Mets Morning News: Winter meetings set to begin virtually, Trevor May answers questions on Twitch

Meet the Mets

The virtual winter meetings are set to begin today, and the Mets still have plenty of needs on their roster and have yet to hire a general manager.

Newest Met Trevor May talked a lot about baseball on his Twitch channel yesterday, answering questions from Mets fans and loving all the LFGMs. Among the many topics: how it works when a free agent requests a number from a player who already has it, an accurate joke about the Mets having the most podcasts about them in the history of podcasts, the mechanics of COVID testing and tracing when you travel to New York from out of state, and a defense of Matt Harvey and Travis d’Aranud.

Jacob deGrom and Michael Conforto are the two Mets among the finalists for the All-MLB Team.

Former Mets reliever LaTroy Hawkins, who works with the Twins, has great things to say about Jake Odorizzi, who has reportedly been on the Mets’ radar in free agency this offseason.

FanGraphs remembers when Dave Magadan chased a batting title with the Mets.

Deesha Thosar spoke to Trevor Bauer’s agent about how he’d handle the bigger stage of a place like New York, and his agent said things like this: “But I don’t care if you’re McDonald’s or Trevor Bauer—if you can build a strong enough foundation, if your brand, your pillars and what you stand for are all strong enough, then I think you can overcome anything.”

Around the National League East

There was a juicy rumor yesterday that the Phillies were open to trade offers for Zack Wheeler, but it didn’t take long for the team’s owner to squash the rumor. Ken Rosenthal confirms that the Phillies were, indeed, talking to other teams about a Wheeler trade.

And speaking of the Phillies’ owner, the Good Phight says that he either needs to explain himself or sell the team.

Talking Chop looks at where the Braves are as this week gets underway.

Fish Stripes continued its countdown of all-time Marlins players by bWAR.

The Nationals are sending mixed messages about the direction of the team this winter.

Yesterday at Amazin’ Avenue

Steve Sypa profiled Haruki Nishikawa, who has been made available through the posting system.

This date in Mets history

The Mets traded for Howard Johnson on this date in 1984, and it’s also the date that several significant players in team history officially departed, either by trade or in free agency.