David Stearns

Good morning, Mets fans!

While Mets president Sandy Alderson expressed disappointment this week with the club’s inability to hire a president of baseball operations in 2021, news on Thursday gave Mets fans a little more hope. The news was that a big name baseball executive may still be in the mix for the job, though his hiring may have to wait.

One of the names linked to the job since the beginning was Milwaukee Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns. According to reports, the Mets are open to leaving that position open and hiring Stearns in 2022. Stearns says he is happily employed with the Brewers, though the Mets are hopeful the the New York native is still an option as long as that position remains open. It is not clear though, how long he is tied contractually with the Brewers, and the organization denied the Mets permission to interview him in 2020 and 2021.

Latest Mets News

While the hiring of the Mets front office personnel has been slow, the team has greatly expanded their analytic department. The team is now at 26 employees in that department, significantly up from where they were a year ago and even higher than under the previous ownership group.

One of the names that is rumored that the Mets have been interested in hiring for their front office has been former Washington Nationals Director of Baseball Research and Development, Sam Mondry-Cohen. The Athletic’s Eno Sarris listed Mondry-Cohen as an option in his piece examining who may be the next generation’s general managers in baseball.

Latest MLB News

MLB’s Silver Slugger awards were announced on Thursday with nine players, one for each position being awarded that position’s best hitter.

Here are the nine hitters to receive the award in the National League: 1B Freddie Freeman, 2B Ozzie Albies, 3B Austin Riley, SS Fernando Tatis Jr. OF Juan Soto, OF Nick Castellanos, OF Bryce Harper, C Buster Posey, P Max Fried.

For the American League the award winners were: 1B Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 2B Marcus Semien, 3B Rafael Devers, SS Xander Bogaerts, OF Cedric Mullins, OF Aaron Judge, OF Teoscar Hernandez, C Salvador Perez, DH Shohei Ohtani.

The Kansas City Royals announced that long time scout Art Stewart has passed away. Stewart was 94 years old at the time of his passing and just completed his 52nd year working for the organization. He is credited with more than 70 players he scouted that reached the big leagues.

Ken Rosenthal and Even Drellich of The Athletic report that in place of salary arbitration Major League Baseball (MLB) proposed players being paid via Fangraphs calculations of WAR during their meeting with the Major League Baseball Players Associations on Wednesday. Full details of the proposal were not released but it is expected that this part of the proposal would be rejected by the players.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan is reporting that the Philadelphia Phillies are hiring former Rays front office personnel, Anirudh Kilambi as the team’s Assistant General Manager. Kilambi is 27 years old and was the assistant director of research and development for the Rays during the 2021 season.

Tim Healey of Newsday posted that former Blue Jays and Mets pitcher Steven Matz has generated a lot of interest on the free agent market. The left-hander was at the GM meetings this past week. Healey mentioned the Red Sox, Angels, Dodgers and Cardinals as all being interested in the Stony Brook, New York native.

Pirates outfielder and 2021 All-Star Bryan Reynolds is drawing some trade interest, according to MLB Network’s Jon Morosi. Morosi says the team feels no pressure to move him but the Yankees and the Mariners have inquired about the 26-year-old star. Reynolds won’t be a free agent until after the 2025 season.

The Detroit Tigers are one of the that are expected to be very active in the free agent market. Sources told Jon Morosi that the organization has shown interest in free agent pitcher Jon Gray. Gray, formally of the Colorado Rockies was rumored to be traded around the July trade deadline but was not traded and stayed with Colorado. The team did not give him a qualifying offer, therefore any team that he signs with will not have to forfeit a draft pick to sign the right-hander.

Jon Heyman states that infielder Marcus Semien will turn down the $18.4 million qualifying offer from the Toronto Blue Jays. It should be no surprise as Semien is coming off one of his best seasons in the majors. The hit 45 home runs and drove in 102 runs in the 2021 season.

Heyman also reported that the World Series champion Atlanta Braves are hopeful that starting pitcher Mike Soroka will have an early summer return in 2022. Soroka tore his Achilles tendon on August 3 2020, ending his season. He had surgery to repair the injury four days later and but had a setback in May and had to have another surgery in the area.

Starling Marte is one of the top outfielders in this season’s free agent market and several teams will be interested in the 33-year-old. The Philadelphia Phillies are a team that are expected to be hot and heavy for the outfielder.

Latest on MMO

A potential free agent that is on the Mets radar is Eduardo Escobar. John Flanigan gives you all the information you need on the free agent infielder.

Matt Musico examines four potential trades that the Mets can make to add a pitcher to their starting rotation.

Washington Nationals President of Baseball Operations Mike Rizzo discussed Mets General Manager candidate Adam Cromie on Thursday. John Flanigan has that story.

On This Date in Mets History

Tom Seaver wins his third career National League Cy Young on this date in 1975. Seaver led the National League in victories (22) and had a 2.38 earned run average. He also struck out 243 hitters over 280 innings, leading the league in that category. Seaver also won the award in 1969 and 1973.

Birthdays: Aaron Heilman (43), Gary Thurman (57), Al Schmelz (78)

Let’s go Mets!