Mets Morning News: MLB lockout can’t stop Dom Smith from hitting Dom Bomb

Meet the Mets

Dominic Smith won’t be hitting homers in Clover Park any time soon, but he did go yard in his high school alumni game recently.

With the Universal DH arriving in 2022, Tim Britton explored the Mets’ options and looked at how they should handle the new position.

The spring training delay has not deterred Mets’ skipper Buck Showalter, who remains in Port St. Lucie as he awaits the start of camp.

Mike Rosenstein believes that Citi Field is a better bet to see a no-hitter than Yankee Stadium.

Danny Abriano offered five reasons to be optimistic about the Mets’ World Series chances in 2022.

Andy Martino provided some details on David Sterns’ contract with the Brewers, and what it means for the team’s continued interest in pursuing the executive for their front office.

Around the National League East

Keith Law broke down the Top 20 prospects in the Braves’ organization.

Law also submitted his rankings for the Top 20 prospects in the Phillies’ system.

Law wasn’t done there, as he ranked the Top 20 prospects for the Nationals.

Yep, you guessed it, Law also had something to say about the Marlins’ Top 20 prospects.

Around Major League Baseball

The day after the Super Bowl typically signals the shift from football to baseball, but MLB’s self-made lockout disaster is now even worse with the NFL season in the rear-view mirror.

Fangraphs dissected the owners’ latest offer, which brings us no closer to the end of the lockout and the beginning of the MLB season.

Given Rob Manfred’s proposed timeline during his press conference, the SNY team predicted that an agreement would need to be reached by around February 24 in order for Opening Day to begin on time.

In the league’s quest to continue being cartoonishly evil, they requested the ability to eliminate hundreds of minor league jobs in its latest offer to the player’s union. In this proposal, the Domestic Reserve List would remain at 180 for 2022, but the commissioner would have the ability to drop that number to “below 150” during the new CBA.

Unsurprisingly, MLBPA plans to reject this, just as they have rejected all past offers that would have allowed the league to control the number of domestic minor league playing jobs.

Scott Boras says he has a plan to fix the wage issue in the minor leagues.

Matt Harvey will be the first witness to take the stand today in the Eric Kay trial. The trial is in connection to the drug-related death of Angels’ pitcher Tyler Skaggs.

Bleacher Report ranked the worst $100-plus million contracts in MLB history.

Baseball Prospectus examined the candidates for a breakout season.

MLB Trade Rumors discussed some possible trade candidates post-lockout.

Yesterday at Amazin’ Avenue

On Episode 155 of From Complex to Queens, the crew gave out nicknames to all of the team’s Top 25 prospects.

This Date in Mets History

On this date in 2011, the Mets brought Jason Isringhausen home, inking the pitcher to a minor league deal with an invite to spring training.