Reese Kaplan -- The Waiting Is Still the Hardest Part

One of the most interesting thing to analyze is the best way for a club to improve its potential to win ballgames.  One way is through judicious free agent acquisitions which simply cost money and delivering an effective sales pitch.  Given the big bundle of Steve Cohen’s bucks vanishing now that free agent contracts have expired and on-the-books payments have ended, many people are only thinking about this method for roster improvement.

In the past there were salary dumps made with pay downs of existing obligations to free up payroll dollars for the future.  Sometimes the player being traded away has great talent and still playing in his prime.  Think Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander as two very good examples.  The Mets did indeed pay down their salaries which in turn upped the level of talent returned to them by sacrificing Hall of Fame level capabilities.

Then there are the trades that involve positions of excess versus positions of need.  Sometimes these trades work when you can fill another team’s need and they are in a similar situation with a plethora of options they can afford to peddle away.  A good example would be when the Mets were willing to sacrifice a Cy Young winning pitcher and a few low level catchers while in return receiving Noah Syndergaard, Travis d’Arnaud and a few other warm bodies.  The Mets wound up saving a lot of money on what would become Dickey’s new Blue Jays contract while getting two minimum wage players with great potential.

Right now is the frustrating part of the off season when every day you read recycled tripe about free agent demands, bogus trade scenarios and position shifts for existing personnel to shoehorn them into the 2025 lineup.  Thus far the Mets have only played around with fringe players who may or may not make the 40 man roster, let alone the 26 man one that comes north from Port St. Lucie.  The big ticket pieces have not yet been addressed.

Of course, while everyone is tapping their feet nervously awaiting David Stearns to begin to implement his first high ticket roster rebuilt, the fact is that 29 other teams and their fans are in the exact same situation.  None of the top available free agents have signed contracts anywhere and none of the All Star caliber players have been traded yet either.  It’s still early November and the period between now and the beginning of Spring Training for the roster to take shape. 

The next big date to watch on the baseball fans’ and media’s calendars is November 19th.  It is on that date that players who have been given Qualifying Offers by their current employers must decide whether to accept or refuse them.  Accepting the offer takes the player off the market.  Turning it down, however, is very interesting because it means the current team receives a draft pick in payment for losing out on the player they developed and paid for the last six or more years. 

On that same day the teams must straighten out their minor league operations in terms of the Rule V protected list and figuring out who will be a part of the 40-man roster.  Quite often there’s a flurry of minor league trades made when someone is not deemed worthy of a roster spot but still holding value for another team.

The third thing starting that same day are the owners’ meeting taking place in New York City.  This period of three days is not as much about player transactions as it is discussing and working through business aspects of Major League Baseball. 

No, the next big transactional date is November 22nd right after the owner’s session finishes.  On that date teams must make their non-tender decisions on players who may not be worth paying to keep around due to undesirable performance level or injury.  Paul Blackburn would be an example of someone that David Stearns must assess in this regard.

The big one, of course, is the Winter Meetings for GMs and other team personnel during which a lot of transactions take place.  These deals could be free agent contracts, trades and in between the start and end of this meeting comes the draft pick choices by each team’s GM. 

On December 11th the Rule 5 Draft takes place.  Often these deals are looking for a diamond in the rough as it requires you to keep the draftee on your 26 man roster for the full season and if the player is good enough for that to happen then you’d wonder why his current employer hasn’t seen fit to protect him. 

That pretty much rounds up the major highlights of the baseball calendar before year’s end.