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Marcus Stroman accepted the Mets’ qualifying offer yesterday, which may have surprised some. It took a major piece off of the starting pitching free agent market and saw a player essentially bet on himself that he’ll be able to either extend his career in New York via a big contract extension or he do well enough to get a big contract in the offseason before the expected labor war. It’s an interesting choice, but $18.9 million is nothing to sneeze at.
Perhaps Stroman read the market and didn’t like what he saw, maybe he’s already heard from teams that a multi-year deal isn’t happening, maybe he just really likes the Mets. Whatever it was, it was a very interesting decision that Stroman made.
On to the links.
Phillies news:
- Now that J.T. Realmuto has officially declined, here come the boogeyman stories about the Mets.
- Trade targets, you say? Why, here are five of them, courtesy of Scott Lauber.
- While the Phillies aren’t going to get a general manager any time soon, a pitching coach might be in the offing. Sign me up for Caleb Cotham.
MLB news:
- Your Cy Young winners? Shane Beiber (unanimous) and Trevor Bauer.
- Kevin Gausman, as opposed to Stroman, unsurprisingly accepted the Giants’ qualifying offer.
- You know what won’t be fun this offseason? Being a veteran pitcher on the wrong side of 30.
- “The Royals are going to be good in 2021!” says man paid to be a Royals’ cheerleader.
Rumor roundup:
- The Marlins’ old general manager interviewed to be the Mets’ new general manager.
- While the Reds might be losing a major part of their rotation, they might have an internal solution to filling that hole.