- Luis Severino has joined the Mets in free agency after a mixed history with the Yankees. His career with the Yankees was marked by both success and extensive injuries. Severino signed a one-year, $13 million deal with the Mets.
Mets' Catching Depth:
- The Mets' catching depth is a concern, regarding Omar Narváez's performance and health. Cooper Hmel is considered a potential replacement for Narváez. They also picked up Tyler Heineman.
- Joey Wendle was picked up to replace LG as the utility man.
- Kyle Crick, a new Mets relief pitcher, has joined on a minor league deal with hopes of strengthening the bullpen.
The Mets have signed Austin Adams, Joseph Yabbour, Andre Scrubb and Cole Sulser to aid bullpen depth.
Mets Winter Meetings Focus:
- The Mets are expected to be active at the Winter Meetings, with a focus on acquiring an outfielder, starting pitching, and relief pitching. They are also interested in improving run prevention and outfield defense.
- The team may engage in trade talks, expect to hear the usual prospect names such as Kevin Parada, Brett Baty, Mark Vientos, and Ronny Mauricio.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Player Meetings:
- The New York Mets are planning to meet with Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the next week and he is expected to continue to draw significant interest from MLB teams.
- Shohei Ohtani is also expected to make a decision on his next team soon, with bids for his services surpassing $500 million.
- The Mets are also considering Korean outfielder Jung Hoo Lee.
Summary from pre Winter Meeting thread:
Hall of Fame Ballot Newbies: Inclusion of players like Big Sexy, Wright, and Reyes in the Hall of Fame ballot.
- Several iconic Yankees and Mets greats were in contention for Hall of Fame induction, but they fell short of the required votes.
Management and Coaching Updates: Significant changes in the Mets' management and coaching staff, including a new contract for manager Mendoza. Bench coach vacancy and role shifts for Eric Chavez and Jeremy Barnes as hitting coaches. Introduction of Kris Gross and Andy Green in player development and amateur scouting.
Pitching Strategy and Market Moves: Focus on fortifying the rotation, implications of the Cardinals' signings, and the pursuit of high-caliber pitchers.
Bullpen and Player Performance: Signing of BP arms to minor league deals and review of the players.
Previous Mets thread: - (
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i mean if you want to play with the big teams in FA, finance plays a big part. it may have been boring to note that LAD was like $150m below their previous spending high on payroll, but as things turned out that was a pretty crucial fact that drove this offseason so far.
the yankees drew their line in the sand quicker than mets/dodgers because they were already closest to maxing out their budget.
i and i think most others agree we'd rather be talking about adding players they need. they just havent done that yet and at the moment they've kept speculation pretty tame. i think imanaga has probably been most connected to them of whats left and i could very much see that. his posting closes 1/11 so id imagine his decision is in progress.
i think they were afraid of mets bidding more and leaving $ on the table. he wanted to be a LAD, they matched the biggest contract ever, there wasnt much to gain unless he also preferred going to the mets (which he obviously did not).
what the mets would have offered if they got the chance to raise is interesting, as is whether or not they should have just gone to that number to start. but i think LAD was probably matching up to $350m, so for mets to get him i think it would have had to be a really crazy offer.
I have a question for you guys. I always preface this so apologies for the redundancy but I suffered a loss during the season and checked out of sports for a bit so I wasn't as informed on the day to day. Ronny Mauricio was a tough break as he was a candidate for Third Base. I know Vientos and Baty are not ideal but are we giving up on them? I can look up the numbers and see the poor averages but what are the thoughts of these guys? Especially Baty who was at once an exciting prospect.
