Ed Delany, MMO
After a month of February where just about nothing happened on the baseball front, there was finally movement at spring training complexes around baseball. Sadly, that movement didn’t come from major-league players as players on teams 40-man rosters are still locked out by MLB owners. Once MLB players, hit camp, it’ll no longer be the offseason, and we’ll stop doing these! But for now…
Mets Studs Arrive in St. Lucie
Francisco Álvarez, Brett Baty, Matthew Allan and other Mets prospects arrived to Port St. Lucie this week at the start of minor league spring training. (Prospects like Ronny Mauricio and Mark Vientos can’t appear at camp until the owners lift the lockout because they are on the major-league 40-man roster.)
Álvarez struck the right chord to start the week, saying his goal was to make it to the major leagues this year. He ended the 2021 season–which he played at age 19–with High-A Brooklyn. Setting that lofty of a goal isn’t a bad trait for the young catching prospect to have, but he in all likelihood will spend the year in Double-A and, if he crushes it in Binghamton, Triple-A. His bat isn’t what needs development–it’s making sure he has the full grasp of calling a game from behind the plate.
However, Keith Law on the latest Get Metsmerized podcast mentioned he could see a scenario where he’s a late September callup if his bat is screaming that it’s ready.
Allan, on the other hand, revealed he had another surgery in January to fix a nerve issue in his right elbow, which he got Tommy John surgery on in May. The surgery–an ulnar nerve transposition–apparently is routine for pitchers at some point after they get Tommy John, but this practically ensures he won’t pitch in bulk in 2022. Allan said he’s going to play catch the next couple weeks and work his way back up from there.
As Does Buck Showalter & Staff
Buck Showalter has been buzzing around the Mets’ St. Lucie complex in a golf cart, and he stopped by a media scrum to talk about how he can prepare for the season at spring training without any major league players.
“We’re trying to use our time wisely where it’s a moving target,” Showalter said. “Hopefully, we get a phone call, and we got ready for the moment the players walk through the door. I think the teams that are ready to go when they walk through the door will be ahead of the game, because it’s not if, it’s when and you got to be ready.”
Showalter also said he expects David Wright to come through PSL at some point as a special instructor.
Eric Chavez made his first comments as hitting coach, as well, highlighting that he wants to “simplify things” for some of the players on the team.“We don’t have magic sauce, but we’re going to use as much information as we can and hopefully, players will get what they need to go out there and perform at their best.”
Once they’re at the plate, though, Chavez said, “We want their athletic ability to take over,” and for them not to be overtaken by information received before the game. We’ll see over the season how Chavez handles that balancing act with individual players.
CBA Update
After two months of large gaps between each offer from MLB and the MLBPA, the two sides will start meeting daily for discussions starting as early as Monday.
Once the MLBPA declined MLB’s offer to have a mediator assist the negotiations earlier in the month (the MLBPA said that would just prolong the process and not help when MLB hasn’t been negotiating in good faith), the two sides each got off a handful of proposals that didn’t really go anywhere. The MLBPA is still holding its ground in that the players need a more fair economic share of baseball’s revenue, and MLB hasn’t really budged off its numbers from the previous collective bargaining agreement.
Then, MLB said spring training games wouldn’t start until “at least” March 5–a week after originally scheduled–and that they’d finally come to the bargaining table more frequently.
What’s Next?
Meeting more frequently doesn’t mean a deal is done next week, but it certainly feels better than a week coming between each proposal on the core economics of the game. Look for daily updates from the likes of Evan Drellich, Jeff Passan and Chelsea Janes on CBA talks.
On the actual gameplay side of things? It’ll be a good time to put eyes on the Mets’ minor league players, as they’re the ones with the cameras on them until the MLB players can show up. (You can get familiar with the depths of the team’s minors with Mike Mayer’s prospect rankings and profiles.
