that. As the Mets were dealing with injuries to start last year, they gave Megill a rotation spot and he posted a 1.93 ERA over five April starts. However, he allowed three earned runs in his next start and eight in the one after that, lasting just an inning and a third in the latter. He went on the injured list for biceps inflammation after that, came back for a couple more rough outings and went back on the IL for a shoulder strain.

Regardless of whoever ultimately gets the job, the Mets are now moving down their depth chart with this Quintana injury. It’s extremely rare for any team to get through a season without an injury like this, so the Mets surely anticipated having to call upon Peterson or Megill at some point. Still, it’s always unwelcome news when it actually comes into play. The club is set for what should be another tight divisional race this year, likely jockeying for position with Atlanta and Philadelphia for the top spot in the NL East, with the Mets already facing a significant hurdle in their path.

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