I'm going to reserve judgement till I see the opening day roster. This is not an awful addition, and I won't whine about who left cause it really does not matter. They had a lousy season with the guys who left. There is no sentimentality in free agency, it's a dog eat dog business.
Maybe statistically, but they left a lot of men on base , especially with the game on the line. And certainly we saw the pitching collapse in the 2nd half of the season
The rest of the NL East are doubled over in laughter. I'll say it again: David Stearns is gone at the end of the season. If they traded Nimmo for a prospect or two, then signed Bichette to play 2nd, okay. Bo will opt out after his first year.
Two more years of this confusion, Mets fans will be saying "Sell the team". Sad.
I see that run prevention was just a smokescreen. We have a first baseman and a third baseman who have never played those positions and are terrible defenders. My God!
So much for the run prevention mantra. This makes no sense whatsoever and if this is incorporating young talent we may as well trade Benge now because they just fucked Baty. Stearns is obviously not the smartest guy in the room. Time for a GM to be hired who knows how to assemble a fucking baseball team.
Well, we’ve got another 2b back on the board. Hopefully this leads to freeing up some moves for a run at Peralta. Is Baty athletic enough to play left? Or is he headed out of town for a pitcher? Interested to see what happens. Btw, a massive overpay the last 2 days for Tucker and Bichette, lockout issues are meatier than ever. The days of parity in MLB are obliterated.
I have to say, this move makes me laugh. Your strategy is to develop your prospects, right? So one comes through, i.e., Baty, and you move him off a position that he fields well. Wow, how's that for the "run prevention" slogan? You replace him with a below average fielder: how's that for "run prevention"? What a mess. You pray that Polanco can learn first, ok. Then tell me where you play Baty? Teach him to play left? Then we'll have two guys learning brand-new positions in spring training. Come on! If you teach Baty to play first (he's athletic and probably can be ok there), then Polanco is your DH and Vientos is squeezed out. I don't want to see Vientos traded for peanuts and then recovers his 2024 stroke somewhere else. Anyway, this move is basically the opposite of the "run prevention" mantra. Of course, they're desperate to make up some of the hitting because they let Alonso go...wonder if Bichette's willing to DH most of the time...again, it's a mess.
Think he can get more than 42M? I dunno...the whole thing still amuses me in that I don't think there's anything you could do that's more contrary to the ballyhooed "run prevention". Great hitter, but from what I've read he's a DH, just like Vientos is. Can the Mets appeal to the commissioner to be allowed two DHs along with a designated fielder? That would solve everything.
He can get more guaranteed money with a longer term contract, ergo the opt outs.
"Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports that the Phillies thought they were going to land Bichette with a $200MM deal over seven years until the Mets swooped in with their offer after losing Kyle Tucker to the Dodgers last night. Matt Gelb of The Athletic says the offer was between $190MM and $200MM"
I don't understand, Baty is clearly on the upswing and they're gonna get rid of him? Or put him on the bench? And what about Mauricio? Why are they apparently discarding Vientos? Why do they seemingly want to trade at least some of their young starting pitching? Why do they want to get rid of Senga when his value is at an all-time low? It doesn't make any sense to me.
This team is going to have a different feel next season with various fan favoirtes gone. And there might be one or more familiar faces gone too, with a glut of infielders and maybe at least one starter that might be traded. That's baseball, and fans can root for the new guys (though they have a short-timer feel to them), but it won't feel the same.
Up to this point, I've been in let's see what Sterns will do after trading Nimmo and not resigning Alonso and Diaz. But honestly I'm at a loss. Signing Bichette instead of trading Nimmo would have made more sense. Improve offensively at 2b and move Nimmo to the dh role if Sterns was that worried about his defense. Nimmo's defense was slipping but not his offense. Sterns has me and a lot of fans scratching our heads.
The Athletic: The speed of the Mets’ pivot revealed the depth of their preparation. The Mets’ talks with Bichette began at the GM meetings, league sources said. Not knowing what to make of their chances with Tucker, the Mets met with Bichette earlier this week.
Massive overpay for both guys. That said, not my money and they actually got the better hitter in my opinion at almost half the price. Defensively, not sure what they will do. But they will figure something out. Maybe Bichette plays left field? Maybe he DHs. Or first base with Polanco DHing. They will have to figure it out. (Oh no it is Mendoza, so figuring it out wont work.) The Dodgers were where he wanted to go. Mets fans need to stop worrying about them, like we used to with the Yankees. For all their money spent, it is not like the swept through the league and playoffs last year. Did not set the modern record for winning percentage. Had to come from behind in the playoffs and series. Team is old and getting older.
I'm going to reserve judgement till I see the opening day roster. This is not an awful addition, and I won't whine about who left cause it really does not matter. They had a lousy season with the guys who left. There is no sentimentality in free agency, it's a dog eat dog business.
They had a lousy season because the starting pitching collapsed. The offense was among the most productive.
Maybe statistically, but they left a lot of men on base , especially with the game on the line. And certainly we saw the pitching collapse in the 2nd half of the season
He's gonna play 3rd. Polanco is gonna play 1st. What, he says sarcastically), could POSSIBLY go wrong with that defensive alignment?
