Steve Cohen and the Mets rebounded quickly from erstwhile ace Jacob deGrom’s defection via free agency, snapping up a future Hall of Famer and a three-time Cy Young award winner on a short-team megadeal worth more than $40 million annually for the second consecutive winter.
Justin Verlander reunites now with former Tigers teammate Max Scherzer in Flushing, forming a two-headed A-list monster atop the Mets’ rotation after deGrom — another owner of multiple Cy Young awards, albeit ONLY two! — bolted for a five-year, $185 million contract last week with the Texas Rangers.
That is quite a Plan B, perhaps among the best fallback options ever.
As I noted Monday on Twitter, the Mets never did land either Justin Upton or B.J. Upton despite past attempts to acquire the brotherly outfielders. But now welcome to New York noted Yankees fan Kate Upton, Verlander’s better half who — as Mets fans surely can appreciate — famously flipped off a Phillies fan during this year’s World Series between Verlander’s Astros and the Mets’ longtime NL East rivals.
That said, the Mets still had plenty of offseason work to accomplish as the winter meetings got under way this week in San Diego.
Dollars and the so-called Cohen tax notwithstanding, the Mets still need to add at least one dependable No. 3 starter out of group led by the still unsigned Carlos Rodon, incumbent Chris Bassitt and possibly Japanese import Kodai Senga. They also should ink one more back-end type, such as proven New York commodities with shaky injury history like 2021 All-Star Taijuan Walker or recent Yankee righty Jameson Taillon.
Carlos Carrasco and/or David Peterson presently would round out that starting group, and you’d have to be comfortable with the latter serving again as the Mets’ No. 6 arm if injuries arise after posting a 7-5 record with a serviceable 3.83 ERA over a career-high 105 ⅔ innings in 2022.
Rodon, who will turn 30 on Saturday, would be a bold, home-run complementary signing now for Cohen, especially with Verlander already in the fold. The lefty has posted a 2.67 ERA over 55 starts and 422 strikeouts over 310 ⅔ innings over his past two All-Star campaigns with the White Sox and the Giants.
The Yankees also certainly should be all-in on Rodon, who would slot in nicely near the top of a rotation featuring Gerrit Cole, Nestor Cortes, Luis Severino and Frankie Montas in 2023.
Still, banking — literally — on a pair of aces who will be 40 (Verlander) and 38 (Scherzer) on Opening Day inherently comes with some risk for the Mets.
Especially considering Verlander missed virtually two full seasons following 2020 Tommy John surgery. (Yes, I’m aware that he posted an ML-best 1.75 ERA in 28 regular-season starts last season. And yes, prior to surgery, he’d thrown at least 200 innings in 12 of the previous 13 years).
Scherzer also spent two stints on the disabled list with oblique issues in 2022, his first with the Mets, before getting rocked for four homers and seven runs in his lone postseason start against the Padres.
The Mets also still must resolve their vacancy in center field, whether that means re-signing incumbent Brandon Nimmo or going with a cheaper option such as recently non-tendered former NL MVP Cody Bellinger or a defensively minded veteran such as Kevin Kiermaier or Jackie Bradley, Jr.
Yet, even while adding a three-time Cy Young winner Monday to the one already on hand, the Mets are still in need of at least one viable starter, and probably two, to remain in contention in a division that has seen the Braves win a World Series and the Phillies — who landed shortstop Trea Turner on Monday — reach the fall Classic over the past two years.
Today’s back page
Read more:
⚾ HEYMAN: Steve Cohen’s personal touch made sure Justin Verlander didn’t get away
🏈 VACCARO: Giants can erase sting of recent slide by conquering hated Eagles
⚽ Brazil looks like World Cup favorite with stirring performance to top South Korea
As the World Cup turns…
The U.S. dream fell short over the weekend in Qatar, but plenty of dramatic storylines remain at the World Cup, with the final two spots in the quarterfinals to be decided on Tuesday.
Messi to the mountain top?
International superstar Lionel Messi is inching closer to his elusive first World Cup title ahead of his potential move to MLS alongside David Beckham in Miami in 2023.
