Mets Emerge From GM Talks As Meeting Kings

The New York Mets became the center of attention at the GM meetings this week, which was appropriate because this is their time of year. The Mets didn’t play much good baseball during the season, but they do tend to make a lot of noise in the offseason, and that was the case this week. 

The results were mixed. Predictions before the GM meetings had a free-agent “frenzy” occurring, but the net result of the week was mostly about meetings to schedule more meetings. 

As such, the Mets wound up being the meeting kings of the week, as they got the one they wanted with starter Tarik Skubal. The meeting will occur in New York next week, and the baseball world will wait with bated breath to see if owner Steve Cohen can get his man. 

Under normal circumstances, a Skubal signing would represent the first move in what would be a domino effect, as taking him off the board would allow the rest of the market to be set. But the market for starters is thin, and so is the overall market as a whole for bats and offensive players, plus the circumstances this year are anything but normal. 

The lockout is scheduled to start on Dec. 1, after which baseball will oncea again enter another version of what’s being called the sport’s “nuclear winter.” That gives every other team in baseball a little over two weeks to make whatever major moves they can pull together before baseball shuts down, and that’s a short amount of time to get a lot done. 

The Mets did accomplish some other things at the meetings, sort of. They’re considering a platoon at first base, which would involve adding a right-handed bat to go with current first baseman Jared Young, who was surprisingly productive when he was mostly handed the job in the second half of the season. 

The Mets did get to meet with multiple candidates, with the leading one being first baseman Ty France, who had a big season for the San Diego Padres. What we don’t know is whether the Mets will go the platoon route or try to make a bigger move for a marquee candidate, although that move would likely be a trade given the current list of candidates other than France.

The Mets also got to touch base with some left-handed relievers, including old friends A.J. Minter and Brooks Raley. But the big move will be Skubal, and we’ll have to wait to see if the next meeting results in an actual signing.