The Mets are among several reported finalists for the services of right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who club owner Steve Cohen traveled to Japan to meet with earlier this month. All indications point to a very serious pursuit of the offseason’s top free agent starting pitcher, but The Athletic’s Will Sammon suggests that intense pursuit should not be taken as an indication the Mets plan to spend aggressively on long-term, top-of-the-market free agents this offseason. Sammon reports that the club views Yamamoto, 25, as something of a unique case thanks to his front-of-the-rotation potential and exceptional youth for a free agent.
Should they fail to land Yamamoto, Sammon suggests that the club doesn’t plan on pivoting to other top-of-the-market free agents such as Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery. Rather, Sammon suggests the Mets could pivot to a mid-market arm like Lucas Giolito, who the club has previously been reported to have interest in as they focus on shorter term, one- and two-year contracts to plug holes on their roster. Indications have percolated since the trade deadline that the Mets view 2024 as something of a transitory year where they hope to thread the needle between staying competitive and focusing on 2025 and beyond, and Sammon’s report is the latest among those signals.
In addition to their aforementioned goal of securing pitching help, Sammon suggests that the club could look to add a regular outfielder to their lineup as well as a right-handed hitting third baseman to replace the injured Ronny Mauricio in the club’s third base mix alongside Brett Baty, Mark Vientos, and Joey Wendle. Michael A. Taylor, Adam Duvall, Tommy Pham, and Joc Pederson are among the outfield options who may be available on short-term deals, while the likes of Gio Urshela and Justin Turner could help the club solidify its infield mix.
More from around MLB’s East divisions…
- Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander spoke to reporters (including Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times) today in the wake of the trade that sent right-hander Tyler Glasnow and outfielder Manuel Margot to the Dodgers. While Neander acknowledged that the club loses some “certainty” in dealing way Glasnow and Margot, he also suggested that he sees both Pepiot and DeLuca as players who could impact the big league club in the near future Neander was particularly effusive in his praise of Pepiot, who he suggested has “a very good chance to be a good major-league starter” and could be “very close” to reaching that potential. Per Topkin, the deal will save the Rays $33MM in 2024 as Tampa Bay will pay the Dodgers just $2MM of the $4MM cash included in the trade this season, with the remaining $2MM to be paid out next offseason in the event that the Dodgers decline their $12MM option on Margot, which would cover the $2MM buyout on that option.
- Orioles closer Felix Bautista spoke to reporters this evening, including MLB.com’s Jake Rill and AJ Cassavell, and provided an update on his health after undergoing Tommy John surgery back in October. Bautista told the pair that his recovery from the surgery is going well, and that he’s “doing everything he can” to get back onto the field. That return to the mound won’t occur in 2024, as Bautista is expected to miss the entire campaign while rehabbing. With the right-hander expected back in time for Spring Training 2025, Bautista and the Orioles got together on a two-year extension upon the announcement of his surgery back in September.
Stearns front office not leaking. BB writers know NYM are one of the bankable clickbait gold clubs. Must be frustrating for them not having the Glengarry leads
Meanwhile, some reports say SF and BOS both made offers above $300m for Yamamoto
GASox – Those reports are old, they were based off early afternoon tweets from Marino Pepen and Jim Bowden. I would take them with a grain of salt, as they were likely intentionally leaked from the teams and could have ulterior motives behind them (ie: showing “they tried” or driving up the price for other teams).
I’m not saying they are false, but Japanese players tend to be very respectful when it comes to negotiations so it’s quite possible Yama & Company aren’t happy about the leaks.
One other thing I’ve heard, Yama is very competitive and wants to join a team that is willing and able to spend a lot on additional big name talent to win. As a Sox fan that makes me a little worried.
@Fever, it’s been been reported by multiple sources. Wake up and stop your Red Sox hate.
@Fever Pitch Guy
“I would take them with a grain of salt”
“I’m not saying they are false”
So, what are you saying then? Do you have anything to contribute positively about the Red Sox besides contradictory statements?
“Those reports are old, they’re from the early afternoon”
The mental gymnastics FPG does to fit his “Red Sox are Tampa North and don’t care about winning” schtick is honestly impressive
It’s just ironic because Fever usually has more intellect in his posts combined with his Red Sox “hate.” I don’t see it here. Reports from this afternoon are old? Old or not, it doesn’t change the facts. Give me a break.
Fpg obviously hates the red sox..always so negative
Where are these multiple reports? I’ve also seen one national writer who said basically it’s a done deal that Yamamoto is going to the Yankees.
What do I think of these leaked reports: His agent driving up the price. He’s one of the best in the business.
Look up Red Sox Yamamoto on Google. I saw at least 3 articles indicating the Sox and Giants offered 300 million. It’s honestly that easy to do, bud.
Whether you believe it or not, that’s your call, but they were all news sources (one being NBC).
