Mets Morning News: Buh-buh-buh-byrd-byrd-byrd, Byrdak's the Word

Meet the Mets

The Mets shipped a suitcase full of non-sequential bills to the Oakland Athletics, and in return received shortstop (?) Brandon Hicks. Aaron Hicks, Sandy, I wanted Aaron Hicks.

New York also announced that they were bringing back LOOGY/Live Chicken Wrangler Tim Byrdak on a minor league deal.

Over at Mets Minor League Blog, Toby Hyde takes a look at the conspicuous absence of Aderlin Rodriguez from the Mets 40-man roster. I've cooled off some since the 40-man additions were first announced, as I just don't see how you can draft Rodriguez. You'd basically have to punt a 25-man spot for the whole year, not to mention the season of development time.

Ted Berg wants to know what grinds your gears, Mets fans.

Andy McCullough speculates on how the recent Evan Longoria extension might affect the Mets' negotiations with David Wright, while Ken Davidoff is being a real buzzkill about the potential Wright/Dickey extensions. And Ken Rosenthal examines the risks the Mets take the longer these negotiations drag on.

Yesterday at AA

Brock Mahan reminded you that yesterday was Jeff Torborg's birthday. Hope you remembered to send a card.

Rob Castellano checked in on all the hot winter league action. Check out that K/BB rate on Jordany Valdespin!

Eric curated a piece on the National League East's most irrationally hated players for Baseball Nation. For the Mets entry, Chris McShane wrote about Jeff Francoeur, an eminently reasonable choice.

Stephen Schmidt wrote about the Byrdak deal and made it so I couldn't use the one cool photo of Byrdak for this column.

And Eno Sarris covered the Brandon Hicks trade.

Around MLB

As I mentioned above, Evan Longoria signed a six-year, 100 million dollar extension with the Rays...that starts in 2017, meaning he will be a Ray through his age 36 season. Cray-cray. Dave Cameron thinks it was another bargain for the Rays, but I'm not so sure. Still paying a decent amount for post-peak years. It's certainly a bit riskier.

Dayton Moore continues to be a GM in major league baseball. Just thought I'd mention that.

Seven teams are reportedly interested in Shane Victorino. Mercifully the Mets are not one of them. I'm sure you will all celebrate with a GIFalanche in the comments. I'm not complaining, mind you.

The Reds are looking to sign Jonathan Broxton, perhaps with an eye towards moving Aroldis Chapman into the rotation.

And finally, author favorite Jeff Keppinger is recovering from leg surgery. Get well soon, Kepp!