Good Morning, Mets fans!

Happy No-Han Anniversary!!

The MLPA and MLB had set today, June 1st, as a soft cap to reach a potential deal to start the season. If a deal was to be signed today, the plan was to have Spring Training in mid-June and kick off the season in early July. However with no deal close to fruition, a finalized contract in the coming days seems extremely unlikely.

Latest On MLBPA’s Negotiations With The Owners

Late last night, Jeff Passan of ESPN tweeted out that the MLPA has made a counter-offer to the owners. This proposal includes a 114-game season and will give every player the option to opt-out of the season, should they feel unsafe. It also calls for the deferral of players’ salaries in 2020 if a postseason can not happen.

Passan adds that certain players deemed high-risk would receive their salary while others would not. Players would also receive a 100 million dollar advance and playoffs would be expanded for the next two seasons.

Yesterday, Buster Olney of ESPN tweeted out that some owners are willing to cancel the season, citing they would be losing money if a campaign were to kick off. A decision of this magnitude, for billionaires, to call off the season claiming “poor”, would have extreme short-term and long-term ramifications for the sport.

Craig Edwards of Fangraphs showed how MLB’s latest proposal favors the owners.

Ken Davidoff of The New York Post wrote on how MLB has faced some major PR issues in its latest fracas.

Latest Mets News

Pete Alonso addressed the recent riots on his Instagram story yesterday.

Tim Healey of Newsday talked to Terry Collins about the night of Johan Santana‘s no-hitter.

Andy Martino of SNY interviewed Michael Cuddyer about the recent riots in the US.

Latest MLB News 

Luis Severino is progressing well in recovery from Tommy John Surgery.

The Blue Jays have committed to paying their minor-leaguers $400 per month through June, per Shi Davidi of SportsNet.

Latest NL East News 

The Nationals plan to reduce their minor-leaguers salary by a hundred dollars a week. Nationals’ farmhands will now only earn $300 per week, instead of the $400 per week allowance that many other teams have instituted. In response to this, literal superhero Sean Doolittle tweeted out that he will give money to help the Nationals’ farmhands.

Latest on MMO

Brian Wright reminisced on Dwight Gooden‘s one-hit shutout against the Cubs in 1984.

Marshall Field remembered Mets’ historically-long doubleheader.

John Jackson opines Seth Lugo should be able to aptly handle a rotation spot.

On This Day in Mets History

2012: Johan Santana threw the first no-hitter in Mets History, blanking the Cardinals on the scoresheet.

Birthdays: Rick Baldwin (67)

Let’s Go Mets!

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Yoenis Cespedes‘s contract was restructured last month,  which is how we knew there was some sort of contract infraction when it came to the injury. But, we didn’t know exactly what it was.

Now we do. And it involved a wild boar.

Mike Puma, Joel Sherman, and Ken Davidoff of the New York Post set out to give us the answers we were looking for. We knew that the injury was caused by Cespedes falling into a hole. But now it has come out that he fell into this hole after an interaction with a wild boar.

Cespedes nor his agent have commented on the situation. However, multiple people who were informed of the incident stated that this was the case. There are traps all around Cespedes’s ranch, one of the reasons being to keep the boars away. However, when one of the boars was removed from the trap (it is not confirmed as to whether Cespedes was the one removing the boar), the boar either charged at Cespedes or startled him. This initiated the jerk reaction of him stepping into a hole and fracturing his ankle.

Well, that sounds like a breach of contract to me, now doesn’t it?

Cespedes’s contract forbid both the standard participation in athletic activities but also included additional activities in order to further decrease the chance of a re-injury. We do not know the exact language and activities included in this specific contract, but it is safe to say that being in close proximity to wild animals falls under one of the potential risk categories.

We continue to wish Cespedes a speedy recovery and hope to see him back at the plate soon. Just please stay away from wild animals for the foreseeable future, Yo.

The post Boar With Me: Cause of Cespedes Ranch Injury Revealed appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

Good Morning, folks!

