John From Albany – Mets Breakfast Links 12/19/2019

Tomas Nido and Adonis Uceta were in action in the winter leagues last night, we will have the details below. 

Matt Cerrone on SNY.TV says “The Mets had Dellin Betances on the hook during the middle of November, but he started seeking other offers for leverage when the Yankees dropped out.”

In the same post Matt also said: “In the event the Mets can swap J.D. Davis with a bad contract to get a pitcher that can help in 2020, it sounds like Kole Calhoun could have interest in joining the Mets. He'd likely only cost $5-7 million for one year, making him a stop-gap player good for a ton of strikeouts, roughly 2.0 WAR and improved fielding. I'd pass, but he is an option...”

Why do people keep talking about trading J.D. Davis?  As has been posted previously on Mack’s Mets: In 2019, JD Davis had the best year in Citi Field’s 11 year history hitting .354 with 16 HRs and 33 RBIs in 206 at bats.  Furthermore, while most Mets hit far better on the road, JD hit almost 100 points less on the road, .260 with 6 HRs and 24 RBIs.

Faith and Fear in Flushing has #’s 20-11 of the top Mets of the 2010’s:  #20 – Asdrubal Cabrera; #19 – Jeff McNeil; #18 – Jonathan Niese; #17 – Juan Lagares; #16 – Johan Santana; #15 – Jose Reyes; #14 – Jeurys Familia; #13 – Bartolo Colon; #12 – Lucus Duda; #11 – Wilmer Flores. 

Yahoo Sports had how The Red Sox paid a $13.4M luxury tax on their payroll. 

That could be why the Red Sox are discussing a Mookie Betts trade, per Calltothepen.

Also per Yahoo Sports and AP News: the New York Yankees finished with a $6.7 million bill…The Chicago Cubs must pay $7.6 million” luxury tax bill. 

Rising Apple has how the Mets said goodbye to the final holdover from the Addison Reed trade.

Rising Apple also looked at players that could compete for that final bench spot: Luis Guillorme; Sam Haggerty; recent Mets minor league signee, Max Moroff.

Wait’s there more: Rising Apple talks about a Francisco Lindor trade making the following players available to Cleveland – “Robert Gsellman, Steven Matz, Edwin Diaz, Amed Rosario, Andres Gimenez, David Peterson, Brandon Nimmo, and J.D. Davis.”  Why do people keep talking about trading J.D. Davis?  Oh wait, I said that already.

Metsmerized reported another trade for Lindor: Mets would send Amed Rosario, J.D. Davis, Brett Baty, and David Peterson to Cleveland for Lindor.

Metsmerized had the top 15 Mets games of the decade with video clips. 

Metsmerized had three free agent options for backup catcher. Kevin Plawecki; Russell Martin; Jason Castro.

Metsmerized looked at free agent target Steve Cishek.

Double G sports discussed the faith in the Mets bullpen to bounce back.  The writer makes some very good points including – “Rather what we saw league-wide was the third highest overall blown save rate in baseball history, behind 1951 and 1974…If you remove the 3 of those pitchers who did not pitch in 2019, the remaining top 37 closers of 2018 saw their ERA increase an AVERAGE of 1.26 runs per game (from 2.98 to 4.25).”

AP News had how Scott Boras created Free Agent flurry. “baseball’s most famous agent negotiated $814 million of contracts in little over three days last week.”

ESPN.com had the Best and Worst free agent signings for every team.  For the Mets – Best: Bartolo Colon; Worst – Yoenis Cespedes. 

Mets Minors looked at why 2020 is Tim Tebow’s most important as a Pro.

Baseball Prospectus shared memories of meeting Frank Cashen’s daughter and holding his 1986 World Series ring.

Mack’s Mets blast from the past comes from December 2011: Mack On Baseball - Leave Dickey Alone. 

Mets Players are now in action in the Dominican League and the Puerto Rican Winter League.

Yesterday in Puerto Rico, Tomas Nido caught for Criollos de Caguas going 1 for 3 driving in the only run for Criollos in their 2-1 loss (box).  Third straight game that Tomas has played.  He is now 2 for 11 for a .182 Avg, 1 RBI, 3 Ks. 

I am pulling for Tomas.  I hope he gets a lots of at-bats in Puerto Rico between now and Spring Training.  I saw him play in Binghamton and when he played regularly, he hit.  I also saw him make some incredible throws.  One time after a wild pitch thrown by Binghamton's knuckle baller Mickey Jannis, Tomas grabbed the ball and still threw the runner out.

Tough night for Adonis Uceta in the Dominican League, his first such tough outing of the winter.  Adonis entered the bottom of the sixth for the Leones del Escogido. He walked the first batter, struck out the next, walked another batter, retired the next batter on a fly ball, and then walked another batter to load the bases.  Adonis night was then over and the next pitcher walked former Yankee and Marlins Pete O’Brien for one run, then gave up a base hit to score all of the runners charged to Adonis. 

Those were the first runs charged to Adonis this winter.  His line on the night, .2 innings, 3 walks, 3 earned runs, 1 K. 

In total this winter, Adonis Uceta is 1-0; 3.38 ERA, 10 games, 8 innings, 3 hits; 5 runs, 3 earned, 9 walks, 8 Ks.

UltimateMets has this date in Mets History:

Born on this date:

• Rob Gardner (1944)
• Tom Wilson (1970)
• Chip Ambres (1979)

Died on this date:

• Dock Ellis (2008)

Transactions:

New York Mets signed free agent Mike Cubbage of the Minnesota Twins on December 19, 1980.

New York Mets released Bill Almon on December 19, 1980.

New York Mets traded Al Shirley to the Kansas City Royals for Brent Mayne on December 19, 1995.

Cleveland Indians signed Danny Graves of the New York Mets as a free agent on December 19, 2005.

New York Mets released Kaz Ishii on December 19, 2005.

New York Mets signed free agent Chip Ambres of the Boston Red Sox on December 19, 2006.

New York Mets signed free agent Frank Francisco of the Toronto Blue Jays on December 19, 2011.

Want more?  Check out https://sportspyder.com/mlb/new-york-mets/news. 

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