Mack Report: - The Holidays, January Workouts, Trading for an SP

Holiday time is upon us.


The celebration of Chanukah has just completed and Christmas is just around the corner. David Wright was Santa Claus and David Rubin volunteered to be the dradle. I wanted to take this opportunity to wish all of you a wonderful and healthy holiday season. We rant and rave about the Mets all year here, but the reality is the only things that are important are our family, friends, and our health.


The Mets seem to be in the holiday spirit. Their latest fan-friendly addition is having players live on twitter, taking questions from the masses. David Wright, Carlos Beltran, Ike Davis, and Jason Bay have all been featured this week and we assume this will continue with more members of the team. Can't wait for Ollie.


Not much else is going on right now in Met-land. It’s that time of the year.


My next big deal comes in January when the Mets have their first workouts at their Port St. Lucie complex. This is the same workouts, designed for key minor leaguers and IR-returnees, that Terry Collins made his first Met headlines at last year. Rumors are that even Wright is thinking of coming to this one and I expect a tremendous turnout by members of the 25-man squad to show solidarity with the new management team.


In a strange way, the Philadelphia acquisition of Cliff Lee has taken the pressure off of everyone associated with the Mets. No one expects any playoff games to be played in 2011, so everyone can remain targeted on 2012 and beyond. The emphasis on 2011 will be on the overall health of the 25-man squad, which includes both players penciled in for a long history with the Mets, but also players that can increase their trade value up to the all-star break in the summer.


It’s interesting that the Mets seem to be trying to solve their 2011 rotation problems through a trade, rather than free agency. Mr. Alderson has a unique problem right now. He knows that both Matt Harvey and Jenrry Mejia are in the 2012 mix; however, there simply isn’t five decent starters right now to put up a decent show in 2011. The real problem is all the other teams know that the Mets really only have a handful of B/A- prospects right now in the system and that’s all they want them in a trade.


The Pedro Feliciano to the Yankees deal is done and the Mets will receive another draft pick in the supplemental first round. That gives them three picks in the top two rounds of a deep draft. This is very good news.