Latest Mets News

Fangraphs wrote up the latest Mets signing, Jed Lowrie. In the article, they include a quote from Lowrie that says, “I look back at the success I’ve had in my career hitting, and the focus has always had to be on my legs, getting the most out of my legs as I can.” He also said,  “I’m trying to maximize bat speed to maximize exit velocity.”

Jeff McNeil likes swinging at meatballs as Daren Wilman shows.

Eno Sarris of The Athletic says that the Mets are considering making J.D. Davis a two-way player. He has touched 94 MPH from the mound.

Latest MLB News

Ken Davidoff suggests a salary cap and floor for MLB teams.

Bryce Harper met with Philly today. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic says the Nationals did in fact make Harper an offer recently.

Latest NL East News

The Braves hired Dana Brown as their new VP of Scouting.

Talk Nats writes about the Nationals budget.

Jim Salisbury of NBC writes about the relationship between the Phillies and Scott Boras.

Latest on MMO

Joe D. writes about optimism for the Mets being on the rise.

Mathew Brownstein chats with author, Jane Levy.

Birthdays: Elmer Dessens turns 48, Kevin Mitchell turns 57.

LGM!

The post Morning Briefing: The Lowdown on Lowrie appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

Latest Mets News

A duo of former Mets farmhands, Kyle Regnault and Tyler Moore, signed with the Hiroshima Carp of the Nippon Professional Baseball and the Lincoln Saltdogs of The American Association, respectively.

Ken Davidoff of The New York Post wrote about Mets’ fan favorite, Ron Hunt’s, current struggle with Parkinson’s.

Michael Wilbon of New York Post thinks that the Cy Young Award is biased in favor of Jacob deGrom.

According to Andy Martino of SNY, Dan Warthen will not return to the Rangers in 2018.

Per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the Padres intend to make “an aggressive run” at Noah Syndergaard this offseason.

Seth Lugo is training this offseason to prepare for a starting role, per Anthony DiComo of MLB.com

Latest MLB News

Bryan Hoch of MLB.com reports that David Robertson is leaning towards signing with a team that’s close to his Rhode Island home.

The Minnesota Twins announced their 2019 coaching staff, led by their first-year skipper Rocco Baldelli. Former Met Jeremy Hefner is their assistant pitching coach.

The Red Sox re-signed World Series MVP Steve Pearce to a one-year, $6.25 million dollar deal.

Jon Morosi of MLB.com tweets that the Yankees have been engaged with the Reds and the Athletics on trade talks regarding Sonny Gray.

The Orioles officially named Mike Elias as their GM and Executive Vice President.

MLBPA is in favor of teams taking a file-and-trial approach in terms of arbitration.

Lindsey Adler of The Athletic wrote about Brian Cashman’s annual charity event.

DAZN has paired with MLB to host a nightly baseball show for the next three campaigns.

The Twins inked Preston Guilmet. They also signed Harper (Ryne Harper)!

Peter Bourjos came to terms on a contract with the Angels. It’ll be a one-year, minor league deal for the speedster.

Latest NL East News

Phillies owner John Middleton expects the team to be heavy spenders this offseason.

Latest on MMO

Now that the Arizona Fall League has concluded, John Sheridan recapped how the Mets minor leaguers played.

Mathew Brownstein previewed Zach Britton‘s free agency.

Michael Mayer talked about Amed Rosario‘s impressive overseas offense.

On This Date in Mets History

Birthdays: Tom Seaver (75), Jim Mann (45), Eli Marrero (46), Val Pascucci (41).

The post Morning Briefing: Thor Trade Talks Transpire appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

The New York Mets have re-signed left-handed reliever Jerry Blevins according to Jon Heyman of Fan Rag Sports. The deal is for one year guaranteed at $6.5 million dollars, but includes a a team option that could bring the total value to $12.5 million over two years. He can also earn $100,000 in incentives each each year as per Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports.

