The New York Mets hired Jared Porter as their new general manager. He has a great background having won it all with the Red Sox and the Cubs. He has four rings to prove it. Now he’s almost on his own, he will still have to work with Sandy Alderson, who may still wield more power since he has the ear of owner Stephen Cohen.
Porter can’t talk about who the Mets are chasing in free agency, and the right questions weren’t asked of him on New York radio to see what he thinks of George Springer as a player as an example. The New York media has let him just speak in the most generalities like “he’s a great player”. Why is he a great player? I’d listen to that if he spoke about it. Most of us are assuming he’s the next target. Francisco Lindor seems more of an option over Nolan Arenado. Lindor has a year left, and Arenado could opt-out in a year, if he doesn’t you have to pay his $32.5 million a year for his declining bat, and what would that bat look like outside of Colorado? As great a fielder and player, he is, the Mets should pass on him unless the Rockies eat some salary. If Arenado wants to find out more about New York, he should talk to former Mets and Rockies pitcher, Mike Hampton.
I might just use Andres Gimenez at third base and spend bigger dollars elsewhere.
A signing of slight significance is the San Francisco Giants’ acquisition of pitcher Anthony Desclafini
They got him for one-year, six million bucks. This one has a chance to be a great value signing. He’s 35-37 for his career and has won nine games three times in his career so far. That’s not great, but that’s something that can be improved upon. He’s an innings guy who’s had a reasonable WHIP the two seasons before last season’s aberration.
The Giants had a surprisingly good season last year under manager, Gabe Kapler. They almost made the expanded playoffs, and one need that was cited was a veteran arm. Well, now they have one and maybe Kapler will talk nutrition and wellness with his new pitcher to get him over the hump? More likely, Desclafini will embrace his new team and get between 9-11 wins as he pitches in a reduced-game season but in a contract year for the right-hander.
Rockies manager Bud Black may have a compromise for the eventual use of the designated hitter in the National League. Many still don’t want it but he suggested the DH slot in the lineup would go away when the starting pitcher is pulled. Then the strategy would begin and while I’m not thrilled with that, I would take that over straight DH and nothing else.
This would eliminate the starters, which are ridiculous, and fans don’t like seeing a parade of 1-2 inning pitchers. They don’t. It also is a way for teams to waive the white flag and almost give up a game so they can set their rotation, so everyone just goes out and “throws” an inning. That’s not baseball, it’s never been baseball, and I would love to see that get eliminated from the game as well as the ridiculous shifts. I think the shifting is fine, but I think there should be limitations.