Listen to this week’s MLBTR podcast. Tim discusses an article by Bob Nightengale that says most early reports linking players to teams come from agents and can be treated as … rumors. At least until the team confirms them.
The Giants are begging anyone to take their money. Best money the Giants can spend right now is on a PR campaign for the city of San Francisco.
The Giants offer a great park for a pitch just jumping to MLB. Remember when the Yankees signed Tanaka? Their fans had multiple Cys in his pocket and he hadn’t thrown an MLB pitch yet. Then he started off like they expected. Lasted 3 months got that partial tear and was never better than a #3 afterwards. Japanese pitchers always seem to require a TJS in their first year or 2. I could be imagining it but it seems like the Giants have better luck than most when it comes to TJS. If I was Yamamoto and the Giants really offered $300m that’s exactly where I would sign.
As a Sox fan and after Price and Sale deals I hope the team never offers a pitcher 300 million dollars unless it’s for 25 years or something.
I tend to agree and disagree. It’s not smart to offer the money at 300 million, but then again, Boston is under a lot of scrutiny to spend money for pitching. So we will see. I’m not surprised if they are pushing to sign Yamamoto. As I said in the other thread, I can see them being more aggressive than the Yankees and Dodgers for Yamamoto, simply because they need pitching and are under scrutiny for not spending enough.
Coffee is for closers only
I’m tired of these Patel leads.
As you all know first prize is Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Anyone wanna see second prize? Second prize is a set of steak knives.
“Mets view 2024 as something of a transitory year where they hope to thread the needle between staying competitive and focusing on 2025.” LG Milwaukee Mets! Lol just kidding. LFGM Make the best moves you can and build a steady foundation for sustained success.
How about those Dodgers??
How about them Dodgers what? Are they in the East now?
I can see why the dodgers traded, but never ever trade with the Rays. Especially then it comes to pitching….
Never go up against a Cicilian when death is on the line, and don’t trade pitchers with the Rays!
I dunno, DD did pretty good bringing Eovaldi in for Beeks I believe it was…
Eovaldi was a rental that year. Boston signed him to an extension in the offseason and that was smart, but the trade with the Rays was pretty straight-forward and fair.
@larkraxm: Watch out for SICILIANS as well.
And worse, never look up a word on Google. You might find the correct spelling. Who needs that when you can just get it wrong and look dumb?
Man. Thank you much. I know the word hero is thrown around a lot, but you are a real hero. I was typing with my thumbs on a tiny screen while fighting with auto correct. But you have really made an impact here today.
Most of us are on our phones with small screens. And no autocorrect system is going to produce “Cicilians.”
Lame.
Hero work. I’m sure if you correct all the spelling and grammar issues on MLBTR comments section, you are busier than Batman!
I apologized for my spelling error, and congratulated you for being a hero. What else can I do to make this up to you?
There’s nothing to make up. Sorry having an error pointed out bothers you so much that you keep posting about it.
I keep responding to you, dawg! I don’t care if you point out my error at all. I was/am fascinated that you cared so much about my error that you took time, energy, and brain space to post about my error. It was a misspelling in a stupid joke in a silly comment section. The fact that you corrected like a PhD dissertation was slightly interesting. In the future, I will be more careful with my spelling and punctuation. Perhaps you should have just let it go?? Either way thanks for the exchange!
And he’s still going, lol.
And so does he!! Also laughing out loud! You’re a hoot!
Nah the Rays have always done right by Friedman. Seems like they enjoy beating up on the Pirates though. I bet they are still high fiving that Archer trade.
Even if the Mets are looking towards 2025 they still need to get players now, not all players are going to sign a 1 year deal. They still need to sign Yamamoto and maybe Montgomery , Severino and Quintana are both free agents after 2024. I think they should give Woodruff a 2-3 yr deal even though he can’t pitch in 2024
Woodruff might be cooked. The injury he suffered does not have a high rate of recovery to pre surgery form. That’s why he was sent packing.
Uncle Steve will either land Yamamoto or have another team meet his offer. He won’t be outbid if he made the trip to recruit Yamamoto.
Can’t count on Quintana and Severino both making 30 starts each. Won’t happen.
Montgomery is the surest thing. There must be 20 teams interested.
Agreed Monty is the surest thing. He uses deception for most of his strikeouts. He will age better than most pitchers. Reminds me of J.A. Happ and he is also a team player. Plus he won’t break the bank. Wish the Yankees would resign him. They need someone they can count on for 30 starts since they will be lucky to get 5 out of Rodon before he visits the Carl Pavano Memorial MRI Tube next year. If they take a flyer on a pitcher with injury questions I hope it’s Manaea. That guy is a straight stud whenever he visits Yankee Stadium. Cashman will miss out on Yamamoto then resign Montas then call it an off-season swearing it’s the best team he has ever put together. Can’t wait until he is gone.
