Mets Evening News: Goodbye Bartolo

Meet the Mets

Citi Field is going to be a lot less sexy next year. Bartolo Colon, aka “Big Sexy,” aka Flushing’s own folk hero, has departed the Mets and signed with the Braves.

Noah Syndergaard is off somewhere crying in a phone booth.

Here are some of Bartolo’s best moments with the team. You can watch them while listening to “Ain’t no Sunshine” by Bill Withers.

Fangraphs took a really thorough look at what went wrong with Michael Conforto’s hitting last season.

Could the Phillies be a potential trading partner for Jay Bruce?

Around the NL East

The Phillies acquired Howie Kendrick in a trade with the Dodgers.

The Marlins are planning a permanent memorial for Jose Fernandez.

The Nationals re-signed Chris Heisey to a one-year deal.

Around MLB

The Blue Jays signed Cuban infielder Lourdes Goaaurriel to a multi-year deal. They also reached a deal with Kendrys Morales.

The Brewers gave manager Craig Counsell a three-year contract extension.

The Padres’ Colin Rea will undergo Tommy John surgery. Rea was the subject of some serious drama last season when the Padres briefly traded him to the Marlins, who then accused the Padres of hiding injury reports about Rea and returned him to San Diego. Padres GM A.J. Preller was suspended for 30 days by MLB after a similar incident involving pitcher Drew Pomeranz and the Boston Red Sox.

Jesse Chavez signed a one-year deal with the Angels.

Mabel Ball, a 108-year-old Cubs fan who waited literally her entire lifetime to see the team make it back to the World Series, and was featured in several news stories this year, died yesterday, presumably happy and fulfilled.

Yesterday at AA

There was a new episode of Amazin’ Avenue Audio!

Steve Schreiber looked back at James Loney’s 2016 season.

Chris McShane reviewed Neil Walker’s season.

This Date in Mets History

Tom Seaver won his third Cy Young Award back in 1975.