Thanks guys as always for the great discussion and indulging me.
all 4 of the kids from last year were mixed bags as they adjusted to big leagues. alvarez seemed like the best by a large margin but that wasn't the case across the board, he hit a lot of homers and that masked some other less than great offense under the hood.
the biggest mistake last year was not giving some of them more consistent playing time earlier on. when vientos and mauricio got to play near every day they produced, and they did it against playoff teams that were fighting for position. it wasnt a typical "september doesnt count".
they need to work hard/earn their roles in ST but it seems clear part of the mets step back this year is knowing they need to find out what they have beyond alvarez.
im not sure which report you're referring to or if ive seen it but it's certainly possible he wanted both of those teams more than the mets, and only would have gone to the mets if they didnt up their spends.
the reports ive seen from martino were that the yankees knew they'd only get him if he was willing to leave $ on the table elsewhere but i doubt they directly communicated that prior. id imagine yamamoto was trying to get either lad or nyy as high as possible.
i think we all knew the only way the mets were winning was by being top $ by a decent margin, which is why i question them not being a little more aggressive than they were.
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nothing stopped the Yankees from offering 330-340 when given a chance to "match" thus forcing him to leave money on the table. If he only had eyes for LAD and had his 325, why go back to the Yankees at all?
im not sure which report you're referring to or if ive seen it but it's certainly possible he wanted both of those teams more than the mets, and only would have gone to the mets if they didnt up their spends.
the reports ive seen from martino were that the yankees knew they'd only get him if he was willing to leave $ on the table elsewhere but i doubt they directly communicated that prior. id imagine yamamoto was trying to get either lad or nyy as high as possible.
i think we all knew the only way the mets were winning was by being top $ by a decent margin, which is why i question them not being a little more aggressive than they were.
Heyman is reporting the Yankees were given a chance to match but weren't going to pay him more than Cole.
@JonHeyman
Yankees decided not to match Dodgers winning $325M bid to Yamamoto because: 1) they thought $300M was right offer, 2) they didn’t believe anyone should have a bigger deal than Gerrit Cole. NYY offered optout after 5 yrs but not a $50M signing bonus. Highly unlikely it mattered.
No other way to read it than the Yankees were given a shot to up their offer whereas the Mets were not.
Verified
@BaseballAmerica
NEW this year … Baseball America will no longer rank players designated as foreign professionals as prospects.
So, players like Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Jung Hoo Lee will not appear on a Top 100 or rank in a team’s Top 30
@JonHeyman
Yankees decided not to match Dodgers winning $325M bid to Yamamoto because: 1) they thought $300M was right offer, 2) they didn’t believe anyone should have a bigger deal than Gerrit Cole. NYY offered optout after 5 yrs but not a $50M signing bonus. Highly unlikely it mattered.
No other way to read it than the Yankees were given a shot to up their offer whereas the Mets were not.
if that's his full report it doesnt technically say they were given a chance to match the contract. it could be read as him reporting their rationale behind why their offer wasnt as big as LADs (who only went to $325m to match the mets). finalists being given a chance to match/raise the highest bids would be totally normal, finalists not being given a chance to raise their bid probably isn't (which is what happened to mets).
This is what martino said:
i think nyy were clearly the team with the most to risk by over-bidding (Soto) and a lot of what we're hearing from them is spin so this doesnt get spun into them "cheaping out". which i dont think they did at all, they just werent in position to be as aggressive as the other 2 teams.
https://www.sny.tv/articles/details-of-yankees-mets-bids-for-yoshinobu-yamamoto-dodgers - ( New Window )
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Michael Marino
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Mets weren’t even given the chance to beat the matched Dodgers offer. Shows you who he was actually considering when it was all said and done."
Lance Brozdowski
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The craziest thing about this is that Senga’s forkball was only in the zone 23%.
That’s the LOWEST zone rate of ANY pitch in baseball (min 200 thrown).
And he put up GOAT-level whiff. Astounding. 🤯
the logical thing among any group of finalists is taking the high offer (mets $325m) and bringing it to the other finalists. lad matched, nyy didnt, and i read heyman's quote (and martinos reporting) as explanations of why the yankees stood on their number. i think reading in more than that is over-reading.
re the mets i think the implication we can take from the fact that they didnt then go back with a chance to up their offer is that he preferred the lad more than he preferred trying to squeeze another 5-10-20m. it was already the richest contract in for an mlb pitcher, that and a destination he preferred were enough for him.
