Mets Leave Winter Meetings With Juan Soto

When I arrived in Dallas on Saturday, it was rainy, cold and generally miserable. Still, it took only about 24 hours for Steve Cohen and the Mets to change the atmosphere at the Winter Meetings by getting the big fish, Juan Soto.

Fifteen years, $765 million, that’s what it took for Cohen to land the prized free agent and take him away from the crosstown Yankees. The Mets officially announced the Soto signing on Wednesday night and that the star outfielder will be introduced on Thursday at 3 p.m. ET at Citi Field.

What’s Next For The Mets?

Before Soto, the Mets signed starters Frankie Montas and Clay Holmes and traded for glove-first center fielder Jose Siri. This leaves the Mets still needing a hitter –for likely either first or third base– a starting pitcher and a couple of bullpen arms. A backup infielder would make sense, too.

The Mets could potentially fill a lot of those needs by simply bringing players back —Pete Alonso, Sean Manaea and Jose Iglesias— or turn to the free agent market for players like Christian Walker, Nick Pivetta and Jorge Polanco. The trade market took a hit on Wednesday when the Red Sox acquired Garrett Crochet from the White Sox, but there are still potential arms from the Seattle Mariners and Pittsburgh Pirates available.

The Mets could also look to adjust their roster by trading Starling Marte or Jeff McNeil, both of whom they’re willing to move.

One thing is for sure: the Mets are not done getting the team ready for 2025, and Stearns is going to make sure the roster is built for contending in 2025 and beyond.

Could Iglesias or Winker Return?

David Stearns said there was interest in bringing back both of the key performers from 2024, and noted their keeping in touch with pretty much all of their potentially departing free agents. “There are certain conversations that take place earlier in the offseason before the New Year, and there are certain conversations as you’re rounding out your team that take place more in January and February,” Stearns said.

Stearns mentioned the key roles both Iglesias and Winker played in the culture of the 2024 Mets. It doesn’t hurt that Iglesias posted a 2.5 fWAR in 85 regular season games, and Winker had a 1.168 OPS in the playoffs.

Stearns, Mendoza Impressed With Acuña

After a rough season in Triple-A (.654 OPS), prospect Luisangel Acuña came to the big leagues with a .966 OPS in limited time during the stretch run. To continue that success, the 22-year-old went to Venezuela this offseason to play more baseball.

“I saw him last week during the home run derby (excited laughter). He’s playing well…The fact that getting at-bats in meaningful games in front of 15-20K people, that whole experience for him is going to be huge.”

In 25 games for the Cardenales de Lara, Acuña is hitting .317/.402/.456 with 15 stolen bases without being caught stealing.

“We saw a player with tremendous poise…We put him in the middle of a pennant race playing shortstop at a very high level, and that means a lot. It shows us a lot and it shows us he’s not afraid. That’s pretty exciting. He’s also still a very young player with gains to make and growth, and he’s a high-aptitude player, so we think he will make it. But, we understand he’s far from a finished product,” Stearns said.

The Wild Card

Maybe the biggest surprise of the Winter Meetings was Rōki Sasaki’s agent, Joel Wolfe, holding court for about an hour on Tuesday. It was –from the immediate reaction Wolfe– far more of a production than he thought it would be. We started gathering in the corner of the media room, but it quickly became evident that there wouldn’t be enough space, so we moved to the stage set up for MLB press conferences.

Wolfe then held court for about an hour —in two different locations as it played out— to answer questions and lay out the plan for what is an unusual situation. Sasaki has been officially posted and his 45-day window closes on Jan.  23. Meaning that Sasaki can technically sign before Dec. 15 and count towards a team’s 2024 bonus or wait until Jan. 15 to sign and count towards the 2025 bonus. And while Wolfe noted Sasaki could potentially sign right away, that isn’t his expectation.

Wolfe expects it to be a process in which teams submit presentations and then the meetings will begin —in  a central location so Sasaki doesn’t have to bounce around to different spots.

My takeaways from the presser where Wolfe was forthright with everything he said:

• Sasaki’s had negative experiences with media in Japan and that led Wolfe to say, “I think that there’s an argument to be made that a smaller, mid-market team might be more beneficial for him as a soft landing.” Wolfe did receive a follow-up question about whether or not Sasaki could handle New York media, “I think he could handle it.”
• Wolfe reiterated multiple times that the difference in bonus pools for every team was so negligible that it wouldn’t be the ultimate decision-maker. He said Sasaki was a thorough person who would go through the process of finding the right fit. Though, he did mention multiple time, that Sasaki has a relationship with pitcher Yu Darvish of the San Diego Padres.
• To me, Wolfe felt genuine when he said that Sasaki wanted to go through this process to find a team and that all the reports assuming he’s a Dodger were jumping the gun.

The Hilton Anatole was a much smaller place than where the meetings have been in recent years and I do have to wonder if that played a role in more deals and groundwork getting done than in past years. Most of the meetings this year were confined to an area you could completely walk in five minutes and last year for example in Nashville, it was spread out in kind of a chaotic way —there are plenty of stories from beat writers, agents, and front office members getting lost haha.

The Mets got things kicked off with a bang while we also saw numerous starting pitchers sign and of course the big deal the Red Sox made to get Garrett Crochet. Even the Rule 5 Draft saw more action than normal with a whopping 68 players taken in the minor league portion (including a ton from the Mets) and MLB showed video of the event for the first time. All in all, it was good for baseball to have an entertaining Winter Meetings after what was seen as a total dud last year.

And of course, the BBQ in Dallas was fantastic. Pecan Lodge (8.5) and Terry Black’s (9.5) were within walking distance of each other and would highly recommend both.

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