The 35-year-old Messi netted three goals in Argentina’s first four matches, including the opening tally in the first half of Saturday’s 2-1 win over Australia in his 1,000th career appearance for club and country.
Next up for third-ranked Argentina will be a tough quarterfinal match against The Netherlands, which ousted the Americans with three one-time goals in the Round of 16. The Argentinians would be unwise to look ahead to a potential showdown against fellow South American powerhouse Brazil in the semis.
Neymar’s back with Brazil
After missing two games with an ankle injury suffered in the group-stage opener against Serbia, Neymar netted the second of Brazil’s four first-half goals in a 4-1 victory Monday over South Korea, setting up a quarterfinal matchup with Croatia, a finalist in 2018 in Russia.
With his PK conversion, the 30-year-old Paris Saint-Germain striker now is one goal shy of matching soccer legend Pele’s total of 77 goals for the national team as Brazil seeks its first World Cup title since 2002.
Can the French repeat?
No country has seized back-to-back titles since Pele and Brazil won it all in 1958 and 1962.
France, the 2018 champs, have a legitimate chance at being the first in the past six decades, beginning with Saturday’s quarterfinal clash with England. The French, the No. 4 team in the FIFA world rankings, are fronted by a tournament-leading five goals through four matches from dynamic Golden Boot favorite Kylian Mbappé, Neymar’s PSG teammate.
The fifth-ranked Brits should pose a formidable foe Saturday with a World Cup-high 12 goals thus far, despite a scoreless draw with the USMNT in the group stage.
The final two quarterfinalists
The last two Round-of-16 pairings should make for some fun Tuesday viewing, as upstart Morocco takes on Spain, while Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal will take on Switzerland.
Morocco, the only remaining African nation alive in the tournament, posted a surprising 2-0-1 mark to take Group F — with an upset of Manchester City star Kevin de Bruyne and No. 2 Belgium, another win against Canada and a draw against an accomplished Croatian squad.
Here’s hoping that fun story continues against high-powered Spain, which scored nine goals in three Group E matches but finished 1-1-1, including a 2-1 loss to Japan.
Denied by their peers
Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens fared worse with the Hall of Famers than they did with the baseball writers.
Much of the coverage in New York was about Don Mattingly falling short in Sunday’s voting by the 16-member Contemporary Baseball Era Committee (1980-present) with eight votes, while Fred McGriff rightly will be inducted next summer after garnering 100 percent from the electorate.
The Bonds and Clemens rebuke — receiving fewer than four votes of the 12 (75 percent) necessary for induction — is a telling indication to me that the PED-tainted former superstars will continue to encounter difficulty receiving enough support for enshrinement in Cooperstown.
Full disclosure: I voted for both of them during the latter five years of their decade of eligibility on the BBWAA ballot, eventually deciding to withhold my vote only for those suspended or failing tests after MLB officially implemented testing for performance-enhancing drugs. So I have excluded players as Manny Ramirez, Rafael Palmeiro, Alex Rodriguez and others and plan to continue doing so in the future (Robinson Cano, etc).
Bonds and Clemens maxed out at 66 percent and 65.2 percent, respectively, in their 10th and final try last year on the baseball writers’ ballot, but their contemporaries were even harsher in their assessments.
This year’s Contemporary committee consisted of seven Hall of Fame players — Chipper Jones, Greg Maddux, Jack Morris, Ryne Sandberg, Lee Smith, Frank Thomas and Alan Trammell — plus Angels owner Arte Moreno, former Blue Jays president and MLB executive Paul Beeston, longtime Red Sox and Cubs exec Theo Epstein, club presidents Ken Williams (White Sox) and Dave St. Peter (Twins), past BBWAA presidents Susan Slusser and LaVelle Neal and baseball historian Steve Hirdt.
The exact results were not released, but the low number (fewer than four votes apiece) for Bonds, Clemens, Palmeiro and Albert Belle suggests that they might not even make it through the screening process to be on the eight-player ballot the next time they even can be considered in Dec. 2025 for 2026 induction.
Next year, the Contemporary Era committee only will consider managers, executives and umpires, while the Classic Baseball Era (prior to 1980) will convene in Dec. 2024 for 2025 inclusion.