On this date in 2021, the Mets signed free agent Max Scherzer!

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On this date in 2023, the Mets signed free agent Luis Severino!

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Javier Baez turns 32 today! He was a member of the 2021 Mets! He will be making $25 million next year with the Tigers.

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George Foster turns 76 today, the 1977 NL MVP and long time Reds outfielder came to the Mets in a February 1982 trade with Greg Harris, Jim Kern and Alex Treviño. A five time All-Star, Foster hit 52 homers in 1977 to lead the league and drove in 149 runs. He was a member of the 1986 Mets team until he was released in August of that year, hitting .227/.289/.429. There was a benches clearing brawl in Cincinnati and Foster did not participate. He retired as a player after the 1986 season.

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Feel free to discuss whatever you want in this thread.

Sponsored I would go with "MetLife Field" (not to be confused with MetLife Stadium) and non-sponsored I would go with "Flushing's Meadow".

Was supposed to be a gift for someone else but they wanted tickets instead. Figured someone may like this for the holidays.

Curious to see what's out there. Not interested in any promo stuff. I already started my son off on a signed baseball collection, so could add to that.

Can meet in person on Long Island.

LGM!

He's 68 years old now and probably still playing somewhere

My husband has been a Mets fan since he was a kid and I wanted to get him a jersey for Christmas. I just want to get him a white replica with no name and I can’t find his size (small) anywhere. It seems the 2 Canadian MLB sites are linked and have the same inventory.

Any suggestions?

TIA!

Happy birthday to DJ Stewart who turns 31 today!

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Craig Swan turns 74 today. He pitched for the Mets from 1973 to 1984 with a 59-72 record in 1,235.2 innings pitched. In 1978, he led the National League with a 2.43 ERA. He was a good pitcher for many bad Mets teams in the late 1970s and early 1980s with flashes of success. In one of the finest starts in his career on June 17, 1976, Swan pitched 10.0 shutout innings against hall of famer Don Sutton and the Dodgers. Swan had eight strikeouts and gave up only three hits, leaving with a game score of 94; the Mets won 1-0.

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Feel free to discuss whatever you want in this thread.

I can’t recall a time, other than with Carlos Beltran (2005), where the Mets signed the biggest free agent of the off-season. Like the undisputed Top Free Agent available. Are there others? No idea what’s going to happen with Soto, but the Mets are always the Bridesmaids never the Brides. Would be nice to be the Bride for once.

edit: I was thinking more in terms of the player everyone wants. The player that every team is vying for. Not literally the biggest contract.

I was only in high school when Straw left NYC for his hometown LA. I remember a quote from someone in the Mets front office saying he wasn't worth $5 million a year.

Straw had one good year in LA then dropped off the planet until reemerging with the Yankees.

Still, his departure hurt me emotionally. And it also marked the beginning of a dreadful decade in Queens.

In 2015, yhe Mets didn't re-sign Daniel Murphy after their World Series run. He went on to DC, found a power stroke and became an MVP candidate for a couple of years.

Murphy's departure didn't hurt me as much as Strawberry's (I was a full grown adult by then.)

But, it was the beginning of six forgetful years in Queens.

Of all the players the Mets let walk, which one hurt the most?

I'm not talking about players who wanted to leave and there was no chance of signing them to an extension (ahem... de Grom)

But players who wanted to stay, but the Mets were too cheap or short-sighted to re-sign.

I feel like we are all focused on signing Soto and bringing back Pete that the other issues with the lineup are forgotten about.

1. Our catcher can barely hit .200 and is a strikeout machine
2. Either DH or 3rd is very weak offensively depending on where Vientos plays
3. Our options for 2nd offer very little power. McNeil might be washed and I have doubts about Iglesias.

While a top half of Lindor, Soto, Vientos, Alonso could be the best in baseball...a bottom half of Winker, McNeil, Alvarez could be one of the worst

Howard Johnson turns 64 today. A switch hitting third baseman, he was a member of the 1984 Tigers who won the World Series. The Tigers would later trade him to the Mets for pitcher Walt Terrell. Johnson was a member of the 1986 Mets, hitting 192 homers in his nine years with the Mets. He led the National League in home runs in 1991.

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Johnson is third on the Mets' all-time lists for home runs, runs batted in, doubles, and stolen bases. He was inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame in 2023.

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After retiring, he later became a minor league coach and manager in Brooklyn, St. Lucie and Binghamton. He was the hitting coach who tutored a young David Wright in the minors. Johnson was the Mets major league hitting coach from 2007 to 2010.

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Feel free to discuss whatever you want in this thread.

We just went from The Temptations with “My Girl” directly to Grimace. Let’s go Mets!

Like everyone else, I've been consumed with every tiny piece of news from the Soto sweepstakes and I'm starting to get sick of it.

So, I thought it could be a fun challenge to abstain from any Soto-Mets new until after the winter meetings are over (December 12th)--anyone want to join me?

In practice, this would look like:

- No looking at this subreddit

- No SNY

- No MLB Network

- No looking at any other MLB news sites

- No Mets or MLB podcasts

- No Twitter

- No Mets group chats (+ silence notifications)

I'm half joking about this, but I think it could be fun. It would also be a great way to reduce screen time and spend time doing other things, which is always good.

And how fun would it be to finally check back in on the 13th of December and see that the Mets signed Soto? Or not, and then the sting will be taken out of it a bit.

Anyway, would love to know if anyone would like to try this. It might be impossible but could be a fun challenge!

Pedro Astacio turns 56 today. He had pitched for the 2002 Mets.

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Feel free to discuss whatever you want in this thread.

Where does one buy a jersey these days? I’ve heard about the fanatics debacle and want to make sure I buy something that’s not a complete piece of shit. Will the Mets official store be garbage?

According to Cot's Contracts the Mets' current roster including arbitration estimates, pre-arb salaries and 40-man minor league salaries, is estimated to be $159.5M for 2025. Their final 2024 payroll was $341.8M. This means, if they intend to match their 2024 total, they have $182.3M to spend in 2025. If you go to Fangraphs' Free Agent Tracker and sort by Med AAV, the top six free agents are -

1. Juan Soto - $45M
2. Corbin Burnes - $30M
3. Blake Snell (for the purposes of this post pretend it's still yesterday and Snell still had not signed) - $30M
4. Alex Bregman - $27M
5. /6. Willy Adames/Max Fried/Pete Alonso - $25M

That's a total of $182M per year.

Now, of course there are some practical reasons as to why they wouldn't want do it this way, and also we can safely assume Soto will be receiving more than $45M a year, but this is a nice way to put these things in perspective.

Carlos Mendoza turns 45 today. Happy birthday to our team's manager!

Feel free to discuss whatever you want in this thread.