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Mets Sign Austin Adams To Major League Deal

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The Mets have signed right-hander Austin Adams to a one-year, major league deal, per a report from Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. Per Will Sammon of The Athletic, it’s a non-guaranteed split contract, meaning Adams will earn different salaries if he’s in the majors or in the minors.

Adams, 33 in May, started the 2023 season with the Diamondbacks on a minor league deal. He had his contract selected in May and made 24 appearances for the club with an earned run average of 5.71. He likely deserved better than that, as he struck out 27.2% of batter faced while walking 9.9%. His .333 batting average on balls in play and 61.6% strand rate were both on the unlucky side of league average, leading to a 3.72 FIP and 3.72 SIERA.

After those 24 appearances, Adams suffered a fractured right ankle and landed on the 60-day injured list in August. The Diamondbacks outrighted him off the roster in November and Adams elected free agency, which allowed him to sign this deal with the Mets.

Over his big league career, which dates back to 2017, Adams has generally racked up strikeouts but also had serious control problems. He has punched out 33.1% of opponents faced while walking 14.6% of them. In 2021, his control problems reached absurd levels when he hit 24 batters with pitches in just 52 2/3 innings pitched. His 9.9% walk rate in 2023 was actually his career best, even though it was higher than the 9.5% league average for relievers on the year.

Adams is just shy of five years of service time, meaning the Mets can utilize him as part of their bullpen in 2024 and, if they so choose, retain him via arbitration for 2025. After the disappointment of 2023, the club has mostly kept themselves to small additions so far this winter, giving one-year deals to Luis Severino, Joey Wendle and now Adams.

The Mets traded away Dominic Leone and David Robertson from their bullpen during the 2023 season, then Adam Ottavino opted out of his deal. Adams can jump into the relief mix and improve the depth.

Mets Sign Luis Severino

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The Mets are reportedly in agreement with free agent starter Luis Severino on a one-year, $13MM guarantee. The deal also includes $2MM in performance bonuses. Severino, who is represented by Rep 1 Baseball, would receive $500K for reaching 27 starts and $750K apiece for his 29th and 31st start.

Luis Severino |Brad Penner-USA TODAY SportsSeverino, 30 in February, is a wild card of this winter’s free agent market. He once looked like one of the best pitchers in the majors but has spent the past five years either injured or ineffective or both. He made 63 starts over 2017 and 2018, throwing 384 2/3 innings with a 3.18 earned run average. He punched out 28.8% of batters faced while walking just 6.2% of them and keeping 45.8% of balls in play on the ground. FanGraphs calculated him as worth 11 wins above replacement over that two-year span, trailing just four pitchers around the league: Max Scherzer, Chris Sale, Jacob deGrom and Corey Kluber.

He and the Yankees agreed to a four-year, $40MM extension prior to 2019, with that deal also having a $15MM option for 2023. But shortly after that deal was signed, he ran into health problems. He only made three starts in the first year of that deal due to shoulder and lat injuries, then Tommy John surgery kept him off the field entirely in 2020 and for most of 2021. More lat issues came in 2022, but he was at least able to make 19 starts and log 102 innings with a 3.18 ERA, followed by a couple of playoff starts.

That relatively healthy showing was enough for the Yankees to trigger the player option for 2023. Another lat strain prevented him from making his season debut until May and then an oblique strain in September ended his season early. In the middle of those IL stints, he tossed 89 1/3 innings but with an awful 6.65 ERA. He struck out just 18.9% of opponents, a huge drop from his 27.7% rate in 2022.

Severino averaged 96.5 mph on his fastball in 2023, a bit down from his 97.6 from 2018. It’s higher than his 96.3 mph average from 2022, when he was still effective. His slider had a bigger drop, averaging 84.6 mph in this year whereas it sat 88-89 prior to his injury troubles. But he was still getting good results in 2022 with a slider that averaged 85.1 mph.

Despite the rough season, some club was going to take a chance on Severino’s track record and hope for a bounceback with better health. MLBTR predicted Severino to secure a contract of one-year and $14MM. His guarantee is just beneath that but the bonuses could help him climb to the other side.

That the Mets are the club to take the chance on Severino makes plenty of sense, with reporting from a couple of weeks ago suggesting they were interested. Last year’s struggles led them to trade Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander ahead of the deadline. Then Carlos Carrasco reached free agency and David Peterson required hip surgery that will force him to miss the start of next season.

