Face-of-the-franchise (TM) David Wright turns 29 today. Rather than wishing him many happy returns, though, Adam Rubin takes the opportunity to dispell the offseason TRAID rumors around the Mets star. Really, it's what Wright would have wanted. He already got the fences moved in at Citi Field after all. I will celebrate by linking one of my favorite Wright moments ever. With Reyes leaving for Miami, Wright is now the longest tenured Met. No surprise there, but what might surprise you is Daniel Murphy is fourth.
The Mets are looking at another back-up catcher that can't really hit. Personally, I think between May and Rottino, they can make do, but they probably want to have a third real live catcher on the 40-man roster. Too bad the lightning god isn't available.
Adam Rubin has some more breaking news: The Mets probably can't spend a lot more money this offseason. Thanks for the scoop, Adam! You can go back to making jokes about the Mets bid for Darvish on twitter. Or watching Long Island high school basketball games.
Frank Francisco is now officially a Met, which means the 40-man roster is at capacity. With only 6 OFs on the roster, two of which are Cesar Puello and Juan Lagares, I assume there is still some shuffling to come. The Post sees a possible return engagement for Scott Hairston, which is fine, I guess.
Ted Berg does his Twitter Q+A thing, though this edition has a shameful lack of Taco Bell questions. Over at the Mets Minor League Blog, writer Mike Diaz announces that he is taking a scouting job with the Padres. That is pretty awesome for him, though I will miss his scouting reports for Toby. Rounding out the SNY.tv blog ring, Patrick Flood brings some more contractually obligated Ruben Tejada love.
The Rangers have won the rights to Japanese ace Yu Darvish, submitting the winning bid of 51.7 million dollars. Now they have 30 days to negotiate a contract that will likely exceed the posting fee. That is quite the chunk of change, but the AL West just got a bit more interesting. Darvish is probably a #2 in MLB, but he is bigger and has better stuff than Matsuzaka. Lonestar Ball takes a look at the scouting report, while Paul Swydan of Fangraphs looks at what this means for the Rangers pitching staff. Things are going to be bonkers in the American League next season. Even with the second wild card spot, you still will have the Yanks, Sox, Rays, Rangers, and Angels fighting for four playoff spots. And if the Blue Jays add another arm, they could be in the hunt as well.
Craig Calcaterra praises John Harper for his stance on Barry Bonds. Well, sort of. Matthew Callan and I discussed this last night at length, but just put the best players in the Hall of Fame and be done with it. The Hall shouldn't be a referendum on morality, but a shrine to baseball history. Besides, the person that allegedly put the character clause in there, Kennesaw Mountain Landis, helped maintain the color barrier for years. So I'm really not going to take anything he has to say about the importance of character seriously.
Finally, Ed Wade is back with the Phillies, after performing whatever the opposite of 'Glavotage' is.