6/30/19

Mack - 2019 Mets Transactions, Kudos, Comments, and Draft Update






Thursday, June 27th


      AA-Binghamton transfers P Jaison Vilera to Low-A Brooklyn
           That was quick…

     In order for the Mets to make room for the addition of SP Chris Mazza, they chose to DFA RP Ryan O’Rourke.

You would think that a team that has a horrible pen would hold on to someone with some success there. Not true. The 31-year old O’Rourke was 0.00 in two outings for the Mets and 3.31 in 26 games for AAA-Syracuse.

Go figure.

Kudos –

      DSL-1 catcher, Fernando Villalobos: 1-1, BB, 1.000
It didn’t take much time for the Mats to promote Villalobos to a DSL team. He might have been a little too amps up (two throwing errors early on), so they entered his debut early.

DSL-2 LF, Dyron Campos: 3-4, R, .352

DSl-2 RP, Antonio Villalba: 3-IP, 0-R, still after 15.2-IP… 0.00

Low-A Brooklyn RP, Liam McCall: 2-IP, 0-R, 3-K, 0.00

AA-Binghamton C, Ali Sanchez: 2-4, R, .307
He is now on the back end of an 18-game hitting streak.

      And who said this was a glove only prospect?

AA-Binghamton RP, Stephen Villines: 1-IP, 0-R, K, 0.00

5 St. Lucie relievers joined forces to produce a 3-hit, 12-K, shutout… lead by Ezequiel Zabaleta (1-IP, 1.69), Yeizo Campos (1.1-IP, 1.37), and Jake Simon (3-IP, 1.93).

      Need a Mets bullpen? I got one here for you.

AAA-Syracuse rehabbing RP, Luis Avilan: 1-IP, 0-R, K- 0.00

Low-A Brooklyn catcher, Jake Ortega: 3-4, RBI, .667

Low-A Brooklyn rehabbing 3B, Sam Haggerty: 2-3, R, .667

Low-A Brooklyn SP, Daison Acosta: 4.1-IP, 0-R, 6-K, 1.35

Low-A Brooklyn rehabbing RP, Jeurys Familia: 1-1-IP, 0-R, 2-K, 0.00

      Now if only he could… don’t go there!

A-Columbia SP Thomas Szapucki: 50-pitches, 4-IP, 0-R, 0-H, 4-K, 2.08

Yes, Szapucki was pitching a no-hitter when he was pulled, but he continues to be on a strict pitch could. Now up to 50.

A-Columbia RP, Tylor Megill: 4.1-IP, 0-R, 5-K, 1.21

Mack - A Sign of Life At The Lower Levels


Okay...

Last week I wrote about how bad this team is. I especially targeted that claim on the lack of talent in the three upper level affiliates. 

This column is different.

This column takes a look at the last domestic and International draft, plus the players currently playing on short-season teams. 

There are things to get excited about here.

The first are the International 16-year olds that were signed in the 2018/2019 IFA draft. One uber prospect that is playing right now for the DSL-1 team, is 17-year old Freddy Valdez. The Mets gve him a $1.45mil bonus to sign and he's holding his own in his first professional season.

The other two that came out of the same draft as Valdez (last June) were both catchers. One, Francisco Alvarez, was paid a record $2.7mil bonus by the Mets. He still is developing in came and probably won't be assigned to a DSL team until next season.

The other is Fernando Villalobos, who was a holdout for more money. Reports are that the 'Boys From Boston', our new draft guys, put this together by upping the ante with money ($500K) they received from the Broxton deal.

My guess the signing bonus was in the $1.5mil range.

Villalobos was just assigned to the DSL-1 team so it's probably a good chance that we will see him play this season. The good thing is we finally have two red chip catchers in the organization and both can eventually start moving up the chain along side themselves for the two DSL teams.

Domestically, if reports are true, this may turn out to be the best draft I have ever seen since I started doing this is the early 2000s. The top three draft picks (3B Brett Baty (GCL), RHP Josh Wolf (still unassigned) and RHP, Matthew Allan represent three of the top 37 ranked prospects in the draft.


