Christmas wishes for the 2023 Mets

It’s been an incredible year for the Mets and their fans. A regular season with 101 wins was a great year, a 24-game improvement over 2021. And somehow, despite losing Chris Bassitt, Jacob deGrom, Seth Lugo and Taijuan Walker, it’s been a great offseason, too. Steve Cohen has thrown nine-figure contracts around like they were [...]

An ‘improve on the margins’ plan that doesn’t block Francisco Alvarez

Steve Cohen has approved more spending than most of us thought he would. If he had stopped after the club signed Kodai Senga, absolutely no fan would have complained. But then the Mets went on to sign Omar Narvaez, when they already had three catchers so this crazy offseason continues. It would be nice to [...]

Holiday Gift: A look back at the Mike Hampton trade

It was this week in the year 1999 that the New York Mets executed a trade that gave them two of the final pieces of their pennant-winning 2000 squad: acquiring NL Cy Young Award runner-up Mike Hampton and outfielder Derek Bell from the Houston Astros for Roger Cedeno, Octavio Dotel and minor league pitcher Kyle [...]

Mark Canha was the latest player buoyed by a six-week hot stretch

What gets lost because of the final series of the year against the Braves, where the Mets neither hit nor pitched well, was how good the offense was in September/October. In all, 16 times in their last 31 games the Mets scored at least five runs. They went 16-0 in those games. You’d think they’d [...]

Poll: How does the catching shake out after Omar Narvaez pickup?

Omar Narvaez is likely better than either James McCann or Tomas Nido so the Mets signing him yesterday is probably a good idea. But it makes it harder for Francisco Alvarez to make the Opening Day roster. Not impossible - just harder. There have been rumors that the club has been shopping McCann and maybe [...]

Mets add to catching corps by signing free agent Omar Narvaez

The Mets made a surprise move, adding catcher Omar Narvaez on a 2/$15 million deal. An All-Star om 2021, Narvaez fell off offensively last year. But he remains a solid pitch framer and he posted a 1.1 fWAR in just 84 games played with a .597 OPS. For a comparison, James McCann had a .538 [...]