The Morning Report 11.23.2015 | Mets Lose Jack Leathersich to Cubs, Syndergaard could be a Career Met, "The Final Boss" a Mets RP Target

Adam Rubin | ESPN New York- The Chicago Cubs have claimed left-handed reliever Jack Leathersich off waivers from the New York Mets. Leathersich, 25, underwent Tommy John surgery on July 30, so he is not due to return until next summer. The Mets have a shortage of left-handed relievers, but chose anyway to remove Leathersich to clear a spot ahead of Friday's deadline to add prospects to the 40-man roster to shield them from the Rule 5 draft.

(Chris Soto: I don't blame the Mets for removing a guy from the 40 man roster who will likely not contribute to the team during the 2016. There is never a guarantee that a player comes back from Tommy John Surgery 100%, as evidenced by Bobby Parnell. That said, I don't think anyone would have expected Leathersich to be claimed. Even stranger....Leathersich was not the only New York reliever recovering from TJS to be claimed on waivers as the Yankees RHRP Chase Whitley was also grabbed off of waivers by Tampa Bay.)



Kristie Ackert | NY Daily News- Noah Syndergaard had dreamed of being a big leaguer most of his life, but ever since 2013, he had dreamed specifically about getting a chance to get back to New York City. “I love it here,” Syndergaard said. “I had some time after the season and I wanted to just experience all I could of it. I wanted to do things I couldn’t do in the season and I am having a lot of fun. I want to be a Met for life, I love it.”

(Chris Soto: Syndergaard is quickly becoming my new favorite Met....a position that has been empty since the departure of Jose Reyes. He's fiery, he's talented, he can throw it by you with a 100 mph fastball or make you look ridiculously silly on a 84 mph hammer curveball. These kind of statements, these "natural" statements, are something you don't hear coming out of the mouth of a Matt Harvey. While I'm certainly enjoying the wonders of 3 aces in the Mets rotation right now....I know when push comes to shove....we can't afford to extend all 3 of them. If I had to choose 2 of deGrom, Thor, and Harvey right now, with the 3rd being traded and bringing in a massive amount of young talent, I would be choosing Thor and deGrom.)



HOT STOVE REPORT (courtesy of mlbtraderumor.com)

• Per Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com, the Nationals have jumping into, and are now leading, the race to sign free agent RHRP Darren O'Day. The Nationals have a competitive edge in their pursuit since O'Day's wife currently in employed in the D.C. area.
• Per Newsday's Marc Carig, Korean closer Seung-hwan Oh is on the Mets radar as a potential free agent addition to their bullpen as they continue to look for options to bolster their late inning set-up core to Juerys Familia. 

(Chris Soto: Not knowing what exactly is going to happened with Papelbon and the Nationals....adding a guy like O'Day to the bullpen mix adds a ton of depth to an already good bullpen. That said though, you have to wonder what the value add is? Is $9M per season really best spent on a 7th inning bullpen arm or would it be more helpful elsewhere? As for the Seung-Hwan Oh, if I'm the Mets I would certainly take a flyer on Oh. Especially knowing that his numbers were so dominant in what is widely known as a hitting friendly environment in the Korean Baseball League. Also....he has a bad ass nickname...."The Final Boss")

The Morning Report 11.19.2015 | Jacob deGrom 7th in Cy Young Voting, Mets Taking Slow Approach this Winter, Tejada Likely to be Non-Tendered

Mike Vorkunov | NJ Advance Media- The Chicago Cubs' Jake Arrieta won the battle of the aces on Wednesday, besting fellow finalists Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw to capture the 2015 NL Cy Young award, which was announced during a live presentation on MLB Network. Mets right-hander Jacob deGrom, who went 14-8 with a 2.54 ERA in his sophomore season, finished seventh with seven total points.

(Chris Soto: deGrom really didn't have much of a shot for the award with as well as Grienke and Arrieta pitched down the stretch. However, this most certainly won't be deGrom's only shot for the award. The Mets, as a team, have 3 legitimate annual Cy Young candidates in deGrom, Matt Harvey, and my personal favorite Noah Syndergaard.)



Brian Devine | Metsmerized Online- The Mets expect to stay quiet until the Winter Meetings in early December. While they are currently searching for upgrades at several positions, they don’t expect anything to happen before then and believe talks will slow down soon with Thanksgiving approaching. The Mets are prioritizing centerfield, setup relievers and they are looking to find a potential trade partner for a shortstop.

(Chris Soto: In the past....most of the off-season activity doesn't really happen until the Winter Meetings anyone. There hasn't really been any major free agent signings yet but we have seen some big names get traded already with Kimbrel going to the Red Sox, K-Rod to the Tigers, and Simmons going to Anaheim. If this is just the appetizer, then the main course of the off-season is sure to be more than exciting to watch.)