This was a huge move by Sandy Alderson, who signed right-hander Fernando Salas earlier this evening. With these two moves, the Mets have solidified their bullpen and should be okay even if Jeurys Familia is suspended. I love it…

I hope that now you can all relax and understand that everything does not have to happen at a fevered pace to make progress and improve your team in the offseason.

Believe it or not, you can actually take a methodical approach to things and still achieve the same and in most cases even more optimal results.

So here’s the bottom line. The Mets started this offseason by handing out MLB’s largest free agent contract to Yoenis Cespedes. Then they brought back Neil Walker at a cost of $17.2 million dollars, picked up the $13 million dollar option on Jay Bruce, and re-signed relievers Fernando Salas and Jerry Blevins. How many f’kin teams did more? That’s a pretty huge offseason…

And by the way, I was the only one for the last four weeks saying Jerry Blevins was coming back to the Mets… (Hey beat reporters… Take that bitches!)

Original Report – Jan 31

Last Thursday, a trusted source told me that the Mets had circled back to lefty reliever Jerry Blevins and reengaged him in contract talks. This as the team’s beat writers were reporting that the Mets were going to keep right fielder Jay Bruce and that they would now look to internal options to fill their bullpen needs due to payroll concerns.

A few days later on Saturday, that same source told me that negotiations between the Mets and Blevins were advancing and that they could be reaching some common ground. This news came about an hour after someone else told me that Blevins was telling friends that he truly wanted to return to the Mets.

I reported all of that this weekend and again this morning, but here’s a similar report coming from some obscure source. 🙂

Both Mike Puma and Ken Davidoff of the New York Post reports that the Mets and Blevins are trying to find “common ground” on a two-year deal. (Note their usage of the phrase common ground.) They say the deal they are working on could be backloaded. However, I myself had no information regarding that. We’ll see.

Blevins, 33, went 4-2 with a 2.79 ERA and 3.05 FIP in 73 appearances last season for the Mets. I love Blevins because in addition to getting left-handed hitters out he has no problems getting righty sluggers out.

If the Mets do reach a deal with him, and I do believe they will, this will be a significant boost for them. With J.P. Howell signing a deal this evening with the Toronto Blue Jays, Jerry Blevins could be turning a lonely eye toward Flushing.

The post Mets Agree To One-Year $6.5 Million Deal With Jerry Blevins (Updated) appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

According to Joel Sherman on Twitter, Neil Walker has accepted the Mets $17.2 million qualifying offer.

Walker will clearly be the everyday second baseman next season which pretty much leaves Wilmer Flores, T.J. Rivera, David Wright, and Jose Reyes jockeying for playing time at third base or backing up at all four infield positions.

Terry Collins has himself a very strong infield bench and the ability to shape his starting lineup depending on each games’ matchup.

With this signing, it seems the Mets infield is fairly set for 2017. I’d expect any further acquisitions this offseason to bolster either the bullpen or the outfield.

Original Post – Nov 13

The New York Mets officially extended a qualifying offer to Neil Walker last week, and he has until 5:00 PM on Monday to either accept or reject the $17.2 million dollar one-year deal.

According to Ken Davidoff of the New York Post, the two sides have yet to engage in any substantive discussions about a multi-year extension that would keep Walker off the free agent market.

Last week at the GM Meetings, Sandy Alderson told reporters that there was some debate in the front office about tendering Walker the QO and whether or not he would accept it.

“I think there was some deliberation with regard to a qualifying offer for Neil,” Alderson said. “In the end, we decided that we very definitely wanted to make the offer. We’d love to have him back, and felt it was the appropriate thing to do. And we understand there’s a possibility he may accept it. We’re not unaware of that possibility.”

Walker, 31, is one of ten players to receive a QO this offseason, and he could be one of the only players that may accept it.

The former Pirate and Pittsburgh native is coming off back surgery that ended his season prematurely in 2016, though when healthy he had a couple of very productive months in April and August sandwiching a few months that were not nearly as productive.