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Michael Marino
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Mets weren’t even given the chance to beat the matched Dodgers offer. Shows you who he was actually considering when it was all said and done."
the mets not getting a chance to match has been reported for 2 days, who has disputed that? he obviously preferred LAD > NYM, which at even money would anyone presume differently?
the mets path was obviously by offering the most money and hoping the other teams wouldnt match, as the yankees didnt. and even that wouldnt have guaranteed him choosing the mets. he may have still chosen LAD or NYY at $300m.
Nimmo, Marte, either or those 2, Tyrone Taylor + Stewart is a potentially horrible offensive OF.
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guy Marino took it the exact same way (quote tweeting Heyman he said=
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Michael Marino
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Mets weren’t even given the chance to beat the matched Dodgers offer. Shows you who he was actually considering when it was all said and done."
the mets not getting a chance to match has been reported for 2 days, who has disputed that? he obviously preferred LAD > NYM, which at even money would anyone presume differently?
the mets path was obviously by offering the most money and hoping the other teams wouldnt match, as the yankees didnt. and even that wouldnt have guaranteed him choosing the mets. he may have still chosen LAD or NYY at $300m.
The Yankees being given a chance to match is absolutely new information.
isnt that what we've all been saying since the ohtani contract? that is literally why i asked the question 2 weeks ago "how much is too much?"
remember also his former team gets paid most on the posting fee based on him taking biggest offer. dont think he and his agent arent squeezed even more than usual to make sure they dont leave $ on the table. i think that's probably part of what got lad up to matching the full $325m. who knows maybe the $50m signing bonus was in return for him not shopping the offer further after LAD matched? i havent seen it reported anywhere that the mets had the $50m signing bonus in there (though they should have offered an even bigger one).
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In comment 16332453 DanMetroMan said:
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guy Marino took it the exact same way (quote tweeting Heyman he said=
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Michael Marino
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Mets weren’t even given the chance to beat the matched Dodgers offer. Shows you who he was actually considering when it was all said and done."
the mets not getting a chance to match has been reported for 2 days, who has disputed that? he obviously preferred LAD > NYM, which at even money would anyone presume differently?
the mets path was obviously by offering the most money and hoping the other teams wouldnt match, as the yankees didnt. and even that wouldnt have guaranteed him choosing the mets. he may have still chosen LAD or NYY at $300m.
The Yankees being given a chance to match is absolutely new information.
i think we are talking past each other or misunderstanding something.
are you taking heyman's report to mean that the yankees were given a chance to match the $325m, and had they they would have gotten yamamoto?
i dont take his report to mean anything new that hasn't already been assumed - that the mets offer was communicated to to the yankees just as it was the lad. the lad increased their offer and perhaps added the signing bonus sweetner over the mets. the yankees stood on theirs. i dont think anyone was expecting that he only took the met offer to the dodgers and not the yankees. if that were the case then wouldnt that mean that the mets came in 2nd (which nobody has reported)?
Jeff Passan
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Left-handed reliever Yuki Matsui and the San Diego Padres are in agreement on a five-year, $28 million contract, sources tell ESPN. Deal is done. It includes opt-outs after the third and fourth years as well as an injury clause that can convert the fifth year into a club option.
To suggest that's not how this reads as that takes some real gymnastics don't you think?
"Yankees *decided not to match* Dodgers winning $325M bid to Yamamoto because:'
He didn't say "The Yankees decided not to offer more than they did" he said "decided not to match the Dodgers winning bid".
To suggest that's not how this reads as that takes some real gymnastics don't you think?
