Your Monday morning dose of New York Mets and MLB news, notes, and links.
Meet the Mets
On Sunday Night Baseball, the Mets were tortured by Matt Chapman for a good bit of time, but a splash hit and the best game of his life from Ronny Mauricio and a Juan Soto homer for good measure put the Mets ahead and, eventually, in the win column, 5-3.
Choose your recap: Amazin’ Avenue, Faith and Fear in Flushing, NY Post, MLB.com, Daily News, Newsday, The Athletic.
Prior to Sunday’s game, the Mets finally added Gregory Soto to the active roster and designated Jose Castillo for assignment to open up the spot.
If the Mets are going to trade for a starting pitcher, it’s going to be someone incredibly good rather than a marginal upgrade.
Reportedly, the Mets are keeping an eye on the center field market, whether it be Luis Robert Jr. or someone else.
Around the National League East
At last, the Yankees finally proved themselves to be useful. They scored their only four runs of a 4-2 win in the second inning against Zack Wheeler, handing him his first loss in nearly a month.
Six different Nationals batters drove in a run against the Twins, getting Washington a 7-2 victory to feel good about before leaving Minnesota.
The Marlins march towards .500 hit a slight Brewers-shaped roadblock as they gave up runs in the eighth and ninth innings and ultimately lost on a walkoff, 3-2.
In what barely qualifies as news, Bryce Elder got smacked around again, this time by the Rangers as the Braves were handed an 8-1 loss in Texas.
Only a year removed from being part of a big three-way deal, the Braves acquired Erick Fedde from the Cardinals for cash or a player to be named later.
Around Major League Baseball
In Cooperstown, Dave Parker, Dick Allen, CC Sabathia, Billy Wagner, and Ichiro Suzuki were officially inducted into the Hall of Fame.
If you want to watch the speeches, MLB posted all of them on their YouTube channel! The Ichiro one comes highly recommended.
Most Hall of Fame stories feature some improbability or strife, but the story of Billy Wagner is up there with its twists and turns.
Mike Trout recorded the 1000th run batted in of his career on a 443 foot home run, the 397th of his career.
Old Friend Seth Lugo and the Royals are finalizing a two-year contract for $46M to keep the veteran starter in Kansas City beyond the end of his contract this winter.
With Ryan McMahon off the board and Eugenio Suarez a hot commodity, Nolan Arenado might find himself as an alternative trade option.
Yesterday at Amazin’ Avenue
Vas Drimalitis looked back at five (positive!) memorable moments from new Hall of Famer Billy Wagner’s time as a Met.
Alexander Choi looked at some of the left-handed starter options on the market as the trade deadline grows closer.
This Date in Mets History
On this date in 2011, the Mets traded Carlos Beltran to the San Francisco Giants for two good half seasons of Zack Wheeler.