Overall. Walker batted .282/.347/.476 for the Mets with a career high 23 home runs and 55 RBI in 113 games played.

Alderson said he understood the risk with Walker’s back, but that he was comfortable with the decision to go forward with the QO.

“The more time that passes, the more comfortable one can become — or uncomfortable, I guess, if things go the other direction,” Alderson said.

“But certainly with the passage of time you have a little more information in terms of post-surgery issues. So at this point, I think, we felt comfortable assessing the risk that exists.”

My gut feeling is that Walker will play it safe and accept the qualifying offer, but we’ll know for sure later today.

The post Neil Walker Accepts Mets’ $17.2 Million Qualifying Offer appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

Ken Davidoff of the New York Post reports that the Mets are unlikely to deal Juan Lagares even though they have received several trade inquiries on him recently.

Lagares, 26, took a major step backwards this year as he hit .259/.289/.358 with a 80 wRC+ in 465 plate appearances. He eventually lost his starting job in centerfield after the team acquired Yoenis Cespedes over the summer.

His defense also sharply declined in 2015. His Ultimate Zone Rating dropped from an elite 18.6 during his gold glove campaign in 2014 to just 3.5 this past season.

It’s now widely reported that the Mets are going keep Lagares on the roster and look to find a complimentary platoon partner for him this winter.

One player who keeps getting mentioned is free agent Gerardo Parra, who seems like an excellent fit. He has a career .289 average against righties with a .432 slugging percentage, and has two gold gloves on his resume.

However, based on several reports, it’s not a slam dunk that the 28-year old Parra will sign on to be anything less than an everyday player after 155 games played in 2015 in which he batted .291 with a .780 OPS.

Meanwhile, Lagares hit well against lefties this year with a .273/.333./.438 slash line, but struggled mightily against right-handed pitching with an underwhelming .599 OPS.

Despite a disappointing season for Lagares, there’s reason to believe that he can rebound in 2016.  He performed much better during the later stages of the season, and the Mets are hoping for a turnaround in 2016.

Additionally, Lagares wasn’t able to play at 100% for most of the year due to an elbow and rib injury, and he’s reportedly fine now and playing in the Dominican Winter League.

Lagares is still owed $22.5 million over the next three years, but I’m glad to hear that they aren’t looking to trade him. It’s easy to forget just how valuable he was back in 2014 when he posted a 4.0 WAR during 116 games and made such an impact defensively.

That said, the team should be open to dealing him or any player, if a deal that can drastically improve the team materializes over the next two months.

The post Mets Receiving Trade Inquiries On Juan Lagares, But Unlikely To Deal Him appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

In an interview with Ken Davidoff of the NY Post, Athletics’ General Manager Billy Beane compared the Mets’ young pitchers to his star-studded rotation in Oakland during the early 2000’s. The A’s staff featured three top starters in Barry Zito, Mark Mulder and Tim Hudson, who carried the team to multiple playoff berths.

“There’s definitely a difference in styles,” Beane said. “The Mets guys are pure, dominant, power guys who can overwhelm you with your fastball. Our guys all had good arms. They were sort of technicians, to some extent.”

“Mulder could sit you up and sit you down in an hour and 40 minutes. Barry had that big curveball. Hudson had the power sinker, the split-finger and changeup.”

“Physically, the Mets guys are right out of the power-pitcher handbook. Our guys struck out a lot of guys, but they were just great pitchers in terms of their ability to mix things up.”

As Davidoff notes in his article, Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard all rank inside the top five in the league in average fastball velocity. All three throw 95 MPH or more on average. There haven’t been many trio’s in history who have thrown this hard, not even the San Francisco’s World Series rotation in 2010.

“You’ve got the guys with the Mets all throwing in the mid-90s and above,” said Bobby Evans who was San Francisco’s assistant GM in 2010. “These were guys 91, 92, more in the average-fastball range. These Met guys are absolutely firing bullets.”