All of that left the Mets with a 2024 rotation consisting of Kodai Senga and José Quintana in two spots. They had some candidates to fill out the back end, such as Tylor Megill, Joey Lucchesi and José Butto, but each of those guys can be optioned to the minors and make more sense as depth options than as part of the club’s Opening Day plans.

It’s still unclear exactly what kind of offseason the Mets are planning to have and this transaction won’t make that much clearer. The 2023 club had the highest payroll in baseball history but reporting from the deadline indicated that they may opt for a somewhat less-aggressive approach for 2024. But stepping back from unprecedented heights could still lead to plenty of activity, depending on the size of the step.

This deal is fairly modest by free agent standards but could always be paired with a larger move. For example, the Cardinals were looking for three starters this winter and started with one-year deals for Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson before a bigger three-year strike on Sonny Gray. Perhaps the Mets have a bigger move to come, having been connected to Yoshinobu Yamamoto. But time will tell if that kind of big strike is realistically in their plans.

For now, they’ve added a former star on a short-term deal. He could either help them return to contention or perhaps turn himself into a deadline trade chip. If he isn’t able to get back in good form, the Mets won’t have impacted their plans for competing in the long term.

In the short term, this seems like it will cost them more than the $13MM sticker price. According to Roster Resource, this move pushes the club’s competitive balance tax calculation to $288MM, well beyond next year’s base tax threshold of $237MM. The CBT features escalating penalties for paying in consecutive years and the Mets are set to be a third-time payor in 2024. That means they pay a 50% tax on all overages, 62% for spending over the $257MM line and 95% for going past the third line of $277MM. They could always shed salary somehow but they are already past the third line and not too far from the fourth line of $297MM, when their tax rate would jump to 110%. The tax isn’t calculated until the end of the season, so they could significantly alter all of these calculations between now and next fall, but it’s distinctly possible that they end up paying something close to double that $13MM figure that Severino will receive.

Mark Feinsand of MLB.com first reported Severino was nearing agreement with the Mets. Jeff Passan of ESPN reported the sides were finalizing a one-year, $13MM deal that included $2MM in bonuses. Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported the specific bonus structure.

Ron Hodges Passes Away

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12-year major league veteran Ron Hodges passed away today at the age of 74, per an announcement from the Mets. Hodges spent his entire career as a member of the Mets.

Before ultimately landing with the Mets, several other teams attempted to draft Hodges. The Orioles selected him in the sixth round of the 1970 draft, though he did not sign with them. 1971 saw Hodges drafted in both January and June by the Royals and Braves, respectively, though he did not sign with a team until New York selected him in the second round of the secondary phase in the 1972 January draft. After signing, Hodges reached the big leagues fairly quickly, debuting with the major league club in June of 1973.

Hodges took to the role he spent much of his career in during his 1973 rookie campaign, acting as the club’s backup catcher and a pinch-hitter off the bench. After catching Hall of Fame right-hander Tom Seaver in his first career big league game, Hodges went on to make the club’s postseason roster in 1973. Though he did not appear during the NLCS against the Reds, Hodges appeared in Game 1 of the World Series against the A’s as a pinch hitter, drawing a walk in his lone appearance during the series as the Mets went on to lose to Oakland in seven games.

For the first eight season of his career, Hodges was used largely in his aforementioned role as a backup and pinch-hitter. He performed acceptably in that role, slashing .233/.320/.314 in 377 games across those seasons. Hodges broke out somewhat with the bat in 1981, however. Though he only appeared in 35 games, he impressed with a .302/.375/.419 slash line across his 48 trips to the plate that season. That offensive showing earned him some additional playing time during the 1982 season; he split time behind the plate with John Stearns, appearing in 80 games and slashing an above-average .246/.358/.373 in 276 plate appearances.

Hodges’s solid showing in a larger role in 1982 allowed him an even bigger opportunity the following year. He was the Mets’ Opening Day starter behind the plate in 1983, when he caught Seaver in the first start of his return to Queens for his age-38 season. Hodges went on to appear in 110 games with the Mets that season, slashing .260/.383/.308 in 305 trips to the plate that season. It proved to be the penultimate season of his career, as Hodges retired after the 1984 season with 666 career games and 1,683 plate appearances under his belt. A career .240/.342/.322 hitter, Hodges collected 342 hits during his career. Those of us at MLBTR extend our condolences to Hodges’s family, friends, loved ones and teammates.

