Morning Briefing: Pete Alonso Gets Historic Raise

Good morning Mets fans! The Mets took on the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday afternoon and defeated them by a score of 7-3.

Jacob deGrom threw four innings, giving up one-run and a hit, while striking out three. Jeff McNeil, Robinson Cano, and J.D. Davis all had two hits a piece.

On an additional note, we are two weeks away from Opening Day and despite outfielder Michael Conforto (oblique strain) likely beginning the year on the disabled list, we will be witnessing regular season baseball for the first time in 2020, or will we?

Let’s take a look at the buzz from Wednesday surrounding the Mets and the rest of the league!

Latest Mets News

First base slugger Pete Alonso will receive a substantial 17.5% salary raise up to $652, 521 from the Mets this season making him the highest paid second-year player in baseball history, per Anthony DiComo of MLB.com.

DiComo delivered some other positive news in Mets land yesterday, reporting that Conforto’s oblique issue is a mild Grade 1 strain. While it is not expected to be serious, there is no timetable for his return which puts his status for Opening Day in question.

In his second game back since coming off a jammed shoulder, J.D. Davis continued his hot hitting on Wednesday including a home run off Cardinals pitcher Carlos Martinez.

Pitchers Corey Oswalt and David Peterson were among the Mets players sent to minor league camp.

During his post game press conference yesterday, Edwin Diaz says he is putting his abysmal 2019 season behind him, video posted by SNY.

Justin Toscano of The Record discusses the precautions baseball is taking due to COVID-19 and how these measures are centered around player safety.

David Wright tells the media he is “enjoying” his current role as special advisor to the general manager, story by Tim Healey of Newsday.

Latest MLB News

The Coronavirus will force scheduling changes for Major League Baseball due to responsive measures, per MLB Trade Rumors.

MLB wants games to be moved to alternate sites as opposed to playing empty stadiums if fans are not allowed due to the virus, story per The Wall Street Journal.

While San Francisco is banning gatherings of 1,000 people or more, Kyle Gaser of Baseball America notes that the Giants will start their season on the road.

As Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported, the Giants will not play the Athletics in their scheduled exhibition game on March 24th.

The Mariners have discussed playing games in Arizona due to the substantial amount of cases affecting Seattle, per Evan Drellich of The Athletic.

Positive sign: Yankees injured outfielder (calf strain) Giancarlo Stanton took batting practice off Zack Britton yesterday and mashed a home run to right field off of him (video posted by Bryan Hoch of MLB.com).

Britton would later be sent for test after being struck on his non-pitching wrist with a comeback liner off the bat of Erik Kratz, per Hoch. Luckily, x-rays came back negative and he was diagnosed with a bruise, per The Yankees PR department.

Former “flash in the pan,” sophomore season flame out Josh Barfield, son of big leaguer Jesse Barfield, is rising through the Diamondbacks front office ranks at warp speed, writes Zach Buchanan of The Athletic.

FanGraphs dives deep into the depths of “spin mirroring.”

Latest NL East News

Phillies superstar Bryce Harper says he isn’t worried about the current Coronavirus outbreak in regards to changing the way he goes about his day “I’m a healthy 27-year-old. I’m still going to shake people’s hands and high five,” as reported by Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports.