Nolan Arenado would approve a trade to the Mets, club is employing a six-man rotation in 2025

Plus, how will the Mets tackle the designated hitter in 2025?

What’s Up with the Mets? 🍎

• 3B Nolan Arenado would approve a deal to the Mets, Angels, Dodgers, Padres, Phillies, or Red Sox (MLB.com)

• In what is undoubtedly good news for the Mets, at this point the Yankees do not appear to be pursuing Pete Alonso (SNY)

• Rōki Sasaki’s agent, Joel Wolfe, told reporters on Tuesday Sasaki had issues with the media in Japan last season, and while he feels like he would have no problem playing in New York, he could prefer playing in a smaller market

• Sasaki's agents like Jeremy Hefner and his/the club's ability to develop pitching

  Recap of David Stearns media session… 🎙️

  

  David Stearns met with the media on Tuesday and discussed a variety of topics including Clay Holmes as a starter, the health of Kodai Senga, and the Mets pursuit of Rōki Sasaki. You can listen to his media session here (SNY)

  • There’s no specific budget number Stearns has to stick to - he expects to always maintain very high payrolls but understands funding is not limitless despite the motivation from ownership to win

  • The Mets will make every effort to sign Rōki Sasaki, but Stearns also warned that all 30 clubs will be involved and the international free agency rules offers challenges in their pursuit

  • The Mets will operate under the assumption they will not sign Sasaki given the competition and timetable for his decision

  • Kodai Senga has not begun throwing yet, but that is normal for him at this point in the winter and he is expected to have a normal off-season, as long as he feels good

  • With uncertainty around Senga, Stearns said they need 8-10 starting pitchers top to bottom in the organization for the major league team

  • The team doesn’t believe in innings limits with any major league pitcher - they believe in player monitoring and adjusting their workloads as they go

  • The Mets are going to be active in both free agency and the trade markets for pitching

  • Most of the time, the Mets will employ a six-man rotation outside of off-days and exceptions in the schedule

  • The Mets “have to be” open to trading some of their top prospects to improve the major league club, although they aren’t ever actively looking to trade them

  • “Its important for us to have space for young players to play,” Stearns said regarding affording opportunities for their prospects to come to the major leagues

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Rumor Mill 💨

• The Yankees and Cubs are both interested in Astros outfielder Kyle Tucker (KPRC2)

• Boston has interest in RHP Walker Buehler (Boston Globe)

• The Angels and Blue Jays are showing interest in INF Gleyber Torres (MLB Network)

• The Red Sox intend to make an offer to Corbin Burnes (MassLive)

• The Reds are among many teams showing interest in Cubs OF Luis Robert Jr. (Cincinnati Enquirer)

• The Padres are exploring interest in RHP Dylan Cease (San Diego Union Tribune)

• The agent for Cubs OF Seiya Suzuki, Joel Wolfe, said the player was unhappy about being relegated to DH duties in 2024, but only has a small number of trades he would consider a move for (ESPN)

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Winter Meetings 🎺

The Winter Meetings conclude today at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, Texas - David Stearns said the club is leaving this evening.

The Rule 5 draft will be held today 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.

The MLB draft lottery was held on Tuesday night and the Nationals were the lucky team that secured the top overall pick. The full lottery results for the draft order in the first round are listed below:

1. Washington Nationals

2. Los Angeles Angels

3. Seattle Mariners

4. Colorado Rockies

5. St. Louis Cardinals

6. Pittsburgh Pirates

7. Miami Marlins

8. Toronto Blue Jays

9. Cincinnati Reds

10. Chicago White Sox

11. Athletics

12. Texas Rangers

13. San Francisco Giants

14. Tampa Bay Rays

15. Boston Red Sox

16. Minnesota Twins

17. Chicago Cubs

18. Arizona Diamondbacks

The remaining picks in the first round are all of the 2024 postseason teams as follows:

19. Baltimore Orioles

20. Milwaukee Brewers

21. Houston Astros

22. Atlanta Braves

23. Kansas City Royals

24. Detroit Tigers

25. San Diego Padres

26. Philadelphia Phillies

27. Cleveland Guardians

28. New York Mets

29. New York Yankees

30. Los Angeles Dodgers

After the first round, the lottery results won't affect picks Nos. 1-18, which will be in reverse order of winning percentage.