The addition of these three would instantly redefine the current GCL squad. You have two of the top five prep pitchers in this past draft and the best prep third baseman.

Next comes the soon to be signed CF Jake Magnum, out of Mississippi State. Yes, Jake is a senior, but he's also the real deal. He was mysteriously drafted only in the 32nd round a year ago, ironically also by the Mets. I have never understood why players chose to go back and play their senior year. It doesn't matter what you do. You are still going to be given a minimum signing bonus. 

The other thing is we drafted him last year as a pitcher. This year we picked him for his bat: .357/.415/.468, 1-HR, 71-R, 21-SB.

He is 23 and seasoned enough to start even in St. Lucie, but, my guess (especially after seeing how bad the bats are missing balls there so far this season) is he will open up in Brooklyn.

(stats through end Friday night)

Getting back to the DSL teams:

DSL-2 catcher, Jose Hernandez, is hitting 375/.531/.417 but is doing this in only 24 at-bats because the guy he is splitting time with, 

DSL-1 catcher, Endy Rodriguez, has 18-RBIs in 
9 games (27 at-bats), with 2-HRs and an OPS of 1.124, and now has to share time with Villalobos (4-AB, .500).

The DSL-1 team also has two middle infielders that are making noise. 

Luis Castillo is 17-years old and playing in his first professional season. So far, in 46-AB, his stat line is: .333/.407/.417/824

Federico Polanco  is 18-years old and is hitting .321 in his second DSL season, He hit only .201 in 249-ABs for the DSL-2 team last year. One can improve with hard work and age.

19-year old OF, Carlos Dominguez is another first year professional and he's currently hitting .321.

Pitching wise, 17-year old, Ronny Rincones, is a first pro-year starter and has given up only 2-H on 15.1-IP. His ERA/WHIP in 0.00/0.65.

20-yr. old, Jhonfran Escalona, and 18-yr. old Robert Ramirez have a combined 0.00-ERA in 11.1-IP. 

DSL-2 wise...

Two outfielders are standing out. 18-yr. old, Dyron Campos (.330) and 19-yr. old Kenedy Corona (.296) are turning heads early. They too are first year pros.

Starter wise, Emmanuel Almonte and Carlos Castro are both putting up good numbers; however, both are already in their twenties which eliminates them as a prospect at this level.

Relief wise, 19-year old Antonio Villalba pitched 1.77 in 22-outings last season. This year he's 0.00 in 18.2-IP. Why is this guy still across the pond?

Lastly, 18-yr. old RP, Marco Villegas is 0.00 through 11.2-IP.


This is a lot of good players and I haven't even discussed Kingsport.

There is talent in this organization. Now, we have to just add to it and not trade any of them away in bad deals.














6/29/19

METS SIGN 2019 THIRD-ROUND DRAFT PICK RHP MATT ALLAN



METS SIGN 2019 THIRD-ROUND DRAFT PICK RHP MATT ALLAN

FLUSHING, N.Y., June 28, 2019 – The New York Mets today announced that the club has signed RHP Matt Allan from Seminole High School (FL), the 89rd overall pick of the 2019 First-Year Player Draft.

Allan, 18, was listed by ESPN as the best high school pitcher in the draft and he was ranked as the 13th-best prospect by MLB.com. Baseball America had Allan as the top ranked high school pitcher in the draft the 16th-best prospect in the entire draft.

The 6-3, 225-pounder pitched a perfect game with 17 strikeouts in the Florida district semifinals to help send Seminole to the region tournament. He struck out eight and hit a go-ahead homer in the state region final to put Seminole in the state finals, which they eventually won.

The Mets have signed 26 of their draft picks, including three of the top 36 prospects in the entire draft according to MLB.com and three of the top 55 prospects according to Baseball America.

