Over the last several weeks, the Mets have had a ton of news surrounding them. Starting with the surprising signing of Dellin Betances, Carlos Beltran stepping down, the Luis Rojas hiring, and all the trade rumors, Mets fans have been kept on the edge of their chairs.
The Mets won the Betances bidding in a big part due to Carlos Beltran being their manager at the time and the unique contract structure, which gives a couple of options to the team and veteran reliever. Betances is betting on himself to rebound and return to his dominant form. It also doesn’t hurt that he has spent his entire career in New York.
A couple of weeks after the Betances signing, Carlos Beltran had to step down because of his involvement in the Houston Astros cheating scandal. Regardless of his role in the Scandal, the fact that AJ Hinch and Alex Cora also lost their managerial jobs forced the Mets to part ways with Beltran.
The Met’s search for a new manager ended on Monday night with the hiring of Luis Rojas. Rojas is widely considered a rising star in the industry and is well respected by virtually the whole roster. He is the son of Felipe Alou and the brother of Moises Alou.
In 2015 and 2016, he led the Leones Del Escogido to the Winter Ball Championships. He also was a coach and manager within the Mets organization for over a decade. The future looks bright for the Mets, with Rojas calling the shots.
Source: The #Mets are expected to name 38-year-old Coach Luis Rojas the next manager.
Rojas is the son of Felipe Alou and brother of Moises Alou
In 2015 and 2016 he lead the Leones Del Escogido to Winter Ball Championships.
— Yehuda Schwartz (@yaschwa30) January 20, 2020
The last couple of days brought even more exciting news to the Mets. They have been connected to Starling Marte and Nolan Arenado, who have been popular names on the trade market. At first, I thought the rumors were to cover up the sticky managerial situation, but I’ve been proved wrong.
In addition to what I have reported on twitter, I have heard more regarding both players.
The Pirates have lowered their asking price significantly for Starling Marte compared to earlier this offseason. The Pirates remain interested in the Mets left-handed pitching prospects, catchers, and specifically 3B prospect Mark Vientos. The Mets are now being contested by the Padres in what a source described as a “dangerous chess match”. Additionally the Pirates are searching for a young catcher and an MLB ready outfielder. It seems like a trade is on the mend to one of the interested teams.
Regarding the Mets and Nolan Arenado, the Rockies have made their priority a young catcher. The Mets have that in 18-year-old Francisco Alvarez, who was recently ranked the No. 67 overall prospect by Baseball America and was also ranked by MLB Pipeline as a top-10 catching prospect. The Mets have been adamant that Alvarez is untouchable in other talks, but it would be hard to abide by that for a talent like Nolan Arenado. I’ve heard that the Rockies like Brandon Nimmo a lot, so that can also be considered. I would say the talks are just preliminary at the moment.
Overall the Mets seem to be serious about contending at a very high level and as we saw last offseason, I would not put anything past GM Brodie Van Wagenen.