Mets Notes: Nevin, Randolph

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  • Before the Mets hired John Gibbons as their new bench coach, the New York Post’s Mike Puma reported that Phil Nevin was a candidate for the job.  Let go as the Angels’ manager after the season, Nevin has a long relationship with Mets skipper Carlos Mendoza from their days on the Yankees’ coaching staff.  There was some speculation that former Mets manager Willie Randolph might’ve been a candidate for the bench coach job given Mendoza’s praise of his former mentor, but Newsday’s Anthony Rieber suggests Randolph could still return to the Mets in another capacity.

Mets To Hire John Gibbons As Bench Coach

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7:50pm: New York will hire Antoan Richardson as first base coach, reports Anthony DiComo of MLB.com (on X). He had held that role in San Francisco for four seasons under Gabe Kapler.

6:49pm: The Mets are hiring John Gibbons as their bench coach, tweets Mike Puma of the New York Post. Will Sammon and Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic first reported (X link) that the Mets were nearing agreement with Gibbons to take the position.

New York has turned to a first-time skipper in former Yankee bench coach Carlos Mendoza. Immediately after Mendoza’s hiring, reports suggested they were seeking a more experienced voice to operate as his chief staffer. The 61-year-old Gibbons qualifies.

A first-round pick of the Mets in 1980, Gibbons played 18 big league games with New York in the mid-80s. He had a far lengthier big league run as a manager. Gibbons, who began his coaching career in the Mets system in 1990, logged two separate stints as an MLB manager in Toronto. He led the Blue Jays from 2004-08. After being dismissed midway through the ’08 season, Gibbons spent some time as bench coach in Kansas City.

The Jays re-hired him as manager going into the 2013 season. He’d hold that position for six more seasons, overseeing three straight winning campaigns between 2014-16. The Jays made the playoffs in both 2015 and ’16, advancing to the AL Championship Series both years. The team’s performance tailed off thereafter, as they finished below .500 in both 2017 and ’18. The Jays replaced Gibbons with Charlie Montoyo going into 2019.

Gibbons has been floated as a candidate for a few managerial vacancies in the years since. While he hasn’t gotten a look in the lead role, he’ll return to a coaching staff as Mendoza’s top lieutenant.

In other coaching news, Puma reported yesterday that New York was nearing agreement to hire Jose Rosado as bullpen coach. He had overlapped with Mendoza during a run in the Yankees’ farm system. Meanwhile, Andy Martino of SNY reports (on X) that the club will hire Mike Sarbaugh as third base coach. He had held that role under Terry Francona in Cleveland for 11 seasons.

The Opener: Go, Nevin, Glasnow

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With Thanksgiving Day drawing near, here are three things we’re keeping an eye on around baseball:

1. Will more international players be posted soon? 

On Tuesday, the LG Twins of the KBO agreed to post right-handed pitcher Woo-Suk Go. The Korean posting system is similar to the Japanese posting system (by which Yoshinobu Yamamoto was recently made available) in that MLB teams have a 45-day window to negotiate with the player after he is officially posted. However, there is no word yet as to when the Twins will initiate the process and open Go’s window.

Shota Imanaga, one of MLBTR’s top ten free agents this winter, is another international player whose posting timeline remains unclear. Earlier this month, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported that the Yokohama DeNA BayStars would post Imanaga on Monday, November 13. Needless to say, that date has come and gone, and the southpaw remains unavailable to MLB clubs. It’s possible that Imanaga and the BayStars are waiting for fellow NPB All-Star Yamamoto to sign and set the market, in which case it seems more likely that Go, a reliever, will be the next international player to be posted.

2. Will Phil Nevin coach in 2024?

Yesterday morning, the Padres announced the hiring of Mike Shildt as their new manager. The former Cardinals’ skipper beat out various other candidates for the role, including Padres bench coach Ryan Flaherty and Angels infield coach Benji Gil. However, the most high-profile finalist who lost out on the job was former Angels manager Phil Nevin. Eight different teams replaced their skippers this offseason, but Nevin, who spent just under two years at the helm in LA, did not land a new managerial gig.

However, if he is interested in returning to the dugout, there are still coaching vacancies around the league. Indeed, per Mike Puma of the New York Post, Nevin is in the mix to be the Mets’ bench coach under new manager Carlos Mendoza. The two worked together previously with the Yankees, and Nevin told the Post, “If they were to ask, I would do anything for Carlos.”

3. Is a Tyler Glasnow trade on the horizon?

Plenty of names have been floated in trade rumors this offseason, but perhaps none is as sure to be moved as Tyler Glasnow. The 30-year-old will earn $25MM this season, after which he is set to hit the open market. Given his high salary and impending free agency, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reports that the Rays will “definitely” trade him this winter, and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic is similarly confident that Glasnow will be pitching for a new team in 2024.