"Yankees *decided not to match* Dodgers winning $325M bid to Yamamoto because:'
He didn't say "The Yankees decided not to offer more than they did" he said "decided not to match the Dodgers winning bid".
dan it's not gymnastics, you are misunderstanding the timing.
mets offered $325m first. that hasnt been disputed anywhere.
yamamoto took NYM offer and gave LAD the chance to match, reported the same everywhere. this is the part you are misinterpreting as new reporting - why wouldn't the yankees have been given the same chance to match as LAD? there is literally no reason other than if yamamoto already eliminated them (which nobody has reported). it makes no sense that he would bring the high offer to 1 finalist he was still considering but not the other. he didnt know yankees were going to stand on their offer, they could have gone to $350m for all he knew.
all of that happened as pre-text to yamamoto's next decision - which was to not go back to the mets and try to get the offer higher again in a new round, which would have been 2 finalists instead of 3. it can obviously be surmised from that that the mets werent his preferred destination.
All of that was consensus reporting nothing to do with heymans tweet for 2 weeks now?
The entire reason the details of the ohtani contract were such a gut punch was bc it eliminated a huge potential constricting factor for lad. I’m on phone so searching is hard but I think it was right after those details came out we speculated that it was almost certain yamamoto would exceed Cole contract, which nobody predicted but happened.
Again that was why for 1-2 weeks I asked “how much is too much?” - I think to get him Mets would have had to go to 375 or 400. Dodgers cbt payroll right now is still lower with Yamamoto than Mets/nyy without him! And that’s not even factoring in the ohtani cash flow savings.
So yes, Mets only chance was way over spending. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t have a shot. Dodgers could have just as easily as Yankees had a breaking point they wouldn’t exceed. Mets would have had to bid higher to find it.
It is also the most money given to a relief pitcher this winter, though the best relievers on the market -- Hader and right-handers Jordan Hicks, Robert Stephenson and Hector Neris -- have yet to sign.
San Diego, with new manager Mike Shildt, came into the winter with significant budget restrictions after spending $255 million on their payroll and being hit with a $39.7 million luxury-tax bill on top of it. The Padres traded star outfielder Juan Soto to the New York Yankees, and before signing Matsui, their opening day 2024 payroll projected to around $148.4 million, according to Baseball Prospectus.
At 5-foot-8, Matsui is far from an imposing presence on the mound, but his fastball sits at 92 mph, runs up to 95 mph and has strong carry from a low arm slot. He also throws a split-fingered fastball and an occasional slider, according to evaluators.
When the Mets were initially looking for the president of baseball operations every day it seem like they had to be some sort of public declaration that the janitor from the Red Sox did not want to interview for the PoBO Mets job.
This is not meant as a disrespectful comment to the Yankees, but it feels like the media is making sure that the Yankees refused YY and it was the Mets that YY “used”.
Cohen food Japan had Yamamoto at his home, so I guess we can continue taking the highroad as an organization and continue building a winner.
soto is 100% going to become the biggest total deal, beyond ohtani. today id bet on over $500m.
i have said for 2 weeks that's why i think the yankees were most restricted in this bidding war, because that one is going to be more important for them.
i have no idea how in/out the nyy are on imanaga/montgomery but i think every extra $ they can get cohen to spend is effort they are happy to make right now.
When the Mets were initially looking for the president of baseball operations every day it seem like they had to be some sort of public declaration that the janitor from the Red Sox did not want to interview for the PoBO Mets job.
This is not meant as a disrespectful comment to the Yankees, but it feels like the media is making sure that the Yankees refused YY and it was the Mets that YY “used”.
Cohen food Japan had Yamamoto at his home, so I guess we can continue taking the highroad as an organization and continue building a winner.
it's not conspiracy, there are some rational reasons behind your perceptions.
1. cohen is richest owner in mlb and since he came in other teams were afraid of him increasing their costs by bidding players up. that was not unfounded fear. there are owners who did/do want to make things harder on him.
2. the mets are an easy target for media because they have mostly sucked and also done a lot of embarrassing things. not unlike jets, etc. lolmets is an easy song to play from the greatest hits. especially after a year where they spent $400m and didnt make playoffs.