Rocco Constantino | Amazin Avenue- The Mets are still considering non-tendering Tejada—a possibility floated last week—as he recovers from a fractured fibula. The move would not come as a surprise, as Tejada could earn up to $3 million next year. Even with a bit of a revival last season, Tejada still only batted .261 with a .338 on-base percentage and .688 OPS. Although he showed some value by playing games at second and third base, he rated poorly in nearly all defensive categories.

(Chris Soto: From what I have heard, the front office seems to have liked what they saw out of Matt Reynolds in AAA last season in the 90+ games he played at SS. His .721 OPS in the hitting freindly Pacific Coast League environment may not be all that exciting....but the club feels its good enough to at least have him start 2016 in a reserve role. Reynolds also has experience at 2B so he would be able to back-up both middle infield positions, which is the exact role that Ruben Tejada is currently filling.)



HOT STOVE REPORT (courtesy of mlbtraderumor.com)

• Tim Rohan of the New York Times reports that the Mets had a conference call with Ben Zobrists' representatives at Octagon today. Zobrist is seeking a four-year deal and is listening to the pitches from each club. The club still believes that Zobrist large market is going to put him out of their price range, however, there continues to be steady dialogue between the two camps.
• Per Adam Rubin of ESPN New York, the Mets are expected to make a “legitimate bid” for Daniel Murphy. Some Mets officials feel that Murphy might consider an offer from the Mets even if they don’t make the strongest bid due to his longstanding relationship with the team.
• Mike Puma of the New York Post tweeted out that upon learning of RP Darren O'Day's asking price of  a four-year contract in the $28-36MM range, that the Mets most likely wouldn’t remain in the mix if the price truly escalated to those levels.

The Morning Report 11.11.2015 | d'Arnaud or Plawecki Unlikely to be Traded, Mets Taking Their Time with Mejia, SS Luis Carpio in Mets Top 10 Lists, O'Day Market Moving Fast

Kristie Ackert | NY Daily News- The Mets have two young catchers projected to be frontline players. And at least for next season, they are planning to keep both Travis d’Arnaud and Kevin Plawecki, with the possibility that one may be getting at-bats at another position, Mets assistant GM John Ricco said.“Catching is, we’ve said this many times, a position you can’t have enough depth. We have two guys we think are frontline catchers. I think there are ways for us, especially in the short term, ways to make use of both of them. Short term I don’t think we’d be talking about either one of them, because they are both gonna help us win.”

(Chris Soto: This is a very wise non-move that the Mets are making. Catcher is a tough position to play with a higher risk of injury then other positions on the field. In addition, while Travis d'Arnaud has certainly shown to be capable of being one of the Top 5 offensive C in baseball,  he hasn't proven that he can stay healthy during the course of the season. I know that the club continues to be very high on Kevin Plawecki and there are some in the organization that are hoping that Plawecki progresses enough as a hitter to start pushing d'Arnaud out of a full-time job. While his framing is not as good, they feel Plawecki has more leadership skills, better blocking skills, and does a better job controlling the run game.)



Joel Sherman | New York Post- The Mets have not completely shut the door on bringing Jenrry Mejia back next season, and they are gathering information by watching him pitch in the Dominican Winter League. Though Mejia’s 162-game suspension is still in force in the majors and will run until approximately July 26 next season, Mejia is eligible to pitch in Winter Leagues. The Mets – and others – will be watching to see what Mejia looks like after essentially not pitching in 2015 and, presumably, what he looks like pitching clean. He was suspended twice last season for failing tests for performance-enhancing drugs. Even if Mejia looked good, the Mets might not bring him back for a variety of reasons, including that their clubhouse turned against the righty for his irresponsibility.

(Chris Soto: I would not bring Mejia back for 2016....but I recognize the situation that the Mets are in that favors them heavily. Since Mejia is arbitration eligible and pretty much screwed up his entire 2015 season, the Mets probably could get away with making him an offer that is the maximum below his 2015 salary which is 20%. On top of that, if they did tender him a contract, they wouldn't have to pay him until July 26th anyway, thus saving themselves 66% of the total contract. So conceivably, the Mets could keep Mejia without sacrificing a 40 man roster spot at a bargain price of $685k in 2016.)



Brian Devine | Metsmerized Online- One player who has also received a lot of attention lately is shortstop Luis Carpio. Only 18, Carpio was extremely impressive this season in rookie ball for Kingsport, batting .304 while playing good defense. He was rated as the 7th best prospect in the Mets system by Baseball America, which caught a lot of people by surprise. “He’s just a pretty complete player — a pure defender at shortstop,” DePodesta said. “There’s no doubt he stays there. Offensively, he’s really, really polished for such a young guy. He has great control of the strike zone. He has some strength in his hands. I think he’ll hit for some more power as he matures. Overall, he’s just really, really polished — not just even his skills, but just his mental approach to the game for such a young player is really advanced.”