With the free agent market for top-of-the-rotation arms potentially slowing down until Yamamoto signs, perhaps the trade market will start to heat up. The Rays would surely like some additional payroll clarity as soon as possible, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see Glasnow traded sooner rather than later.

Mets Sign Cole Sulser To Minor League Deal

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The Mets announced that right-hander Cole Sulser has been signed to a minor league deal with an invite to major league Spring Training.

Sulser, 34 in March, began the 2023 campaign with the Diamondbacks. He made three appearances in the early going but a right shoulder strain landed him on the injured list in early April. He returned to make one more appearance at the end of July before getting designated for assignment. The Rays put in a claim but kept Sulser on optional assignment for the final two months of the season and then outrighted him as the offseason was kicking off.

Despite the mostly lost season, he’s not too far removed from an excellent 2021 season. Sulser threw 63 1/3 innings for the Orioles that year with an earned run average of 2.70. He struck out 28.4% of batters faced while walking 8.9%. The last two campaigns haven’t gone his way with injuries playing a role. A lat strain cost him over a month in 2022 as his ERA jumped to 5.29, which was followed by another injury-marred year in 2023. He was able to finish strong, however, posting an ERA of 3.86 over 18 2/3 innings at Triple-A Durham after the waiver claim.

There’s plenty of uncertainty in the Mets’ bullpen, with Adam Ottavino having opted out of his deal while the club non-tendered Trevor Gott, Jeff Brigham and Sam Coonrod last week. Edwin Díaz will be back in 2024 but he’ll be returning from missing all of 2023 due to knee surgery. If Sulser is healthy and resembling his 2021 self, he could earn his way onto the roster. He still an option year and has less than four years of service time, meaning he could be retained for future seasons via arbitration if things go especially well in the year to come.

Mets Hire Kris Gross To Oversee Amateur Scouting

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After hiring Andy Green away from the Cubs for a senior player development role, the Mets are adding another name to their front office today. Per Joe Doyle of FSS Plus, the club has hired Astros scouting director Kris Gross to oversee their amateur scouting department. While Gross’s title with the Mets is not yet confirmed, Will Sammon and Chandler Rome of The Athletic suggest that he will be a vice president in New York, with Doyle suggesting his title is “believed” to be VP of Amateur Scouting.

Gross, 42, was a pitcher in the Cubs’ minor league system from 2003 to 2005. After retiring from his playing career, Gross began his scouting career with the Cardinals in 2009 before joining the Astros as a crosschecker in 2012. Gross was promoted to his most recent role of scouting director following the 2018 season. Right-hander Hunter Brown, catcher Korey Lee, and top outfield prospect Drew Gilbert are among the more notable names the Astros drafted under Gross’s watch, which coincided with the club’s loss of first- and second-round draft picks in 2020 and 2021 due to the club’s electronic sign stealing scandal. Brown has a career 4.60 ERA and 4.10 FIP with a 26.8% strikeout rate across 176 big league innings the past two seasons with Houston, while Lee and Gilbert were utilized at the trade deadline earlier this year to land right-handers Kendall Graveman and Justin Verlander, respectively.

Rome and Sammon note that although Gross was the person in charge of Houston’s 2023 draft, GM Dana Brown had more direct influence over the process than former GMs James Click or Jeff Luhnow did in the past. Brown’s involvement in the draft process was hardly a surprise given his background as VP of scouting with the Braves, and the pair note that Brown and Gross enjoyed a strong working relationship in 2023. Still, it’s possible that Brown’s hands-on approach to the draft could leave the Astros in better position to absorb the loss of Gross than may otherwise be expected.

In departing Houston, Gross heads to New York to join new Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns, whom Gross overlapped with in Houston during Stearns’s years as assistant GM of the Astros. Sammon and Rome also point out that one of Stearns’s perceived weaknesses during his tenure in the top job with the Brewers was the club’s record in the draft, a flaw that the addition of Gross could help to assuage. After a difficult 2023 season that leaves the Mets’ plans for 2024 and beyond murkier than expected, Gross is set to join a Mets organization that has made clear their intention to prioritize bolstering the club’s farm system.

To this point, the club has gotten a solid head start on that goal and currently ranks seventh in the majors per Fangraphs. That being said, the Mets also watched top talents such as Brett Baty, Mark Vientos, and Ronny Mauricio struggle in their first tastes of big league action in 2023 even as young catcher Francisco Alvarez held his own while stepping into an everyday role with the club. The struggles from Baty, who was a consensus top-3o prospect entering the 2023 campaign but slashed just .212/.275/.323 in 108 games with the Mets this year, and others underscore the work still left to do for Gross and the rest of the front office.