I’m a little apprehensive about Montgomery. He pitched well for the Cards when he first came over from the Yankees, then was just average. A new location, Texas, and he was good again. Who knows what he’ll be like with yet another team.
He was better than average. He had a little bit of a rough start to the season then pitched very well in June and July for a team completely imploding on itself. Monty was very solid. He may never post the gaudy K numbers, but he gives you a chance to win every start. He may never be described as dominant, but he’s a true horse.
He’s a good solid number three starter on a good team who will give his team 30 starts and 175 innings at this stage. A career ERA+ of 116. He needs his command to succeed, so during the course of a season he will have stretches when he’s excellent and others when he’s spotty. Don’t try reading much into specific periods, but instead look at the entire body of work around his TJS. He’s good.
@RobM A #3 who has a 121 ERA+ from 2021-2023, in 524 innings?
If Montgomery’s a #3 then your #2 has something like a 130 ERA+ and pitches 190 innings a year, ie a HOF talent, and your #1 gives you a 140 ERA+ and 205 innings a year, ie an inner circle HOF caliber talent.
At worst Montgomery is a #1B starter. No one projects a #3 starter at 5/140m.
Sleepy Stearns and rich George Costanza are making this organization look like a clownshow. The MLB should remove Cohen as an owner
LFGMets: Right after Reinsdorf and Fisher.
Uncle Jer needs to go to a retirement home.
@LFGMets: Better MLBTR should remove you as a commenter.
@Blue Baron
We need brilliant minds like LFGMETS and Camden to educate and entertain us.
Word is Atlanta is trading Matt Carpenter to the Mets to platoon with Pete Alonso in Queens at both 1B/DH while batting cleanup/#4 in the batting order. Would be a good clubhouse guy for the Metropolitans and help oversee the young kids developing.
I know Atlanta is going to trade Carpenter. I hope the rest of it is a bit of sarcasm because I can’t see Alonso being platooned at 1b, especially with Carpenter.
If the Mets made a trade with the Braves for Carpenter, Sterns should be fired ASAP
Carpy can help with the 3B hole too. He’s got plenty of experience at the hot corner
To bad he c’ant hit
“Indications have percolated since the trade deadline that the Mets view 2024 as something of a transitory year where they hope to thread the needle between staying competitive and focusing on 2025 and beyond…”
Are you listening Yoshinobu?
@norcalblue “Staying competitive.”
Definitely in the running for most mealymouthed, meaningless, weasel phrase of 2023.
Is Yamato going to agree with the Mets only if he is given veto power over future team moves the same way that the shady aging phony ohtani (ohtani will be the worst contract of all time and will average around 3 war and the fans will turn on him within 4 years) has with the Dodgers?
Only Justin mentioned in the article was 39 year old Justin Turner. He’s still a productive part time 1b/DH. Doubt he has many games left in him at the hot corner. Turner is a one year at a time man until Father Time catches up with him. If Cubs get Chapman I can see him or Hoskins manning first in 2024. Both can be had on a one year deal.
Ohtani is a freak. Do not count him out as a batter. However I do agree with you about him on the mound. Probably will pitch in 25 and 26 before having a career pitching ending injury. 35m is a lot to pay a DH. Take 68m at 5 percent for ten years. Then there is inflation. It’s probably going to end up costing 30/35 a year since it’s deferred for 10 years.
If you are going to act and sound like a whiny little girl, at least get the facts straight.
We get Ohtani didn’t sign with your team. Maybe being a fan isn’t for you.
Ugh. Yamamoto is not going to sign with the Mets if they aren’t trying to compete with the likes of the Dodgers & Yankees this year. Where’s the incentive for him? Cohen might be able to pursued him with the highest bid, but other than that, why would any big-name player want to choose the Mets over other major market teams at this point, if they’re not trying to throw down top dollar for multiple top-tier players to properly compete. This is coming from a Mets fans.
@fried-man Well said. Even if Cohen’s offer is 10/350m versus 10/300m from the Dodgers, why would you go to Queens?
Cohen’s reputation is very poor at this point, a meddling owner who likes to play GM and will overrule his baseball people as he feels like it, will quit on the team in June, will lunge last minute after Bauer, Correa et al,
As some point the incremental improvement in the quality of your life becomes fairly trivial in the context of the ongoing farce you may have to endure for the next DECADE.
It’s easy to think that Stearns is here, the Mets are going to turn it around, but will they? They won’t win the East for at least five years. Is it that much fun for a star to commit to the wild card chase for most of his U.S. career? What if Stearns is just a fairly ordinary GM who had some luck in Milwaukee?
I make that point because what else is there for Yamamoto to think? Why should he have faith in the former small market GM, or put any stock in his skills, especially when the cost of a wrong choice will be ten years of toiling in unhappiness and farce?
