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Granderson left the field today with an eye issue and Walker was hit in the leg by Familia during live BP. Neither sounds concerning, but just your friendly, annual reminder to keep fingers crossed at all times during spring training.

Michael Neurvirth just made the save of the season in the final seconds of the Wild/Flyers game to preserve the win for Philly. Wow.

Zobrist was dealing with a knee issue early last season and spent about a month on the DL to rehab it; his pre- and post-DL splits were pretty significant: Pre-DL: 56 PA, .240/.304/.400 Post-DL: 479 PA, .281/.365/.456 Most of his WAR decline was due to defense. But defensive metrics in single season sample sizes aren't incredibly trustworthy, and it's hard to believe he went from a consistent plus defender to a major liability in the span of a year. Anyway, I didn't think he'd end up with as much as he got, which was part of the appeal as well, but I'm more than happy with Walker. We got him for a spare part, he's on a short commitment, and I think he's a little bit better than Murphy.

Howdy. I'm pretty happy with how the Mets' offseason went. I was kind of hoping they'd sign Ben Zobrist but Neil Walker was a nice, low-risk alternative. SS is still meh, but Cabrera was okay last year and you can do way worse for having Flores and Tejada as depth. Cespedes falling back into their laps was huge. I don't think his skillset will age well, and he's really not a good fit in CF, but he's perfect on a 1 year deal. Even though it probably wasn't the intention at the time of his signing, De Aza is a great fit as a 4th OF. Some have quibbled with the Mets' defensive outlook, and truthfully it's not good, but when you have such a dominant, strikeout-heavy pitching staff, it's not as concerning. Overall, with a bit of fortune, they did a nice job of making positive moves and building depth at a small cost. The Nats' offseason was pretty much a fail, but there's still enough talent there that I'd be surprised if they didn't hang with the Mets to the near-end, barring a severe injury to Harper or Scherzer. I do think the Mets are the better team, though, and are better equipped to handle injuries.

I think most Yanks fans would say those guys deserve to have their numbers retired given the dynasty run. Wish the Mets would give Piazza his due but they seem inclined to wait until he gets elected to the Hall of Fame which I personally find really silly (and it's a joke that hasn't happened yet but that's another story).

It's probably a case of Sandy overplaying his hand, again. Gee is hardly reliable and not particularly great when he is healthy. He's not young. I've long expected a swap of a reliever and bench player for him to a back-end starter-needy team and I still think that happens between now and Opening Day. I really don't buy the idea of him in the bullpen; I don't think he profiles very well there, I doubt he wants to be there, and the Mets have enough starter depth that he really shouldn't be the next option/6th starter anyway. I rather have Colon than Gee. He's older and more expensive but I think he's simply better all things equal and it's not exactly clear that the cash saved by trading Colon would have any substance at this point in the offseason anyway -- and that's before you even figure in the small sum the Mets would need to eat to dump Colon. Dumping Colon to make room for Montero or Syndergaard is another story, however, but given pitcher attrition and all that sh!t I'm not sad he's still here.

I always felt the best opportunity to move Murphy was last June or July. But I've also always felt he's one of those players that has more value to his team than what he'd return in a trade given his skillset.

I know I'm the youngest, 24 in March. Crazy that I've "known" you guys since I was like 16 or 17. Time friggin flies.

I think I've only met Hasan at a game before, right? That was the epic Harvey/Strasburg game, which was one of my favorite games I've been too. If we do target a game, definitely a mid-summer weekend game would be best. I swear ANY freakin' April/May game I get tickets for the weather ends up being a total joke. And yeah, +1 to the annoyance with Sandy's jokes... the joke is on him. For a guy who makes Omar look like a toddler in the public speaking department he definitely has his moments where he look like a clown and embarrasses the organization.

Haha holy crap Nelson Figueroa is the rumored replacement?! What a weird find. I honestly rarely watch the pre- or post-game anymore anyway but Bobby O's act tired me out really quick when I did watch, so not sad to see him go. Gonna miss KB but the booth is the 3 kings.... it's going to be a sad day when they split. Best broadcast team in the game, I don't care whether I'm biased.

Well the good news is that this *should* be the best team we've fielded in years and some projections think we're a fringe wild card contender as is.... but I remain skeptical because I don't trust the position player core (sorry Wright, as much as I love ya) and the team's chances lay in the hands of the most volatile asset in the game.

CR: Verrett actually got taken by the O's in the Rule 5 in December. It's really too bad we had such little interest in getting better this winter with Harvey coming back, the Braves taking a step back, and all of the NL runner-up teams looking meh. I'm excited for the season, because I always am, whether we're projected to win 50 games or 100, but damn, I really thought this was the time to STRIKE with that over-the-top move with the prospects (and the sad part is I actually thought it might happen, but of course I gave too much credit to Sandy and the Wilpons).