100% agree. The reality is the Yankees were in the worst position to spend of the 3 teams, but they dont want to say "we cheaped out" after spending the last month exuding confidence they were getting him.
other than eno (who was the only writer ive seen suggest "400") this is one of the higher predictions for yamamoto and it still feels very low to me. it seems kind of crazy to me the mets wouldn't beat the cole contract at the very least for a player that much younger.
i think the mets plan was to set the bidding ahead of the cole contract because turning down "highest pitcher contract ever" is a very difficult thing to do.
i have a hard time believing they wouldn't have gone up more but maybe they calibrated their bid there to see if yamamoto was serious enough to come back to them? which it turned out he wasnt bc LAD were serious enough about him to match.
i think getting the total comp to $400m (including posting fee) is probably what it would have taken, minimum, to win.
I was just thinking this. I guess they won't re-sign Soto.
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the Yankees drew that line with Cole, Soto is 1000% going to ger more than Judge. Will they just view keeping a current Yankee (Soto) as different than paying a FA more than your guy (Cole?)
I was just thinking this. I guess they won't re-sign Soto.
Big difference...This guy hasn't thrown a pitch yet. Soto is a bonafide superstar who most teams would already pick over Judge.
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the Yankees drew that line with Cole, Soto is 1000% going to ger more than Judge. Will they just view keeping a current Yankee (Soto) as different than paying a FA more than your guy (Cole?)
soto is 100% going to become the biggest total deal, beyond ohtani. today id bet on over $500m.
i have said for 2 weeks that's why i think the yankees were most restricted in this bidding war, because that one is going to be more important for them.
i have no idea how in/out the nyy are on imanaga/montgomery but i think every extra $ they can get cohen to spend is effort they are happy to make right now.
Okay Captain Obvious. Since the Nats traded him because he turned down $440M+ over two years ago, everyone and their brother knew he was going to go for more than $500M. And water is wet.
You also seem to fail to grasp the basics of payroll construction. The Yanks have the least problem of anyone to sign Soto. He will pulls down something in the range of $33M in arbitration. That means to sign him to a $50M per deal, they only have to find an additional $17M- where every other team has to find $50M to give him.
Just letting go of Rizzo and his $20M for luxury tax purposes achieves that goal.
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In comment 16332486 DanMetroMan said:
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the Yankees drew that line with Cole, Soto is 1000% going to ger more than Judge. Will they just view keeping a current Yankee (Soto) as different than paying a FA more than your guy (Cole?)
soto is 100% going to become the biggest total deal, beyond ohtani. today id bet on over $500m.
i have said for 2 weeks that's why i think the yankees were most restricted in this bidding war, because that one is going to be more important for them.
i have no idea how in/out the nyy are on imanaga/montgomery but i think every extra $ they can get cohen to spend is effort they are happy to make right now.
Okay Captain Obvious. Since the Nats traded him because he turned down $440M+ over two years ago, everyone and their brother knew he was going to go for more than $500M. And water is wet.
You also seem to fail to grasp the basics of payroll construction. The Yanks have the least problem of anyone to sign Soto. He will pulls down something in the range of $33M in arbitration. That means to sign him to a $50M per deal, they only have to find an additional $17M- where every other team has to find $50M to give him.
Just letting go of Rizzo and his $20M for luxury tax purposes achieves that goal.
okay captain missing the obvious where did i say the yankees would have a "problem" resigning soto?
the last couple weeks have made it pretty clear that nyy fans do occasionally need to read met fans to understand their payroll, so let me help translate the bolded parts my post for you:
"more restricted in this bidding war" = yamamoto negotiation, you know the one where the yankees just lost because they refused to increase their offer when given the chance
"that one is going to be more important" = soto next year
supposedly their yamamoto pursuit was in part to start developing relationships to be more involved in the foreign markets.
id imagine another part of it was considering swapping the salary slot they currently have dedicated to wheeler, to a guy 10 years younger, and now they will shift to some kind of reasonable extension with wheeler.
burnes likely gets to FA bc of boras but i think counting on next year as a great FA pitching year already seems shaky. braves extend fried and it basically turns into burnes or bust, and off a good year the line to sign him will be almost as long as yamamotos.
* Australia