THE 1969 WORLD SERIES CHAMPION METS TO RECEIVE THE KEY TO THE CITY

THE 1969 WORLD SERIES CHAMPION METS TO RECEIVE 
THE KEY TO THE CITY

DETAILS:  Players from the 1969 World Series Champion Mets will receive the key to the city from the Mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio. Following the presentation, members of the 1969 Mets will be available to the media for interviews.


WHEN:  Saturday, June 29, 2019 at 1:45 p.m.


WHO:  Mets COO Jeff Wilpon
Members of the 1969 World Series Championship team including Jerry Koosman, Bud Harrelson, Jerry Grote, Cleon Jones, Art Shamsky and many more.


WHERE: The Press Conference Room at Citi Field.

Reese Kaplan -- Fixing the Mets, Blank Slate Edition



We’ve reached the seemingly annual rite of passage where the point in the season has come when you have to decide if you are buyers or sellers.  The previous two years the club was most definitely sellers of expiring contracts, though they seemed inclined to give away the players for any warm body who would cost them significantly less rather than actually insisting on someone of quality be returned for the outgoing quality.

What we’ve seen in the past several seasons in the inevitable half-measures where you made just enough transactions to appear to be doing something of significance but never quite jumping into the deep end of the pool.  Part of that has to do with an unwillingness to spend, part of it has to do with remarkably bad drafting and part of it squarely belongs on the incompetence of the front office.

The fallacy that you can’t rebuild in New York is accepted without any rational questioning of it.  How many people would rather have seen 2 really bad years in exchange for 7 competitive ones vs. 2 competitive ones and 7 water torture mediocrities? 


Let’s start with a blank page.  If you are in charge of the Mets right now, what would you do to try to turn things around for 2020 and beyond?


The Keepers

This admittedly small group is the core around which you build for the future.  It would include Jacob deGrom, Edwin Diaz, Pete Alonso, Michael Conforto and Jeff McNeil.  Some might even argue that Diaz is hardly untouchable, but as porous as the bullpen has been, you need to start somewhere and he’s still earning very little money for what (until lately) is more often good performance than bad.  Can you make the case for anyone else?


The Expiring Contracts

Zack Wheeler is enigmatic in that he can put together a brilliant start followed immediately by a clunker.  He’s surely not showing the consistency he did in 2018, but he’s young enough and apparently healthy enough that there should be a long line of prospective takers for the free-agent-to-be.

Jason Vargas is having something of a career renaissance late into his Mets’ tenure.  While the club could make the case to pick up his option for next year at an incremental cost of just $6 million over what it would cost to show him the door, the fact is you don’t build for the future around 37 year old pitchers.

Todd Frazier is also late into his Mets career finally shaking the rust off his two consecutive .213 seasons.  Sell high!  His contract expires at year’s end and you’re not going to make him a QO, so what’s the point of hanging onto him?

Juan Lagares is a sunk cost.  Pay down nearly his entire salary in the hopes you can get someone to part with a wildcard type prospect.



The Fringe Players

Seth Lugo is an interesting choice.  When he’s good, he’s very good, but his arm seems to be held together with some combination of Scotch Tape and Gorilla Glue.  Despite his recent meltdown, I’d certainly be tempted to sell high on him if another club is willing to assume the health risk. 

What about Dominic Smith?  Yes, he appears to have turned the corner on his development but there’s a 27 HR monster at 1st base who now owns that position.  Smith is demonstrating he’s available if not capable of playing the outfield, so he’s better off used as a trade chip to a team in need of either a 1st baseman or a DH. 

Amed Rosario is not showing himself to be the defensive whiz we were led to believe he was.  Uber prospect Andres Gimenez appeared to be next in line until he hit the offensive wall this year.  Ronny Mauricio may leapfrog him yet on the SS depth chart.  There’s been some talk of shifting Rosario to CF, so obviously the powers that be are not sold on him as a long term solution either. 