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

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What is the Mets plan at DH in 2025? ✍️

Brad Penner-Imagn Images

Heading into 2024, there was no debate as to how the Mets planned to utilize the DH spot in their lineup. When the club inked veteran right-handed run producer J.D. Martinez to a free-agent pact late in the offseason, the idea was quite clearly to deploy him in that role full-time.

This time around, New York’s DH situation is significantly less clear.

If the season started tomorrow, right-handed swinging Starling Marte would likely be the starting DH, but I don’t think that’s a sure thing.

After the team’s monumental free-agent signing of superstar Juan Soto, the Mets now have five everyday caliber outfielders on their roster. Soto is going to play right field in Queens, Brandon Nimmo will patrol the opposite corner, and Tyrone Taylor and newcomer José Siri will in all probability share center.

So where does that leave Marte?

The 36-year-old two-time All-Star enjoyed a tremendous first season in New York in 2022, but is coming off back-to-back injury-plagued and inconsistent campaigns. He’ll be a free agent at the conclusion of the upcoming season, which to me has the Mets needing to make a decision.

I’m confident that if they wanted to, they could find a trade partner for Marte, though they’d be selling low and likely have to pay down quite a bit of his $20 million salary for 2025.

Which is why it would seem to make sense to give him a chance to take over the DH position, but admittedly, it would be difficult to know what to expect. Marte has only DH’d nine times in his 13-year career. While it might sound silly, some players just aren’t able to take to the very specific role being a DH is. It’s not uncommon for proven everyday players to struggle to stay in the flow of the game when they aren’t playing on the defensive side.

The flip side of that, of course, is that perhaps a role like that could take pressure off of Marte’s legs and help him healthy and on the field.

In the 94 games he did play in during the 2024 season, he slashed .269/.327/.388 with 23 extra-base hits, 40 RBIs, and 16 stolen bases. He still maintains his patented bat speed, and it’s certainly reasonable to assume he could be a productive bottom-of-the-line-up type hitter for this team in 2025.

All of that being said, I also think there is tremendous value in bringing back Jesse Winker. After coming to Queens at the deadline last summer, the former Citi Field heel became an instant fan favorite. He came up with a horde of huge hits for this team down the stretch and in October, and became a big part of what was widely reported to be an elite clubhouse mix.

Brad Penner-Imagn Images

Like I mentioned in regard to Marte, playing time in the outfield would be scarce if the Mets brought back Winker, but there would seem to be a logical fit for him and Marte to potentially platoon at DH.

Should the Mets not pursue a reunion with Winker and decide to trade Marte, then what?

It’s difficult to envision the team spending resources to bring another full-time DH in like they did a year ago. Could they essentially use the DH spot as a fluid position to give their regulars a partial day off here and there?

Sure, but that’s not necessarily an ideal solution.

Could somebody like Brett Baty get yet another opportunity to breakthrough at the sport’s highest level, this time in a much different role?

I’m personally all in favor of a hypothetical Marte/Winker platoon.

But this is a part of the roster that has not been discussed really at all this winter, and I think it’s important to acknowledge that we don’t really know which way the team is leaning at this point.

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Around the League 🚩

• The Yankees signed former Braves LHP Max Fried to the largest free-agent contract ever given to a left-handed pitcher, eight years and $218 million with no deferrals or opt outs (ESPN)

• The Rangers agreed to a three-year deal with Nathan Eovaldi to keep the righty in Texas (FanSided)

• The Rangers also agreed to acquire 3B Jake Burger from the Marlins in exchange for prospects Echedry Vargas, Brayan Mendoza and Max Acosta (Athletic)

• Toronto acquired former Mets infielder Andrés Gimenez from the Guardians in a four-player deal, which included Spencer Horwitz, who was then flipped to the Pirates for three players (ESPN | Athletic)

• The Blue Jays were busy on Tuesday, as they also agreed to a deal to bring back right-handed reliever Yimi Garcia (KPRC2)

• Nine-time All-Star Rocky Colavito passed away at the age of 91 on Tuesday