The Mack Report - Part 1 (Cuse Outfield, T.J., Devers, Omar, Woods)

 

The Mack Report

(Cuse Outfield, T.J., Devers, Omar, Woods)

 

 The ‘Cuse Outfield   

We talked last week about the addition of outfielder Lorenzo Cedrola (.267/.303/.356 with 20 doubles in AAA for Cincinnati last year) to a minor league deal. 

It’s no big secret that the Mets are weak in outfielders throughout the chain. So, who exactly is listed by Syracuse on their 2023 outfield roster? 

Well, Cedrola is. What’s confusing is Khalil Lee isn’t. My guess is that the 23-year old is listed on the parent roster, even though he only had two at-bats. Does leading the team in batting (1-2, .500) mean anything? 

Past that, there are 33-year old Abraham Almonte and 23-year old Agustin Ruiz. 

Almonte has “been around”, playing for seven pro teams. In 2022, his stat line for the Red Sox was 35-AB, .257, 1-HR, -0.1-WAR. Most of his career has been spent as a utility piece. 

Ruiz has played five seasons in the Padres organization, all of which were in the minors (.241). He hit .237 last season for AA-Ft. Wayne and plays all three outfield positions. 

That’s it for now… two AAAA players and one failed prospect (Lee). Look for one additional add to this team at this position.

T. J.  

The Mets for some reason signed 33-year old LHRP T.J, McFarland and signed him to a minor league deal. 

McFarland was a 4^th round pick by Cleveland, out of Amos Alonso Stagg HS (IL). He has pitched out of the pen for four major league teams. His best season was 2021, going 4-1, 2.56, 38-apps for St. Louis. 

His 2022 stat line was -0.8-WAR, 0-0, 6.61, 1.62, 3.0 BB/9, 4.4 K/9 

There is a Buck connection here. McFarland pitched four seasons for Showalter in Baltimore, but only averaged a 4.27-ERA. 

I guess the Mets think they can straighten this fossil out, but he was always a LOOGY in the past, New rules takes that away in the future. SMH.

 Devers  

 Well, my idea of having the Mets deal for Rafael Devers if the Correa deal falls through has blown up. Devers signed with Boston for 10 more years after signing for one year, for a total of 11 years, $332mil.

But.

There is no no-trade contract in this deal

I've seen a lot of crazy things in this sport but let's not rule out the chance that Steve calls John Henry and throws a boatload of prospects at him in hopes of creating a trade for Devers after the fact.

What's the chance of this? Slim. But, I'm just saying...

Omar  

The Yankees announced Thursday that former Mets and Expos general manager Omar Minaya has been hired as a senior advisor to their baseball operations department. 

I met Omar during the first spring training that I had been awarded full press credentials to the Mets spring training complex in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

I entered the clubhouse saying to myself that I was just going to go along with the flow. You enter down a long hallway with the cafeteria off to the right until you enter where the lockers begin. 

It is here where the gaggle of reporters gather and wait for the Mets PR Director to lead them to where players are willing to turn from their lockers, face the group, and take questions.

Most of them ignored me, but both Adam Rubin and Kevin Kernan reached out and gave me a quick explanation of the do's and don'ts.

At some point that first day, Omar was leaning on the wall just past the cafeteria. Various reporters shouted out questions to him that all went unanswered. At some point, he pointed to me and motioned for me to come and join him.

He quietly asked me who I was and I told him I covered the Savannah Sand Gnats for Morris Publishing. We could both hear rude reporters still yelling out questions to him. Omar whispered for us to make believe that we were having a conversation about something hush hush. I said, sure, and begin to make believe I was taking notes.

We did this for a few minutes, without laughing, while I asked him a few off the record questions. I thanked him for the shout out and returned to the gaggle while he moved on down the hall.

At the end of the day, I decided to take one more walk around the complex, looking for errant baseballs that I could give to members of the local baseball players I covered (major league baseballs were different than the ones they used in schools). As I came to the end of the clubhouse building, I found Omar once again, this time having a catch with his son on the warm-up pitching mounds.

Father first. 

Woods..

The Mets resigned a pitcher they had DFA'd when they re-signed Adam Ottavino,

Ex-Braves William Woods cleared waivers and was signed to a minor league contract. He was immediately added to the AAA-Syracuse roster.

His fastball hits 100, but has trouble hitting the barn. Across three levels last year, he posted 6,04/1.34 in 25.1-IP.