Mets Morning News: Tanaka could be a fit for the Mets

Meet the Mets

“A lot of remarks he said, that makes you excited to be a part of the organization,” said Dominic Smith about Steve Cohen’s first press conference as owner of the Mets. “It makes you that much more eager to get out there and help the team win. A ton of us are just more determined to getting better this offseason so we can come back next year and help this team be competitive and win.”

People outside the organization have noted that Masahiro Tanaka might be a good fit for the Mets.

Around the National League East

Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News praised Derek Jeter’s hiring of Kim Ng as Marlins general manager. “If she were a man, people would look at the road she took to this moment and say, ‘Okay, it was her time,’ and think nothing more of it,” writes Lupica in his column.

Freddie Freeman tweeted about his feelings of honor and gratitude for winning the NL MVP in 2020.

The Phillies have conducted a second round of interviews in the hiring process for a new pitching coach and Caleb Cotham has emerged as a “heavy favorite,” according to reports.

The Nationals are likely to be neither “big spenders or big savers” this offseason, according to Brittany Ghiroli of The Athletic.

Around Major League Baseball

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred says that he is planning to have fans in the stands in 2021, saying another season without fans in the ballpark is not a “tenable position” for baseball.

Joel Sherman of the New York Post argues that the entirety of an individual’s time in baseball should be considered when making a Hall of Fame case, not just one’s playing career. As such, he posits, the likes of Don Mattingly and Dusty Baker deserve another look.

MLB.com posted their early predictions for 2021’s division winners.

Rob Arthur of Baseball Prospectus crunched the numbers and noted that not only is the racial makeup of baseball’s managers way out of step with its player population, the few managers of color that do exist in the game tend to have shorter careers than their white counterparts, on average. (For subscribers only)

Yesterday at Amazin’ Avenue

In response to the news that the Mets have reached out about free agent catcher Yadier Molina, Christian Romo evaluated the veteran’s declining performance.

This Date in Mets History

Darryl Strawberry finished second to Kirk Gibson in the NL MVP voting on this date in 1988.