Mack – New Weekly Post

Good morning.

Twitter correspondence between myself and Mets pitcher Andrew Church:

Andrew Church - @PapaChurch36 - I guess the word is out now. I will be back and ready to work as hard as I can to not only be the best player I can be, but to win. I have taken full advantage of my time away from the game to better understand myself as a baseball player and as a man. Now I’m ready.

Mack - @JohnMackinAde - you get em'

Andrew Church - Will do!!

PC - Ed Delany

Andrew came to the Mets straight out of high school in the second round of the 2013 season. We are now in 2019. He has spent six seasons in the Mets chain and this would be the year needs to step up. Frankly, so far he hasn’t. A 4.73/1.41 career stat line with only 289-K in 427-IP is not good enough and Andrew is the first to realize this. A lot of people had this guy either released or retired after last season, but that’s the plan here.

I wish Andrew all the best.

I want to write a little about the International signing period that is quickly coming upon us.

PC - Ernest Dove

It was reported this past week that the Mets are the odds-on favorite to sign uber-prospect, 16-year old Alexander Ramirez, on July 2^nd, during the International signing period. The 6-3 outfielder will ink a seven-figure bonus, similar to the one given out to catcher Francisco Alvarez and outfielder Freddy Valdez last year.

This ‘raising of the bar’ by the Mets internationally seem to begin in 2015 with the signings of shortstops Andres Gimenez ($1.2mil) and Gregory Guerrero ($1.5mil). This continued with the signings of OF Adrian Hernandez (2017: $1.5mil) and SS Ronny Mauricio (2017: $2.1mil), Alvarez (2018: $2.7mil) and Valdez (2018: $1.45mil).

The educated rumor regarding Ramirez only goes to prove that this increased Mets international presence will continue under Omar Minaya and  Allard Baird.

Remember… this is not the domestic draft. If you sign a player here, you don’t have to wait until 29 other players are picked by other teams. Think of it like high school seniors deciding what college to commit to. Every school is up for grabs.

The Mets have finally figured out that the only limit here is what the league allows you to spend and they are investing in the scouting needed to secure the respect of the players, their parents and the representative/agent that has much of the power here.

Eventually, all this cream will rise to the top and, coupled with excellent domestic drafting, you will have the kind of organizational depth that will allow you to determine your own fate.

The first thing they did was build a state- of-the-art facility in the Dominican Republic, similar to the one in Port St. Lucie Florida.  Then came Omar, followed by Baird.

Let’s hope Ramirez isn’t the only stud that will be signed this year.

Speaking of stadiums…

(this was written prior to last night's announcement that the Mets and the town have agreed to a new deal that stretches past 2040...)

There was a story written this past week in the Port St. Lucie newspaper that the Mets may be looking to (jump ship ) if they can’t get their renovation deal with St. Lucie County back on course.

I watched from afar a similar dust up between the Savannah (GA) powers to be and the Sand Gnats that eventually cost the Coastal Empire a minor league franchise.

As for Port St. Lucie and the Mets, I can’t see things not being settled here. I have been there a number of times and can speak from experience that this entire community is built around the team and its players. The residents are retired Mets fans from the New York area and the rest of the homes are owned by the Mets players that house down there when they are rehabbing or during spring training. Throw in all the restaurants and you could imagine how much of a ghost town this would become if the team was to leave.

An example of this is just one exit north on I-95. Here’s an old story I wrote about it:  Dodgertown

The vast majority of people still living in Vero Beach are 90+ year olds, driving at 20 miles per hour back and forth to their doctors and drug store. The team is gone, the restaurants have closed, and the heart was ripped out of this community when the Dodgers moved their spring training operation westward.

I just don’t see this happening to Lucy.

Lastly…

PC - Ernest Dove

The chatter war on Twitter about Jacob deGrom, Mets beat writers, fans, and the Mets front office is getting more heated every hour. The latest salvo comes from Jake’s agent who says that if a renegotiation deal isn’t done before the end of spring training, he will end any contact with both he and his client (Jake).

I have always been a proponent of negotiating deGrom’s contract, but I have to tell you, I have made a 180 on this. I predict that baseball will basically see the end of the 7-10 year contract extensions and there will be a tremendous amount of pitching talent available to us over the upcoming seasons.

I look for General Managers to tell agents that they need to bring their clients to them for a three year extension, with an additional 4^th year team option.

We have two more years of control over deGrom, who will then be 32 years old. Are we supposed to give, let’s say, a 5-year additional extension to deGrom on top of this commitment? That means we would end up with a 37-year old pitcher.

 

If I told you that the Mets agreed to a $35mil one year deal for a 37-year old pitcher, you would storm their executive office.

Yes, our pipeline could use a little more depth and talent but I’d rather see them concentrate any extension effort on Zack Wheeler who becomes a free agent after this season. Zack turns 29 in May. A 3-year extension would be just fine here.