Mets Interested In Luis Severino

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Luis Severino’s trip through free agency could lead him to another New York borough, as the former Yankees right-hander has gotten some interest from the Mets, The Athletic’s Will Sammon reports.  Mets officials are planning a meeting with the 29-year-old to explore the possibility of a deal between the two sides.

A reunion with the Yankees doesn’t appear to be happening for Severino, but at least eight teams were known to have some level of interest in the two-time All-Star.  It’s probably safe to guess that an even higher number will at least check in before the offseason is over, given the widespread need for pitching around the league and Severino’s potential as a reclamation project.

Severino’s career got off to such a promising start that the Yankees signed him to a four-year, $40MM extension prior to the 2019 season, a rare move for a team that usually doesn’t explore contract extensions on general principal.  Unfortunately for the Yankees, they perhaps should’ve stuck to their policy in this case, as Severino’s career went into a tailspin due to injuries.  He pitched only 18 total big league innings from 2019-21, primarily due to Tommy John surgery but with shoulder, lat, and groin problems also contributing to those three lost years.

More lat injuries limited Severino’s availability in 2022, but he at least returned to pitch 102 innings and post a 3.18 ERA, so the Bombers exercised their $15MM club option on the righty’s services for 2023.  This was another transaction that backfired, as Severino again battled injuries (an oblique strain and another lat strain) en route to a 6.65 ERA in 89 1/3 frames.

In all likelihood, Severino and his agents at Rep 1 Baseball will be aiming for a one-year contract this winter.  (MLBTR projected him for a one-year, $14MM pact.). This would allow Severino to re-enter the market next winter, theoretically after he has enjoyed the type of healthy and productive season that would serve as a better platform for a pricey multi-year commitment.  As noted earlier, many teams would be fits for Severino, and his willingness to take a one-year deal would open the door to offers from both big spenders and smaller-market clubs.

This means that in lieu of a bidding war based purely on money, Severino might prioritize environment and an organization with a track record of rejuvenating pitchers’ careers.  The Mets themselves don’t have that kind of reputation, but new president of baseball operations David Stearns is coming from a Brewers team that had a knack for developing and finding plenty of hidden-gem arms over the years.  Heading to Queens would also allow Severino to remain in New York, and once again play for Carlos Mendoza, as the new Mets skipper spent the previous six seasons on the Yankees’ coaching staff.

Kodai Senga and Jose Quintana are the only locks for the Amazins rotation in 2024, so it isn’t any surprise that the Mets are looking to acquire at least two more arms to a staff that also has Tylor Megill, Jose Butto, Joey Lucchesi, and (after a midseason return from hip surgery) David Peterson in the mix for starts.  Severino may not be the most stable of options given his long injury history, yet with the Mets willing to spend at high end of the market, the team has the flexibility to pursue both frontline arms and slightly lower-cost fliers like Severino.

Mets Hire Andy Green In Player Development Role

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The Mets have hired Andy Green for a senior role in their player development department, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post (X links).  Earlier today, Sherman reported that Green had been fired from his previous job as the Cubs’ bench coach, but Sherman corrected himself by saying that Green wasn’t fired, but that he turned down the Cubs’ offer to remain as bench coach or in another job in the organization.

This isn’t the first link between Green and the Mets this winter, as it seems likely that the groundwork for this hiring was laid when Green interviewed for New York’s managerial opening a few weeks ago.  Though the Mets opted to hire Carlos Mendoza as their new skipper, obviously the club liked Green enough to still want him within the organization.  With Craig Counsell unexpectedly supplanting David Ross as Chicago’s new manager, Green might have decided it was also time for a change, as Green’s stint as bench coach coincided with Ross’ four-year tenure as the Wrigleyville manager.

Green is no stranger to the Big Apple, as his last three seasons as a player were spent in the Mets organization, including his last four MLB big games in 2009.  Upon retirement, he became a manager in the Diamondbacks’ farm system and then Arizona’s third base coach for the 2015 season.  Green was then hired to be the Padres’ manager, compiling a 274-366 record from 2016-19 while initially overseeing a rebuilding San Diego club.

It remains to be seen if this player development job could lead to a new career path for the 46-year-old Green, or if he’ll eventually look to return to an on-field role.  Green’s managerial aspirations obviously haven’t left him, given his interviews with both the Mets and the Guardians within the last two months.

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