To begin, catcher Rod Barajas passed his physical today and will report to Mets camp tomorrow morning. According to Jon Heyman, he is guaranteed $500K, and then gets $400K for making the Opening Day roster. He can earn another $1MM with easily attainable incentives.
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Jason Bay arrived to camp today and spoke to reporters. Kevin Kernan of the NY Post relays that Bay said he is a “lead by example’’ guy.
“You won’t see me on the top step waving a towel,’’ he said. “But that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to be a leader. I’ll kind of feel my way around, but I think by the time that we leave here, I’ll be pretty comfortable in that role.’’
Bay sounded very confident and said he is not intimidated by Citi Field and will not tinker with a swing that has averaged over 30 home runs per season in the last six years. I think he’s gonna be just fine.
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Michael Baron of MetsBlog is reporting that second baseman Luis Castillo is happy, has lost some weight and feels completely healthy. It must really suck for Castillo to deal with all the constant trade rumors and reading all the negative comments in the last two offseasons. He said he can’t control what the team wants to do, but will continue to work hard for the Mets. Jerry Manuel singled Castillo out today and said he expects him to step up defensively. Maybe the weight loss will help him gain some additional mobility and range in the field this season.
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Adam Rubin had an interesting note on Angel Pagan who is sorry to see the Mets scrapping their annual agility drills as camp opens. Isn’t it strange that a team who had so many injuries last season, would do away with agility drills? Pagan also spoke about batting leadoff with Reyes batting third and said,
“My job is to do the best for the team, do whatever it takes for me to help the club, and stay healthy. That’s my main goal right now.”
Pagan also addressed last seasons baserunning blunders and said he learned from his mistakes and that those wont happen again. I believe him, Angels don’t lie.
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Adam Rubin was just a fountain of information today as he also reported that the Mets are looking to sign a second left-handed reliever to go alongside Pedro Feliciano and would be interested in Joe Beimel if he’s willing to accept a one-year deal for around $1 million.
Beimel is 33 years old, and Craig Calcaterra points out that he has posted ERAs of 2.96, 3.88, 2.02, and 3.58 in the past four seasons, in addition to shutting down left-handed hitters, he is also “capable of getting right-handers out at a decent clip”.
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In other news, Jon Niese and Jenrry Mejia both threw live batting practice today and the coaching staff came away very impressed. Yesterday, Jerry Manuel said that Mejia is a candidate for the setup man role. Alex Cora plans to slide feet first this season which should make Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez very happy. There’s a rumor circulating that the Mets have signed veteran infielder Alex Cintron to a minor league deal, but the club has not confirmed that, so try and contain your excitement.
That’s all folks!
Check back tomorrow evening for another complete recap of all the Mets rumblings from Port St. Lucie, as we continue to keep you on top of everything Mets!