Noah Syndergaard is another pitcher, like Lugo, who seems to have a devil of a time staying healthy.  In his case, throwing 100 MPH can only exacerbate that situation.  Still, his gaudy strikeout numbers will stand out and he, like Smith, may be more valuable to the club as a trade chip than as a long term member of the rotation. 

Steven Matz continues to be an enigma.  He shows flashes of brilliance then gets rattled by a bad call or a few bleeder hits.  His own health has been fragile to say the least, so he doesn’t necessarily seem like a good long-term bet either, but other clubs will see what we’ve seen and you may wind up with him on your roster by default.

Wilson Ramos is proving as a catcher to be a decent hitter, but already Jacob deGrom is asking for and mostly receiving a more adept batterymate with a balsa wood bat on the days that he starts.  He’s on the hook to the Mets for one more year at modest money, so he could be traded but what would it accomplish?  The Mets are not exactly flush with catching talent at the upper levels of the minors ready to step in and take over.


The Untradeables

The first on the list, of course, is Robinson Cano.  He’s yet to demonstrate that his 2019 results are neither an inevitable age-related decline or what happens after they start screening you more closely for banned substances.  Get used to him, folks…he’s here until after age 40. 

Brandon Nimmo is having a much more serious health issue than was initially suspected.  No one is going to offer much of anything until he’s back on the field again.  Consequently his roster spot is safe.

Unless the Mets can get a good (read expensive) lawyer to void Yoenis Cespedes’ contract for sustaining a non-baseball injury, his roster spot for 2020 is also solid.  Who but the Mets would pay him $29.5 million?

Finally there’s the guy in witness protection, Jed Lowrie.  He has yet to play a game for the Mets yet they’re obligated to pay him another $10 million again next year as well. 

Summary

So you have five core players and four untradeables if you were to start over again.  That’s 16 roster spots to fill if you did not seek to retain any of the fringe players.  A few of them like Lugo, Smith and Syndergaard could go a long way towards restoring long term viability.  The rest, meh…not so much.

Who are your keepers?

6/28/19

Syracuse Mets infielder Dilson Herrera named a 2019 International League All-Star

PC - Danny Tripodi

Syracuse Mets infielder Dilson Herrera has been selected to the 2019 International League All-Star Team that will compete against the Pacific Coast League's All-Stars at Southwest University Park in El Paso, TX on Wednesday, July 10th at 9:00 p.m. The selection marks Herrera’s third time being named an All-Star. The 25-year-old was named a South Atlantic League All-Star with West Virginia (A-Pirates) in 2013 and a Florida State League All-Star with St. Lucie (A-Mets) in 2014.

Herrera has a career-high 17 home runs this season, which leads the team and ranks seventh in the International League. Herrera also leads the team with 16 doubles. The Cartagena, Columbia native’s 33 extra-base hits rank tenth in the league. Entering today, Herrera has a .267 batting average with 38 RBIs this year. Since June 9th, Herrera has reached base in 16 straight games with hits in 15 of those games. During that stretch, Herrera is third in the league with a .400 batting average (22-for-55) and leads the league with eight home runs.

“I’m really excited to make the team,” Herrera said. “I’ve been working hard every day to get better, and this is an exciting opportunity.”

“We’re excited for Dilson to represent the Syracuse Mets,” said Mets manager Tony DeFrancesco. “He’s been a good power bat in our lineup and has been driving in runs for us, especially recently.”

Herrera is in his fourth season in the New York Mets organization and his first since 2016. Herrera made his MLB debut with the Mets in 2014 and also played part of the 2015 season with New York. He spent the last two and a half years in the Cincinnati Reds organization before signing a minor league contract with the Mets before this season.

