Mack’s Morning Report - 2-12-16 – Wilmer Flores, Resigning the ‘Big 5’, Jeff Wilpon, Jacob deGrom

Good morning.

Milo Taibi on Wilmer Flores -

Flores delivered a surprisingly candid analysis of his defensive skill-set, acknowledging his "limits at short." Indeed, Flores seemed more comfortable playing second base than shortstop, where he posted a -2.5 UZR last season. While the majority of Flores's big league defensive experience has come in the middle infield—with the exception of 27 appearances at third base between 2013 and 2014—he is slated to spell Lucas Duda and David Wright as a corner infielder. Having played first base in only 20 minor league games, Flores will be learning on the job at the big league level. With dramatic lefty/righty splits, Flores would be an ideal candidate to receive starts against southpaws.

Mack – The plan seems to be that Flores will play all four infield positions both throughout spring training and the regular season. My guess is shortstop will be played mostly by Asdrubal Cabrera, both because of Flores’ limits at that position and the fact that Cabrera switch hits.

Flores has also said recently that he hopes he will stay a Met ‘forever’. Do you really think statements like this are going to influence Sandy and Company from moving him someday?

Ex-Mack’s Mets writer Brian Mangan painted a rosy picture on the chances of the Mets resigning all members of their super-rotation -

So, for now, just enjoy it. The Mets have put together a strong, competitive roster for 2016 that will return almost in its entirety for 2017. In 2019, Harvey hits free agency but the Mets two most expensive contracts that year are David Wright (only $15 million) and Juan Lagares ($9 million). If deGrom, Syndergaard, Matz and Wheeler are all dealing at that point, that’s still an incredibly cheap and productive core to build around, and they ought to have the salary flexibility (only committed $80 million after arbitration raises) to do something about it.

Mack – Brian is a great writer and he really did him homework on this piece. Give it a good look.

There actually is a good chance that the Mets could retain the majority of the ‘Big 5’ because they will be reaching their free agency year spread out over six years.

Add to this a degree of success by homegrown, team controlled talent and this could be pulled off.

Like I said, read the story.

Bob Klapisch Bob Klapsich wrote an article and gave some advice to a number of big names in baseball… including Jeff Wilpon –

JEFF WILPON: Congratulations, you’ve accomplished a modern-day miracle: Thanks to your willingness to spend freely on Yoenis Cespedes, Mets fans are no longer cursing you. We’ll stop short of saying they love ownership, but let’s be fair. The haters — and they were legion — have no room to complain anymore. You stepped up with the cash when it counted.

So why not take advantage of the good will, come out into the daylight and hold a press conference?

Answer questions, assure the ticket buyers the Wilpon family is in it for the long haul and that the endless Russian winter is indeed over in Flushing.

Stop hiding behind Sandy Alderson and show everyone you’re human.

Nothing wrong with taking a victory lap, especially when it’s legit.

          Mack – I don’t know if I agree with Bob here.

Everything is going along so well. Do we really need Jeff to step to the mike and say something dumb like “we’ll except nothing less that 100 wins”?

Oops, I’m sorry. That’s what Tom said.

And this is really good news…

 Adam Rubin reported that Jacob deGrom is up for a contract extension. –

"I'm a little bit older, so I might be more willing to do something like that," deGrom, 27, told the New York Post. "You just have to look at what is fair so both sides get a decent deal. It's something I'd have to look into and make sure I agree with it. ...I haven’t thought that much about it and I have to talk to my agents and stuff and look at the numbers and decide what was favorable."

Mack – I’m writing a day ahead again because I will be offline all weekend and I have to generate some kind of Morning Report for Sunday and Monday…

That being said, this is the kind of story that you hope is eliminated before this post goes to print.

I would love deGrom locked up through, let’s say, 2022.The Mets then could move on to Jeurys Famila and (frankly) going through the motions with Matt Harvey.