Silent nights (and offseasons)
The quiet Christmas week in the hot stove season continues. Plus, how it may be an even quieter winter for the Mets.
What’s Up with the Mets? 🍎
The Mets are showing strong interest in signing RHP Lucas Giolito (New York Post)
The Mets are likelier to be involved on free agent pitchers such as Michael Lorenzen, Frankie Montas, Sean Manaea and Hyun Jin Ryu over top-end starters (MLB.com)
Rumor Mill 💨
The Dodgers, Red Sox and Angels are showing interest in free agent OF Teoscar Hernández (MLB.com)
Silent nights ✍️
It’s a quiet week across all industries as the post-Christmas, pre-New Year time of year has it’s hold on us. While there were a couple of smaller deals the day after the holiday on Tuesday, that quiet hangs over the baseball offseason, as well.
For the Mets, the sense is that the silence will extend past this week and carry throughout what remains of this offseason. I fully acknowledge that the majority of free agents and trade options are still available this winter but by all accounts, this appears to be a reset offseason and a transition year for the Mets.
New York did not make a real pursuit for Shohei Ohtani – who was likely never coming to the East Coast – and came up short in their all-or-nothing pursuit of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who joined Ohtani out West with the Dodgers. Rather than pivoting to the prime options that remain – think of Blake Snell in free agency or Corbin Burnes via trade – all indications are that New York will not be overreacting to overpay any secondary options this winter.
Rather than being in on a Snell or Jordan Montgomery or even Jorge Soler, any remaining moves the Mets are going to make will very likely be akin to what they’ve already done. Short-term, value contracts for players with equal levels of risk and reward. They’ve already done this with players like Luis Severino and Adrian Houser, and that is expected to continue now that the club couldn’t land Yamamoto.
“We’re going to be thoughtful and not impulsive and thinking about sustainability over the intermediate long-term, but not focused on winning the headlines over the next week,” owner Steve Cohen told the New York Post. “I think there’s a couple of ways to build a team.”
These reports and Cohen’s comments over the last week certainly back up the claims from Max Scherzer that the Mets would be treating 2024 as a transition season with less expectations to compete before jumping back into a larger free agent pool next year. There is logical sense for a club coming off of a massively disappointing season with one of baseball’s oldest teams with a brand new President of Baseball Operations to hit a soft reset and hold out for a more fruitful offseason a year from now. Next winter, players such as Juan Soto, Paul Goldschmidt, Gerrit Cole, Zack Wheeler, José Altuve and Alex Bregman are all expected to be available and the Mets will have a ton of money to spend after largely sitting things out this year.
Still, though, the slow realization that the club will be essentially punting away another season to wait for a shiny little thing called hope one year from now comes as a large disappointment. Not long ago, many considered the Mets to wind up being one of the top suitors for free agents like Ohtani and Yamamoto in this offseason, and right now the best player they’ve acquired had a 6.65 ERA with a negative WAR last season in Severino.
We’re now entering year four of Steve Cohen’s ownership and the owner has yet to win his signature bidding war for a superstar free agent on a long-term deal, and now we are likely to continue to wait for that a bit longer. It also doesn’t help the owner’s case that the club is now toward the end of the three-to-five year championship window that Cohen suggested early in his ownership – a quote he has acknowledged he regrets in hindsight.
Regardless, it doesn’t appear that there will be many fireworks for the Mets even after the offseason gets back into gear. They’re likely to make some more moves on the depths of their roster to fill things out but the reality is that the remainder of this winter, and even the season ahead, is likelier than not to leave a lot to be desired.
Hot Stove 🔥
The Blue Jays reportedly re-signed OF Kevin Kiermaier to a one-year, $10 million contract (MLB.com)
The Yankees acquired RHP Cody Morris from the Guardians in exchange for OF Estevan Florial
The White Sox reportedly signed C Martin Maldonado to a one-year deal (Fansided)