Rumble Ponies Game Notes: #75 Rumble Ponies (3-7) vs. Altoona Curve (5-3)

BINGHAMTON RUMBLE PONIES
(3-7, 38-36), 6th Eastern Division
(New York Mets)
ALTOONA CURVE
(5-3, 40-35), 3rd Western Division
(Pittsburgh Pirates)


Friday June 28, 2019  7:00 PM
Peoples Natural Gas Field Altoona, PA
LHP David Peterson (3-2, 4.34 ERA) vs. RHP Pedro Vasquez (6-1, 2.24 ERA)
Broadcast: NewsRadio 1290 AM WNBF, MiLB.TV



TONIGHT: The Binghamton Rumble Ponies continue their five-game series on the road against the Altoona Curve. This is part of an eight-game road trip in which they will also visit Erie before returning home to face Akron.

LAST TIME OUT: The Rumble Ponies dropped the opener of the series to Altoona. Binghamton scored first with a two-run single by Luis Carpio in the top of the first. Altoona was powered by home runs from Jerrick Suiter and Robbie Glendinning. Ponies starter Andrew Church (0-2) suffered the loss after going seven innings in which he allowed six runs (five earned) on eight hits and struck out four.

STREAKING SANCHEZ: Ali Sanchez had a pair of singles Thursday to extend his hitting streak to a season-high18 games and holds the mark for the longest hitting streak in the Eastern League this season. It was his 10th multi-hit game of 2019. Over this stretch: Sanchez is hitting .406 (26-64) with nine RBI, seven doubles, and seven runs scored. He has raised his batting average by more than 50 points and currently sits second in the EL at .307.

PETERSON TAKES THE MOUND: LHP David Peterson makes the start tonight. He is 3-2 on the year with a 4.34 ERA  In his last two outings, he has struck out a total of 14 and gave up two runs  in each start. The Ponies are 7-2 in his last nine starts.
  
MAZZA PROMOTED TO MLB: RHP Chris Mazza was promoted to the New York Mets Wednesday. He is the second Rumble Pony called up to the Majors this year, joining RHP Stephen Nogosek. Mazza was 0-2 with a 3.42 ERA and 21 strikeouts in four starts with the Ponies. He went 3-3 with a 3.67 ERA and 44 strikeouts in eight appearances with Triple-A Syracuse.

FINAL MATCHUP WITH ALTOONA: This five game series will be the final meeting between the two clubs this season and is the only time the Rumble Ponies travel to Altoona. The Ponies are now 2-4 against the Curve.

FIVE PONIES HEADING TO ASG: Five members of the Rumble Ponies have been selected to this year’s Eastern League all-star game. They are RHP Harol Gonzalez, second basemen Sam Haggerty, outfielder Braxton Lee, catcher/first basemen Patrick Mazeika, and RHP Adonis Uceta. Binghamton is tied for the second-most all-stars behind Richmond’s six selections. The all-star game will be played July 10 at The Diamond in Richmond, VA.

COMING UP: The Ponies continue their five-game series in Altoona with a doubleheader Saturday. Game one starts at 4:30PM. The second game of the day will be a makeup of the June 16 postponement. The teams will wrap up their five-game series Sunday at 6:00PM.

Tom Brennan - LOWER METS MINORS TEAM HITTING STATS


There are many measures of an organization's ability to build a successful major league franchise.

One is team offense.

How are the lower Mets minors teams hitting? Let's peek:


Columbia - A ball:

74 games: .226/.291/.331, but .260 over the last 35-40 games.


Brooklyn - high rookie league ball:

12 games: .194/.255/.301 - Last in hitting. 

Ahh, Brooklyn teams often start mighty slow offensively.


Kingsport - mid level rookie league ball:

9 games: .274/.358/.423 - first in hitting so far.


GCL Mets - lower level rookie league ball:

Just 3 games: .245/.348/.457 - so far, so good.


DSL - kiddie league:

There are 45 teams, and the Mets have two of them.

They're hitting 4th (nice) and 29th (not as nice) so far; both are about 20 games in:

DSL 1 .271/.366/.384

DSL 2 .240/.336/.334


It is early to draw conclusions - but hitting seems largely lackluster so far.


Tom Brennan - METS 2019 R.I.P.


The morgue staff slides the body out of the refrigerated compartment.  The sheet is pulled back.

"Yes", you say.  "That's him.  I can't believe he's dead.  He was so young."