Nats signed Max Scherzer. Of course they did. But don't worry guys, we signed Cuddyer and John Mayberry! And we still have no actual SS which has been a problem since Reyes left. Fun times.

Mayberry makes sense; he has good career numbers vs LHP and should play the OF with Cuddyer at 1B when the Mets face a LHP. The SS situation is really depressing. I know I'm a broken record but I wish we had the money (thanks Wilpons) and balls (thanks Sandy) to go for Tulo. Realistically, of what's left, excluding trades, I like Jed Lowrie most. He's on the wrong side of 30, is coming off a down year, and has notably had injury issues in the past but I have the most confidence in him being decent. Kang sounds somewhat interesting. Asdrubal Cabrera is really more of a 2B or 3B now and I don't even want to hear about Stephen Drew. I'm guessing we'll add some marginal SS upgrade (think Drew on a pillow deal), a reliever and small pieces via a Gee trade and then go into full hype mode (if we haven't already): the young pitching, yadda yadda yadda, how certain players should be better (while ignoring the regression candidates that outnumber them), yadda yadda yadda, the return of Harvey ("It's like adding an ace!" said Omar Minaya Sandy Alderson), yadda yadda yadda..... Mark Simon of ESPN -- who you should really read, plus he's a Mets fan -- put it great the other day: the Mets, at the end of the offseason, should be saying 'we added ____ and Michael Cuddyer' not 'we added Michael Cuddyer and ____.'

Congrats to deGrom on NL RoY. Well deserved. At least something good came out of today.

Yes, it is. He ranks basically dead last in UZR and DRS among RF over the last five years.....and oh yeah, he turns 36 before Opening Day and is seemingly always ailing with something, so it's not getting any better. Honestly the terms (2/21) aren't crazy and I really don't give a sh!t about the draft pick anymore. We really do need to win now. But of all people, Cuddyer? It's just a bad match. He's a better fit for an AL team looking to rotate someone between DH/1B/OF, not an OF-needy team that is going to depend on him to play 130+ games out there. What's done is done, though. There is no turning back now, Sandy -- you can't just sign Cuddyer and be done with it. Go get a bonafide SS and hope it all clicks in 2015. I'd still go balls out for with a deal led by Syndergaard or Wheeler for Tulo and take on his entire deal.

Cuddyer is old, injury-prone, shouldn't even play the outfield, and his big numbers the last few years are a big product of Coors Field's BABIP-inflating ways. Puke for me. Maybe if we spin off some arms for Tulo I'll have a little excitement, but Sandy doesn't do that kind of stuff.

LOL Sandy. Just what the Mets need, another old outfielder who will fall apart outside of his crazy friendly home park... and one who is also injury probe and a big liability in the field. They really learned from the Lucas Duda experiment.

Nice to see the Nats punched out again.

Doesn't look like it'll happen but a Met win coupled with a Pirate loss would put them 4.5 out of a playoff spot. With a healthy Harvey and healthy/productive Wright and Granderson, this team would absolutely have had a shot at the wild card.

Crash are you ready to take back the Rams > 49ers thing yet?

d'Arnaud has definitely been a rare bright spot for this team in the 2nd half. .839 OPS since his recall in late June and overall on the season he's been 5% above the league by wRC+, which ranks 11th among catchers with at least 350 PA. His slash line is actually very in line with what the mainstream projections had him down for; I consider that a good thing considering the ugly start and demotion (plus I mentioned preseason I would be happy with a .250/.310/.400 type of season).

Losing Bulaga really hurt.

To be fair they had the point differential of a 4-win team so I don't think they were as bad as their record indicated (although still clearly bad ).How did they get way worse at QB though? Fitzpatrick isn't good but he was still better than what Houston got out of Schaub last season.

Nice to see Herrera homer -- yeah his defense has looked shaky but that's never been much of a concern so probably just nerves. Sorry that I haven't been active at all here lately -- just started a new job a few weeks and my downtime has dwindled incredibly, plus the 2014 Mets being what they are and football season starting has shifted my sports gears, so it's difficult to muster up any energy to write about them at this point. I'm still looking forward to this offseason and 2015 but the Granderson investment already (predictably?) looks bad, and my goodness, I really hope for the sake of us fans that Wright's shoulder is killing him. The TdA = outfielder thing would be awful. I understand player health comes first but that's a disaster waiting to happen, worse than Duda's ventures out there. TdA's value will come from him being a catcher who should hit decently for A CATCHER; shift him to the outfield, where the offensive bar is incredibly higher, and a CATCHER trying to catch flyballs, and it would 100% be a mess.