The Miami Marlins and free-agent closer Heath Bell have agreed on a three-year, $27 million dollar contract, pending a physical according to ESPN.com. A league source said the three-year deal will guarantee Bell $9 million annually and includes a vesting option for a fourth year. Bell is one of the top closers available this offseason and the 34-year-old right-hander is coming off a 43-save season with the Padres making him the only closer in baseball who has saved 40-plus games in [...]

The New York Mets today announced the following promotions and additions to the club’s amateur and professional scouting departments: The Mets have hired general manager Sandy Alderson’s son, Bryn Alderson, as a professional scout, the team announced Thursday in a round of hirings and promotions. Bryn Alderson, 30, spent the last five years as a pro scout in his father’s original organization, the Oakland A’s. Prior to that, he was an intern under A’s general [...]

Sandy Alderson just finished a very short conference call with reporters. Adam Rubin was gracious enough to fill is un via Twitter. I’ll be on my own conference call with Alderson later on with other Mets bloggers. Follow Adam on Twitter at @AdamRubinESPN As I mentioned in a comment earlier, I had my doubts about that Reyes offer being bandied about by Jon Heyman. It would go against what Alderson specifically told us last month [...]

According to Josh Kosman & Kaja Whitehouse of the NY Post, the Mets are seeking at least a four-month extension to pay back the $25 million emergency loan they got last year from Major League Baseball, while they work on closing the sales of minority stakes in the franchise. “An extension has been discussed with the Commissioner and after some dancing, it should be approved,” a source following the situation said, adding that baseball commissioner [...]

More news on the Reyes front In case you missed it yesterday, Jose Reyes was apparently flying to Miami today after eating a cheese steak in Philly on Tuesday, but that was debunked 20 minutes later… Compelling stuff… According to Jon Heyman of SI.com, the Mets are prepared to offer Jose Reyes “Carl Crawford” err “Jason Bay” money. He says the Mets would do a five-year deal with Reyes for $80 million dollars. Yeah, that’ll get [...]

Sandy Alderson, J.P. Ricciardi, John Ricco and Paul DePodesta were all on hand to host a Hot Stove Talk with Season Ticket holders on Wednesday at Citi Field. The Mets tweeted many of the responses which I thought was very cool of them and a few of them shed some light on a lot of things on the minds of Mets fans these days. All General Managers tell their fan bases that they are committed [...]

According to Jon Heyman of SI.com, catcher Jorge Posada, formerly of the Yankees, contacted the Mets who told him they were not interested because they’re looking for a defensive back-up. As we’ve all talked about a lot on this site this past season. Ronny Paulino was a big fail in that regard and may I remind everyone that there was plenty of dope out there on Paulino long before we signed him. Not to mention a steroids suspension [...]

The Mets first signed Juan Lagares out of the Dominican Republic as an IFA in 2006, just two months after his 17th birthday. At the time Lagares was a highly regarded hitter who also happened to be a shortstop. He spent that first professional summer learning the basics in the Dominican Summer League. The smart move for 2007 would have been to start Lagares out in rookie ball, since he was only 18. But the [...]