Wait, didn't we see this episode of  CSI - NY last year?


Mr. Met's 2019 life started out in such promising fashion - 9-4 record, happiness in Metsville.


What we did not realize, however, is that Mr. Met had colluded with the Russians to destroy the 2019 season.  


A dossier was just discovered that shows that the bullpen was being weaponized to take down the Mets season.

After a brutal several days through Wednesday, Thursday arrived.  Time to put the final plan into motion.

Mets trail 1-0 going into the 9th inning.  

Todd Frazier valiantly battles the Phil's elite closer and eventually hits a dramatic and wonderful 2 run shot.  Another 3 hits and the Mets push across an insurance run. 

Wow - could this be a turning point for this team, a point from which to rally?

Nyet.

Of course, Manchurian Candidate Edwin Diaz, activated and weaponized by the Russians, coughs up 5 runs in just 1/3 of an inning, and is seen walking off the mound muttering in Russian.  A lip reader was certain he said, "I have completed my mission, Vladimir."


The bullpen had done its job - as it had so many times before for Mother Russia - and the season was declared dead. 


Some will say, "Wait, can't the patient be resurrected to win the Wild Card?"  No, the poison used was too potent, and even if the patient shows some miraculous signs of life, there is plenty more biotoxins to administer. 

After all, the season has 80 games left.

And the Mets are 6.5 games out in the Wild Card, with 7 teams in front of them.

Nyet.  Season is over, comrade.  Weaponized bullpen, comrade, was something even Jason Bourne couldn't stop.


There's always 2020, some say, but they forget - but Comrade Wilpon is still in charge.


It is time to sell Mets players on the Black Market - at a discount, of course.

Reese Kaplan -- Firestarters -- Mets' Pen Epically Bad



Part of the job of anyone in a management capacity is planning and part of it is to take corrective action when the best laid plans don’t unfold as had been expected.  When Brodie Van Wagenen spent his off-season fortifying the roster, bullpen issues were front and center.  

He added the AL Saves leader in Edwin Diaz, left handed (albeit erratic) Justin Wilson and brought back former closer Jeurys Familia.  In addition he signed a few folks to minor league contracts that looked like more than the average depth deals, including former All Star Hector Santiago and fellow lefty Luis Avilan. 

Well, anyone who has had the misfortune of watching the games this season has seen that nearly every one of these moves has blown up in the team’s face.  

Diaz has had his awesome moments but lately he's succumbed to the same malady plaguing the rest of the staff when it comes to blowing games.  Justin Wilson has not “garonteed” anything but more time on the sidelines to eat crawfish.  Jeurys Familia is being told to rub dirt on his Bennett Lesion.  Luis Avilan is just now beginning a rehab assignment.  Only Hector Santiago remained healthy, though highly ineffective.
 



Just how bad has the pen been?  Well, I suggest you keep an airsick bag nearby before reading any further as the club not surprisingly leads the league in blown saves.  

Some of these issues are the manager’s doing by stubbornly refusing to insert his closer in game-on-the-line situations unless they coincidentally happen to occur when he would qualify to get a save.  More of it, however, is the result of poor execution by the pitchers themselves.  Both the pitching coach and bullpen coach were made ceremonial scapegoats for the ineptitude. 

First, let’s look at the current bullpen.  After Edwin Diaz you have Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman, two pitchers with maddening inconsistency (and in Lugo’s case, a duct-taped arm).  On the surface that’s not too bad a start, but then it gets real ugly real fast.  

The next group includes former starter Chris Flexen, swingman Wilmer Font, recently pounded Brooks Pounders, a guy making me yearn for his traded resource, Kevin Plawecki’s mound savvy, Walker Lockett, and the last hope for anything worthwhile from the great selloff of 2017, Stephen Nogosek. 



