Imagining a Better Mets Farm System

It's been great news that MLB and the Players Association are talking again, even if there is still quite a distance between the two sides' positions. However, it was telling that MLB deputy commissioner Dan Halem felt the need to bring up MLB's willingness to lose some games to get what they want out of the negotiations. We're not even in February, but they just had to dangle that sword over everyone's necks. But there is also news of some progress being made in items that both sides are willing to drop from their demands, so we'll just hold onto good thoughts and optimism for as long as we can. I'm still pessimistic about the MLB season starting on time, but I am a bit less cynical than I was before this week.

Focus On the Future if the Lockout Drags On

As expected, the first proposal since the lockout began from MLB to the Players Association did nothing to gain any traction towards an eventual settlement. In fairness, nobody who covers the sport seemed to be expecting anything substantial from MLB and Rob Manfred. If there is anything hopeful for fans to find in the offer, it was simply that the process has been started again. I personally don't expect serious offers to be made this month, but even half-serious talking is better than none at all.

International Signing Blues

The international signing period for MLB clubs began yesterday. It had been postponed from July 2, due to the pandemic. Unlike the amateur draft, there is no draft order for international free agents. Clubs have a fixed amount of bonus pool money to spend, and can basically use that pool to sign as many free agents as they can come to an agreement with. Although the signing period began yesterday, these agreements between clubs and players have been made months ago, long before the current Mets regime took over. This is significant, because the Mets are not expected to reach an agreement with any player in MLB.com's Top 30 free agents. You could find the list here. There are a couple of Cuban players on the list who reportedly may wait until the next signing period begins.

For Baseball, TV is Broken

Last week Ken Rosenthal had a piece up on The Athletic site about the major reduction in rights fees for the new contract between ESPN and Major League Baseball. The numbers are significant, with MLB revenues from the deal expected to go down from about $700 million a year to about $550 million. Sadly, one thing that won't be affected is ESPN's awful Sunday night baseball package, which will continue to take games away from Sunday afternoon and move them to the evening and, at least in the case of the Mets, replace a really good broadcast with a pretty awful one.

Those Shiny New Mets and the Road Ahead

When Steve Cohen's purchase of the New York Mets went through, he was joined by new team president Sandy Alderson in a news conference where they shared their plans for the team. Both Cohen and Alderson spoke of the idea of building a sustainable winner with the Mets, which would necessitate improving the team's roster in the short term while building out the farm system for long-term success. With the addition of SS Francisco Lindor and SP Carlos Carrasco to the roster, the Mets are well on the way to acing the short-term goal of being more competitive in 2021.

Dreaming of a Fertile Farm

I'm not an expert in the area of baseball prospects. You'll never see me speculate before the draft on who the Mets might pick. I lack both the knowledge and the time to pick up that sort of expertise. Despite that, I've been interested in the areas of scouting and developing for a long time, particularly when it comes to the Mets. This interest dates back to the late 1990s, as my love for baseball slowly recovered from the 1994-1995 strike/lockout.

I began to realize just how lacking the Mets organization was in that area. and how much it hurt the club from remaining competitive for more than short periods of time. Steve Phillips was the GM at the time that I started paying attention. He always struck me as someone that cared more about churning up his roster in countless trades than the slow, difficult work of scouting and developing players. The Mets record in draft success under Phillips wasn't great, although they did pick up David Wright and Aaron Heilman in the same 2001 draft.