(Chris Soto: Luis Carpio is a name most of us had not heard. I came across his name last season and was intrigued by his K:BB ratio at the time [33 to 33] but when I saw a SLG% below his OBP, I wrote him off for the time being. Now there are some jumping on the Baseball America bandwagon placing him in Top 10 lists which is just flat out not fair. The kid just turned 18, played in the lowest USA based minor league level, and is not displaying any power. He certainly has potential, but for my "rolling style list" he's in the #25-30 range where I like to place long term potential international young guys such as Adrian Almeida and Ali Sanchez like I've done in the past.)



HOT STOVE REPORT (courtesy of mlbtraderumor.com)

• The market for free-agent right-hander Darren O’Day is moving quickly, reports ESPN’s Buster Olney (links to Twitter). The Beverly Hills Sports Council client already has offers in hand, according to Olney, and he’s planning to meet with the managers of some of those teams in the coming week.

(Chris Soto: Quite day for the Metsies on the rumor mill, but this news is important. One of the Mets top priorities this off-season is to add another strong arm to the front end of their bullpen to combine with Addison Reed and Juerys Familia. O'Day's market is moving extremely quick which means the dollars being thrown around are likely to be outside of the Mets comfort range.)

The Morning Report 11.9.2015 | HOT STOVE: Rockies Interested in Murphy, Mets Interested in Span and O'Day, Jason Heyward the Perfect Fit

Michael Baron | Just Mets- It’s been less than 24 hours since teams have had free reign to sign free agents from other clubs, and one of the Mets free agents is already garnering discussion. The Rockies are essentially set around their infield with Nolan Arenado, Jose Reyes, and DJ LeMahieu left to right, but really lack a viable, everyday option at first base now that Justin Morneau is a free agent. Coors Field would be a good ballpark for Murphy’s game, given the large dimensions and his ability to spray the ball gap-to-gap. He would also see an uptick in power as well, as do most players who play in that ballpark.

(Chris Soto: I don't quite see the fit here for the Rockies. They have an excellent line-up already with Jose Reyes, Charlie Blackmon, Arenado, Carlos Gonzalez, Corey Dickerson, and DJ LeMathieu which is already quite lefty heavy. Murphy only adds to the lefty-ness and doesn't provide too much of an upgrade over Ben Paulsen in terms of offense. But hey....I won't complain if the Rockies want to give us a 1st round pick.)



Danny Abraino | Rising Apple- The Mets might have interest in free agent OF Denard Span. The Mets might be in search of a lefty-hitting center fielder who can platoon with Juan Lagares — who hits left-handed pitchers well — and Span would be a perfect fit if not for the amount of injuries he’s dealt with over the last 12 months. In their free agent preview, MLB Trade Rumors predicted that Span would receive a three-year deal worth $39 million. If Span stays healthy, that could be a bargain, but his three recent surgeries should give any interested team pause.

(Chris Soto: Yuck....no thanks. If I'm Sandy Alderson, I'm already paying Michael Cuddyer $12.5M to be a bench player in 2016, so there is no way I'm giving Span $13M to be a platoon player with Lagares. I would much rather use that $13M per season in a larger deal for a greater impact bat such as Jason Heyward that could send Lagares to the bench as my late inning defensive wizard.)



Rob Rogan | Mets 360- Jason Heyward is going to get paid this off-season, and he’s going to get paid a lot. Part of that has to do with how Major League Baseball free agency works, what with insane contracts that get crazier and crazier each year. Most of it, though, is because of just how great a player he’s been over the last six seasons and the potential for more. A major-yet-temporary caveat here is that Heyward is primarily a right fielder and the Mets currently have Curtis Granderson entrenched there for two more seasons. If the team was willing to shove Yoenis Cespedes out there, there should be no qualms about having Heyward man center.

(Chris Soto: I am 100% in agreement with Rogan here. Jason Heyward is the best defensive RF in baseball and he steals 20+ bases a season. The altheticism is there to play CF on a regular basis and he is surely a better potential defender there than Yeonis Cespedes. The best part is that he is only 25 yrs old! Your not paying for a Jason Bay who was on the wrong side of 30 when he signed; your signing a guy just entering the prime of his career who has major upside in what he could eventually produce for you. He is the one guy that fits all the needs of the Mets, a middle of the order bat, improving team defense, and increasing team speed.)



Scot Cohen | Amazin Avenue- The Mets are interested in 33-year-old relief pitcher Darren O'Day. O'Day has spent the last four years with the Baltimore Orioles and had the best season of his career in 2015, as he made 68 appearances for and finished the year with a 1.52 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, and 2.49 FIP. He struck out 82 hitters and walked just 14 in 65.1 innings.

(Chris Soto: I would LOVE to have Darren O'Day in the Mets bullpen, however, there is a major elephant in the room in regards to him. No Qualifying Offer was made from the Baltimore Orioles, which means no team is going to have to shell out a draft pick in order to sign him. This is going to make him the most popular bullpen arm on the market which means he'll likely get a multi year deal for over $8M per season. That is a price tag that I'm not sure the Mets are willing to match, especially, with Addison Reed already on the payroll for ~$5.3M next season.)