I'll say it for the third time. It's a mess.
The rest of the NL East are doubled over in laughter. I'll say it again: David Stearns is gone at the end of the season. If they traded Nimmo for a prospect or two, then signed Bichette to play 2nd, okay. Bo will opt out after his first year.
Two more years of this confusion, Mets fans will be saying "Sell the team". Sad.
He can hit. Sure enough.
Seems like a lot of money. Not my money. You have to overpay some.
Defensively, this doesn't make much sense. Also, got a lot of infielders. So, I'm thinking one or more people are going to be traded. We will see.
Still need an OF and a starter.
Yup, and the others teams know the Mets are desperate to trade some infielders so I'm afraid they'll get a shabby return.
I see that run prevention was just a smokescreen. We have a first baseman and a third baseman who have never played those positions and are terrible defenders. My God!
So much for the run prevention mantra. This makes no sense whatsoever and if this is incorporating young talent we may as well trade Benge now because they just fucked Baty. Stearns is obviously not the smartest guy in the room. Time for a GM to be hired who knows how to assemble a fucking baseball team.
Well, we’ve got another 2b back on the board. Hopefully this leads to freeing up some moves for a run at Peralta. Is Baty athletic enough to play left? Or is he headed out of town for a pitcher? Interested to see what happens. Btw, a massive overpay the last 2 days for Tucker and Bichette, lockout issues are meatier than ever. The days of parity in MLB are obliterated.
I have to say, this move makes me laugh. Your strategy is to develop your prospects, right? So one comes through, i.e., Baty, and you move him off a position that he fields well. Wow, how's that for the "run prevention" slogan? You replace him with a below average fielder: how's that for "run prevention"? What a mess. You pray that Polanco can learn first, ok. Then tell me where you play Baty? Teach him to play left? Then we'll have two guys learning brand-new positions in spring training. Come on! If you teach Baty to play first (he's athletic and probably can be ok there), then Polanco is your DH and Vientos is squeezed out. I don't want to see Vientos traded for peanuts and then recovers his 2024 stroke somewhere else. Anyway, this move is basically the opposite of the "run prevention" mantra. Of course, they're desperate to make up some of the hitting because they let Alonso go...wonder if Bichette's willing to DH most of the time...again, it's a mess.
Bo doesn't want to DH. He wants to show he can still play in the field for when he opts out
Think he can get more than 42M? I dunno...the whole thing still amuses me in that I don't think there's anything you could do that's more contrary to the ballyhooed "run prevention". Great hitter, but from what I've read he's a DH, just like Vientos is. Can the Mets appeal to the commissioner to be allowed two DHs along with a designated fielder? That would solve everything.
He can get more guaranteed money with a longer term contract, ergo the opt outs.
"Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports that the Phillies thought they were going to land Bichette with a $200MM deal over seven years until the Mets swooped in with their offer after losing Kyle Tucker to the Dodgers last night. Matt Gelb of The Athletic says the offer was between $190MM and $200MM"
I don't understand, Baty is clearly on the upswing and they're gonna get rid of him? Or put him on the bench? And what about Mauricio? Why are they apparently discarding Vientos? Why do they seemingly want to trade at least some of their young starting pitching? Why do they want to get rid of Senga when his value is at an all-time low? It doesn't make any sense to me.
Combined 2026 fWAR projections:
Bo Bichette + Marcus Semien + Jorge Polanco = 9.1
Brandon Nimmo + Jeff McNeil + Pete Alonso = 7.7
This team is going to have a different feel next season with various fan favoirtes gone. And there might be one or more familiar faces gone too, with a glut of infielders and maybe at least one starter that might be traded. That's baseball, and fans can root for the new guys (though they have a short-timer feel to them), but it won't feel the same.
Up to this point, I've been in let's see what Sterns will do after trading Nimmo and not resigning Alonso and Diaz. But honestly I'm at a loss. Signing Bichette instead of trading Nimmo would have made more sense. Improve offensively at 2b and move Nimmo to the dh role if Sterns was that worried about his defense. Nimmo's defense was slipping but not his offense. Sterns has me and a lot of fans scratching our heads.
The Athletic: The speed of the Mets’ pivot revealed the depth of their preparation. The Mets’ talks with Bichette began at the GM meetings, league sources said. Not knowing what to make of their chances with Tucker, the Mets met with Bichette earlier this week.
Until now, Tucker and Bellinger were our biggest need, and Bichette had barely been mentioned. Now, suddenly, she's a great addition...
Massive overpay for both guys. That said, not my money and they actually got the better hitter in my opinion at almost half the price. Defensively, not sure what they will do. But they will figure something out. Maybe Bichette plays left field? Maybe he DHs. Or first base with Polanco DHing. They will have to figure it out. (Oh no it is Mendoza, so figuring it out wont work.) The Dodgers were where he wanted to go. Mets fans need to stop worrying about them, like we used to with the Yankees. For all their money spent, it is not like the swept through the league and playoffs last year. Did not set the modern record for winning percentage. Had to come from behind in the playoffs and series. Team is old and getting older.