The Mets had an active week this week, though, with the planned date for pitchers and catchers reporting less than a month away, it doesn’t look like we’ll get any movement with players at the major-league level any time soon.
Welcome Back, Glenn Sherlock
Jon Heyman reported late Saturday night that Glenn Sherlock, who was the Mets’ catching instructor and third-base coach from 2017 to 2019, would come back to the team as its bench coach.
He was in the Pirates dugout under Derek Shelton for the last two seasons.
Sherlock also worked with Showalter when Buck was managing the Yankees and Diamondbacks. He remained with Arizona from when Showalter brought him into the organization in 1998 all the way until he left in 2017 to join the Mets.
Mets Sign Over 20 IFAs
The most action on the player front this week happened in the international free agent pool.
The signing window for said market opened up at 9 a.m. Saturday, and the Mets were able to officially sign a total of 21 players whom they’ve been connected to for as long as two years. These players include:
- OF Simón Juan ($1.9 million signing bonus, 14th ranked international prospect by Baseball America)
- OF Jeffry Rosa ($100,000)
- OF Willy Fañas ($1.5 million)
- LHP Dangelo Sarmiento
- SS Jesus Baez
Juan and Fañas got two of the six largest international signing bonuses by the Mets ever. Juan has gotten comparisons to Byron Buxton and George Springer, as MMO‘s Mike Mayer points out.
You can view the full list of names here.
Hernandez Gets His Respect
The Mets announced Keith Hernandez would get his No. 17 retired by the club in a ceremony during the 2022 season at the beginning of the week.
Hernandez, who described the honor as “something he never dreamed of” after Steve Cohen told him they were retiring his number, played with the Mets for six-and-a-half seasons and was the unquestioned leader of the team’s 1986 World Series win. His acquisition from the Cardinals, who inducted him into their Hall of Fame, kickstarted the Mets’ ascension from the depths of the National League, peaking in 1986.
Some writers at MMO participated in a roundtable talking about which players’ numbers the Mets should be retired next. Those discussed include David Wright, Dwight Gooden and Gary Carter.
CBA Update
There were discussions this week! However, it doesn’t seem the discussions were all that productive.
The owners proposed their side of a core economics plan, which included incentives for teams calling up top prospects who eventually play well and an increase in salary for players with two years or more of services time, but the players were reportedly “unimpressed.” It’s no surprise, as there was virtually no chance MLB owners were going to offer anything fair more than 40 days after they instituted a lockout. Owners likely won’t start conceding until there’s the threat of regular-season games getting canceled.
There’s no report on when the MLB Players Association will respond with a counter-proposal, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see the MLBPA not budge far from their demands with that offer. The two sides show no signs of budging from the holding pattern.
What’s Next
The Mets still have a couple of coaching spots to fill (assistant hitting coach, bullpen coach, potentially a quality control coach), but after that, much of what comes next will rely on the collective bargaining negotiations to come to a close. But, as we just discussed, that probably won’t come into well into February at this rate. Buckle up, folks.
