Morning Briefing: Wheeler Will Officially Test The Free-Agent Waters

Good morning Mets fans! The deadline to accept or decline a qualifying offer is behind us and Zack Wheeler is now officially a free agent. While a Mets’ reunion is not completely out of the cards, Wheeler is expected to cash in on a market filled with many contenders looking to add starting pitching.

Latest Mets News

While Wheeler may not be pitching for the Mets in 2020, Brodie Van Wagenen made clear that Noah Syndergaard would. Following up on his comments from early October, Van Wagenen once again told reporters at the GM Meetings on Thursday that he has made it clear to other teams that Syndergaard is not on the trading block.

Pete Alonso finished seventh in National League MVP voting as he received two fifth-place votes, five sixth-place votes, six seventh-place votes, 11 eighth-place votes, three ninth-place votes and two tenth-place votes.

Jacob deGrom finished tenth in National League MVP voting as he received four fifth-place votes, one sixth-place vote, one seventh-place vote, one eighth-place vote, three ninth-place votes and two tenth-place votes.

Latest MLB News

Mike Trout won the American League MVP Award. Trout has finished top-two in the AL MVP voting in seven of his nine seasons, and has won the award three times.

Cody Bellinger won the National League MVP Award. It was the first time a Los Angeles Dodgers position player won the award since Kirk Gibson won in 1988.

Jose Abreu and Jake Odorizzi accepted their respective teams’ $17.8 million qualifying offers. Wheeler, Will Smith, Gerrit Cole, Stephen Strasburg, Madison Bumgarner, Anthony Rendon, Josh Donaldson and Marcell Ozuna all declined their qualifying offers.

David Ross‘ former teammate Mike Napoli is expected to join the Chicago Cubs’ coaching staff as a quality assurance coach according to Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic.

Alexis Brudnicki of MLB.com wrote about the positive impact the Toronto Blue Jays made on their minor leaguers by increasing their salaries by 50 percent across the board before the 2019 season.

Latest NL East News

The Atlanta Braves signed Will Smith to a three-year, $39 million contract. The contract comes with a $13 million club option and a $1 million buyout for 2023.

Joe Dillon is the favorite for the Philadelphia Phillies’ hitting coach vacancy according to Matt Breen of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Aside from Dillon, the Phillies interviewed Matt Stairs and had interest in Chili Davis before the Mets re-hired him.