Mets sign Clay Holmes, and a young Met is drawing trade interest

The Mets also made two other small acquisitions on Friday

NY Post

What’s Up with the Mets? 🍎

• The Mets signed RHP Clay Holmes to a three-year, $38 million contract (story)

• Brett Baty is garnering interest in trade talks (New York Post)

• The Mets acquired minor league RHP Sean Harney in exchange for international bonus pool money, and signed OF Edward Olivares to a minor league contract with an invite to spring training

• The Mets made their two-year deal with RHP Frankie Montas official on Friday (release)

• The Blue Jays are staying aggressive in their pursuit of Juan Soto (Sportsnet)

• At least four teams - the Mets, Red Sox, Yankees and Blue Jays - are thought to be in the $700 million range with their bids for Soto (New York Post)

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Rumor Mill 💨

• The Cubs are determined to trade Seiya Suzuki or Cody Bellinger (New York Post)

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Winter Meetings 🎺

The Winter Meetings are set to begin on Monday at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas, Texas.

Mets manager Carlos Mendoza is scheduled to speak with the media at 5:40 p.m. ET on Monday, December 9.

The MLB Draft Lottery will be held on Tuesday, December 10 at 5:30 p.m. ET and will be aired live on MLB Network.

The Mets are not in the draft lottery this year. They will have the 28th pick in the first round of the 2025 draft, which takes place in July during All-Star Week. Per MLB, the order of the postseason teams is determined by when they get eliminated and their revenue-sharing status. Those 12 teams will choose in the following order: Wild Card Series losers, Division Series losers, Championship Series losers, World Series loser, World Series winner. Within each of those groups, clubs will be sorted by revenue-sharing status, with payee clubs selecting before non-payee clubs. If two or more clubs have identical winning percentages in the immediately preceding championship season, the selection order of those clubs will be determined by winning percentage in the next prior championship season, with any remaining ties resolved by the tied clubs’ respective championship season winning percentages in each preceding year, until the tie is broken.

The Rule 5 draft will be held on Wednesday, December 11, at 2 p.m. ET. The Mets have the 21st pick in this draft, although they are not obligated to choose any of the available players. The Mets currently have 32 players on their 40-man roster, 33 if Clay Holmes is included, meaning there is some wiggle room for them to take a chance on a player. If the Mets do choose a player from the major league portion of the draft, they must pay the player’s former club $100,000 and carry that player on the active roster the entire season. If they don’t, they must then be waived. If the player clears waivers, they offer that player back to their former club for $50,000. The player can only be outrighted off the 40-man roster and sent to the minors if their former team declines to take the player back.

For more on this year’s Winter Meetings, check out MLB’s primer here.

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Around the League 🚩

• MLB is no where close to implementing the “Golden At-Bat” Rule (ESPN)

• C Danny Jansen is going to the Rays on a one-year deal (Athletic)

• The Guardians are bringing back RHP Shane Bieber on a one-year deal with a player option for 2026 (ESPN)

• The city council in St. Petersburg voted to approve bonds for a new stadium for the Rays (Athletic)