Mets Morning News: Mets’ COVID-19 salary cuts to come to an end under Cohen

Meet the Mets

The pay cuts the Mets made due to the COVID-19 pandemic will end on November 1, as Steve Cohen assumes ownership of the team. Employees will once again earn their full salaries.

John Harper took a look at Luis Rojas’ first season as manager of the Mets and why he made a positive impression on many in the organization, despite the team’s final result.

David Wright appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers to discuss his new book, “The Captain.”

Around the National League East

The Miami Marlins have advanced to the NLDS after shutting out the Cubs 2-0 behind rookie Sixto Sanchez. They will face the NL East rival Braves.

Sean Doolittle took to Twitter to share a heartfelt thank you message to Nationals fans for his time in DC.

The Good Phight reviewed the ups and downs of the Phillies’ 2020 season.

Around Major League Baseball

The Padres had to use nine pitchers, but they shut out the Cardinals 4-0 to advance to the NLDS. They will face the Dodgers in Game 1 on Tuesday in Arlington.

Major League Baseball has now gone 33 straight days without a positive COVID-19 test.

Legendary pitcher Bob Gibson has passed away at the age of 84.

The BBWAA has voted to remove ex-MLB commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis’ name from the MVP awards. The awards will be nameless in 2020 and debate on renaming will occur in 2021.

What exactly the playoffs will look next season remains uncertain, writes Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Tensions remain between Rob Manfred and the Players’ Association and their views on expanding the playoffs are divergent.

Laura Albanese of Newsday takes a look at which rule changes in 2020 worked out and which ones did not.

Trevor Bauer admitted himself, “Not one thing have we found that increases fastball spin rate besides a sticky substance.” And he’s tested them all in the lab at Driveline and studied their effects. And his spin rate has increased dramatically this season. It’s true that use of foreign substances on the baseball to get an edge may be widespread in the sport. But much like the Astros and sign-stealing, what do you do when one player or team is doing it in a systematic and tested way? Rob Arthur of Baseball Prospectus pondered this question.

Ron Darling compared Gerrit Cole’s role with the Yankees to that of Stephen Strasburg’s on the 2019 Nationals. For the Yankees to win it all, he’ll have to be immaculate.

Speaking of the Yankees, a Jeopardy! category featuring the Bronx Bombers did not go so well for the contestants on Thursday’s show.

As expected, Fernando Tatis Jr. in the postseason is extremely fun.

The Tigers now have a managerial position to fill and Al Avila said both Alex Cora and A.J. Hinch—now controversial figures given their involvement in the sign-stealing scandal—are under consideration for the job.

Yesterday at Amazin’ Avenue

Christian Romo wrote about the mostly negative takeaways from the 2020 season from the catching position for the Mets and how they must address the need moving forward.

Joe Sokolowski brought us the final 2020 regular season edition of This Week in Mets Quotes.

This Date in Mets History

On October 3, 1999, with their backs against the wall, the Mets stayed alive on the final day of the season to go on to take the NL Wild Card.