Mets Morning News: The Captain is in San Fran

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David Wright’s minor league rehab assignment is at an end. He joins the Mets in San Francisco to continue his rehab with the major league club. However, he is not yet being activated from the disabled list. An exact return date has yet to be announced, but things seem to be lining up for him to return a week from now when the Mets return home to Citi Field.

However, John Ricco’s comments about a potential David Wright return have been less optimistic than Wright himself. Jay Jaffe of Fangraphs rips the Mets for prioritizing insurance money over giving Wright a chance to play in 2018, saying the Mets have “absolutely no reason to stand in his way if he is ready to play.”

Speaking of the Mets standing in the way of players that are ready to play, Peter Alonso will be playing for the Arizona Fall League rather than being called up to the big leagues. Alonso said he was disappointed, but he has no quarrel with the Mets.

The Mets are sending eight prospects in total to the Arizona Fall League, including Alonso as well as shortstop Andres Giminez.

Jeff McNeil spoke to Cespedes Family BBQ about his unique knob-less bat. Fun fact: Tim Tebow took a few swings with it down in the minors.

Amed Rosario has been tearing it up the past few weeks. The reason why? He’s striking out less, walking more, and hitting the ball harder.

Similarly, Todd Frazier has been looking good with the bat lately. It’s the product of a lot of work with Mets’ hitting coach Pat Roessler.

Jerry Blevins has cleared revocable trade waivers.

Around the National League East

Eno Sarris takes a deep dive into how different advanced metrics weigh luck and defense for pitchers and how the three major Cy Young contenders shake out.

The Braves lost to the Cubs 5-4 in a back-and-forth contest that featured a questionable balk call.

Thomas Boswell takes a look at all the what-ifs that comprise the 2018 season for the Nationals and where they may go from here.

Five bronze plaques that were stolen from Citizen’s Bank Park in early August were found in a scrapyard in South Philly.

Around Major League Baseball

Andrew McCutchen was traded to the Yankees last night. Rumor has it Yankees’ prospect Abiatal Avelino and one other prospect will be heading to San Francisco. It’s of note that this trade potentially implies a less than great prognosis for Aaron Judge.

Roster expansion is almost upon us. Joel Sherman rants about how much he hates the rule.

Major League Baseball announced the Trainer Partnership Program, which is an agreement with Latin American trainers whereby they do more to help combat steroid use among Latin American amateur players and Major League Baseball provides more access to teams, clean dietary supplements, and other incentives.

But the rollout of the program has not gone without controversy. After trainers got a message from the players’ union saying that “No one should sign or feel pressured to sign [the agreement],” we were reminded that the relationship between the union and the league is on tenuous ground.

A.J. Hinch has reportedly signed an extension with the Astros.

Baseball is a game full of really weird rules—one of the many things that makes it fun. One such rule is the two-strike foul bunt. A particularly weird instance of the weird rule occurred in the Brewers/Reds game on Wednesday.

Francisco Mejia is dropping his lawsuit against Big League Advance, who he had been claiming used predatory tactics to get him to sign an agreement with them. He intends to honor the agreement.

The 1992 Blue Jays were a team full of All-Stars. But arguably the most fun player on that team only had three plate appearances and his name was Mike Maksudian.

The latest installment of Fangraphs’ “Learning and Developing a Pitch” series: the slider.

Yesterday at Amazin’ Avenue

Robert Wolff brought us the daily prospect report.

I covered the David Wright news.

This Date in Mets History

If you think the Mets are bad at home this year, recall the 2002 Mets. On August 31, they lost 1-0 to the Phillies, wrapping up an entire month in which they went winless at home.