I’m a Mets fan but I’d tell Yamamoto, don’t sign here. You won’t even get a serious contender for the wild card until 2026, and that’s if the farm breaks well—is that what you really want? How could it be?
You seriously have to ask why a player would consider Queens if offered an extra $50 million?
You as a fan and Yama as a player either believes Cohen’s plan or you don’t.
Yamamoto is in a great spot. The Red Sox and Giants are big market teams who fall in the “need to do SOMETHING” category and the Mets are just sitting there ready make a move that reminds everyone how deep Cohen’s pockets are.
I’ll bet Cody Bellinger is licking his chops waiting to see how high the bidding goes.
Offense has nothing to do with this process.
If It’s Yamamoto or Bust ?!
Mets should get him.
SF will probably give us a run for Steve’s $$ ,
But I don’t think Cohen will let the Yankees
outbid him
Of those options in the field?
Duvall’s great when he’s healthy, but when is it ?
If we’re going to tread water for a year,
Signing old familiars will at least make it fun.
Sign Turner, Pham, Robertson , Danny Murphy, dream of what could have been….
They’re honoring Daryl and Doc this year:
Make it a wild one !
Break Dykstra out of jail !!
I’ll be there for it.
If the Mets aren’t contending in 2024 even with Yamamoto on board, then they won’t be contending in 2025, either, since no one will have graduated from the farm during the 2024 season and established himself as a difference maker or even as a fairly sure bet to be a 2 WAR regular. There just isn’t time in 2024.
Further, and worse, discussions with Justin Turner tell us the Mets don’t even believe Baty or Vientos are good enough to try at 3B for the first three months of 2024, meaning at most those two will combine to produce one respectable DH to write into the roster for 2025—unless Turner is meant to add to the 1B/3B/DH mix once Alonso is dealt. So, either way….
And by 2026, if Senga and Diaz haven’t opted out, the Mets $102m ‘core’ (assuming they have the sense to deal Alonso as soon as Yamamoto signs elsewhere) will be 32, 32, 33, 33, and 34 years of age—and that includes the heart of the roster: SS, 2B, CF, ace, closer, all likely to be in significant decline.
Whereas if Senga and Diaz have opted out, it means they were good enough to require more expensive replacements.
Let’s not kid ourselves about Mets pitching, either. The upside of anyone above Rookie ball or a handful of appearances in low-A is as a #4 starter, and that’s optimistic, meaning the Mets will be buying the heart of their rotation for years on the Free Agent market.
While if they’re not going to do that, enjoy Senga and various retreads in 2024 and 2025.
Steve Cohen—genius entrepreneur.
The idea of buying a WS berth wasn’t a bad one (cf the Texas Rangers), but doing so while you yourself were playing GM, with Eppler for a handmaiden? One of baseball’s epic blunders.
Bro shut up
@Carter86 Whine at someone else, toad.
Much too pessimistic and Cohen-centric to appeal to me, mate. You are usually more reasonable.
@fried-man Well said. Even if Cohen’s offer is 10/350m versus 10/300m from the Dodgers, why would you go to Queens?
Cohen’s reputation is very poor at this point, a meddling owner who likes to play GM and will overrule his baseball people as he feels like it, will quit on the team in June, will lunge last minute after Bauer, Correa et al,
As some point the incremental improvement in the quality of your life becomes fairly trivial in the context of the ongoing farce you may have to endure for the next DECADE.
It’s easy to think that Stearns is here, the Mets are going to turn it around, but will they? They won’t win the East for at least five years. Is it that much fun for a star to commit to the wild card chase for most of his U.S. career? What if Stearns is just a fairly ordinary GM who had some luck in Milwaukee?
I make that point because what else is there for Yamamoto to think? Why should he have faith in the former small market GM, or put any stock in his skills, especially when the cost of a wrong choice will be ten years of toiling in unhappiness and farce?
I’m a Mets fan but I’d tell Yamamoto, don’t sign here. You won’t even get a serious contender for the wild card until 2026, and that’s if the farm breaks well—is that what you really want? How could it be?
Orioles will be the mystery team to swoop down and sign Yoshi
Kudos on your use of the word percolated. Not often does one find that word in a sports article.
As a long time Mets fan these painful depth pieces are only depth of desperation and my depth of despair in this club.
I see no sense in keeping Alonso this year; might as well trade him and get a good young starter or two since they have no plans to compete in 2024.
Might as well go out and get some free-swinging low average home run hitter just to wake the fans up every fourth or fifth game.
Secondly drive a stake through my heart when you even mention Giolito! Out here a mile from Angel Stadium I have caught enough of his act to last a lifetime!
Thinking that garbage like Severino and the like are somehow going to bounce back to stardom is wishful thinking.