Ron Darling also spoke highly of the Mets rotation, saying they have more talent than the ’80’s Mets. However, he cautioned that they need to perform at a high level for a longer period of time before entering the discussion of the best ever.

“What made the ’80s guys great is that they did it for six years. I think, from my perspective, there’s much more talent here, but they’ve got to be able to match it for six years.”

The post Billy Beane Compares Mets’ Staff To A’s appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

The Mets front office is a lot like congress. People don’t trust them. So when it was announced that Zack Wheeler has a torn UCL, the first thing everyone did was point their fingers at management. We all watched the games last year. How many times did Terry Collins leave Wheeler on the mound past 100 pitches? For a prized, 24-year-old arm, it didn’t seem like the Mets were going out of their way to protect him. And now with rumblings that he was pitching in discomfort, what gives?!

Yesterday, Ken Davidoff published a piece for the New York Post calling into question the Mets’ usage of Wheeler based on his high pitch counts. He cited the fact that Wheeler reached or surpassed 110 pitches 13 times last season, a lot more than any other age-24 pitcher, the next closest being seven times. I looked it up, and sure enough, of the 24 pitchers in the majors last season who were 24 or younger, Wheeler’s 110-pitch count games were clearly the most.

Then, I made the same search for the 2013 season, and found a different story.

As is often the case, looking at just one year of data can tell a misleading story. In 2013, just two seasons ago, we find a long list of pitchers age-24 or younger who had multiple 110 or greater pitch count games.

The two names that stick out from the list being Matt Harvey, who obviously injured his elbow late in the season, and Patrick Corbin, who followed the same fate as Wheeler, feeling tightness in his elbow during spring training last year, and ultimately, required Tommy John surgery.

Besides Harvey and Corbin, however, we find many success stories. Chris Sale had fifteen 110 or more pitch count games in 2013, this following his age-23 season when he had the second most with eight. He is still pitching strong (a recent foot injury notwithstanding). Madison Bumgarner is another name from 2013 who pitched through lengthy games. We all know how his story ended the following season.

If we look back a year further, at 2012, we find another interesting name who often made 110 pitch or more starts. That is Clayton Kershaw. Sixteen times, twice as many as the next most frequent pitcher, Kershaw tossed at least 110 pitches in a game, he too, in his age-24 season.

What does all of this tell us? It tells us that it’s a guessing game on whether Wheeler’s high pitch count games led to his injury. We have a few cases where we can see pitchers with a lot of high pitch count games, later injured, but we also have some of baseball’s best pitchers, at the same age as Wheeler, or younger, who were used just as much, or more, and are still going strong.

Another original article from Metsmerized Online!

The post The Truth About Zack Wheeler’s Usage appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

Charlie Monfort, co-owner of the Colorado Rockies, smiled when The Post told him of the many Mets fans who would love to see Troy Tulowitzki get traded to Citi Field.

“It’s not happening,” Monfort responded.

Ken Davidoff says the Rockies’ leaders, with both their actions and their words, have displayed how reluctant they are to deal their franchise player, and that Monfort only re-enforced that notion Thursday at the Major League Baseball owners’ meetings.

“I can’t speak for him, but yeah, we want him,” Monfort said. “I think he’s strong and he’s worked hard and he’ll be back. He’ll be Tulo of old.”

Also, Nationals GM Mike Rizzo said Ian Desmond is his shortstop for 2015. He told reporters at the MLB Owner’s Meetings that he acquired Yunel Escobar from the A’s to be his second baseman.

“Desmond is the leader of our team,” he added. “He’s one of the best shortstops in all of baseball.”

It’s true what they say about everything happening in threes. The Mets aren’t getting Yunel Escobar. The Mets aren’t getting Ian Desmond. The Mets aren’t getting Troy Tulowitzki.

Say Cheese…

The post Troy Tulowitzki or Ian Desmond to the Mets Not Happening appeared first on Metsmerized Online.