Others who have served their time in the bullpen purgatory include Tim Peterson, Jacob Rhame, Corey Oswalt, Daniel Zamora, Paul Sewald, Tyler Bashlor and Ryan O’Rourke.  Collectively this group has contributed a lot of gasoline when asked to put out fires.  They have logged in aggregate over 72 innings, provided a devilishly bad ERA of 6.66 and staked the opposition to nearly 2 runners per inning pitched.

Now the primary group of relievers must be decidedly better, right?  Well, compared to the has-beens in group 2, perhaps.  Compared to other teams and probably it’s understandable why the pen is such a mess.  They have a collective ERA of 4.90 and a 1.39 WHIP over a total of 162 innings.  

About the only saving grace has been the relatively speaking low number of walks compared to the dispatched-to-the-minors set.  They have yielded about 3.67 per 9 innings, not great but not the stuff of bad legends, either.  The others – ouch!  That demoted group has provided the opposition with 6.4 walks per 9 IP. 


Now that octogenarian Phil Regan is on board as pitching coach and Ricky Bones is back in the bullpen will things change?  Thus far the answer is a resounding no, but it’s only been about a week.  The problem isn’t the coaches as much as it is the front office who thinks that guys with career ERAs of 6.09 and 8.93 (Font and Pounders respectively) are the collective answer.  

Then when they pitch to ERAs of 5.26 and 9.00, no one should be surprised, particularly the folks in the front office.  Please let the selloff begin.  It’s about the only thing that will sustain interest in this season other than Pete Alonso’s homers, Jeff McNeil’s batting average and Jacob deGrom’s starts. 

6/27/19

METS HONOR TOM SEAVER WITH ADDRESS CHANGE


METS HONOR TOM SEAVER WITH ADDRESS CHANGE

FLUSHING, N.Y., June 27, 2019 – Moments ago, the New York Mets and the City of New York honored Hall of Famer Tom Seaver by renaming the street between Northern Blvd. and Roosevelt Ave. (formerly 126th St.) to Seaver Way and changing the address of Citi Field to 41 Seaver Way. Mets COO Jeff Wilpon announced the change in a ceremony in front of the ballpark.

In addition to the renaming of the street and address, Wilpon announced that the team has commissioned a statue of Seaver to be built in an area near the Home Run Apple in front of Citi Field. Additional details will be announced at a later date.

“Tom was a once-in-a-lifetime player and will always be remembered as one of the greatest players in Mets history.  Tom truly lived up to his nicknames of “Tom Terrific” and “The Franchise,”” said Mets COO Jeff Wilpon. “The address change to 41 Seaver Way has been in the works for a long time and is the first of our efforts to honor Tom. Today we are also officially announcing that we have commissioned a statue in honor of Tom that will be coming soon to Citi Field.”

“We were so happy to be part of this ceremony and our father is so honored and humbled to be memorialized in these ways,” Sarah Seaver Zaske and Anne Seaver said. “We thank the amazing fans for their outpouring of love and support.”

Seaver spent 12 years with the Mets and went 198-124 in 401 games with a 2.57 ERA (870 earned runs/3,045.2 innings) with 2,541 strikeouts. Nicknamed “The Franchise,” Seaver is the Mets all-time leader in wins, strikeouts, shutouts (44), ERA, complete games (171) and starts (395). He won three Cy Young Awards with the team in 1969, 1973 and 1975 as well as the Rookie of the Year in 1967. Seaver led the team to the 1969 World Series championship going 25-7 with a 2.21 ERA (67 earned runs/273.1 innings) in 1969 and led the Mets to the 1973 NL Championship after going 19-10 with a 2.08 ERA (67 earned runs/290.0 innings).

The Mets previously honored Seaver by retiring his uniform number, 41, and inducted him into the team’s Hall of Fame in 1988. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on his first ballot in 1992 with 425 of a possible 430 votes. Overall, he compiled a 311-205 record in 656 career games with a 2.86 ERA (1,521 earned runs/4,783.0 innings) with 3,640 strikeouts.

The Mets will continue to celebrate the 1969 World Series Championship team with a series of events this weekend.