Your Tuesday morning dose of New York Mets and Major League Baseball news, notes, and links.
Meet the Mets
The MLB Winter Meetings were in full swing on Monday, and so was the rumor mill. Bartolo Colon was one of the players that the Mets were reported to have interest in. It's kind of funny to consider that the 41-year-old Colon will be more expensive to obtain than the much younger Cy Young winner Johan Santana, who the Mets are also said to be looking at.
The bullpen was also an area of interest for New York, as former Indians closer Chris Perez was reported to be a player of interest. Continuing with the R.A. Dickey look-alike theme was Mitchell Boggs, another potential Mets relief acquisition. Boggs was dreadful last season, but if he can come close to returning to his 2012 form, he could be valuable.
As for position players, Mike Puma reporting that the Mets are planning to meet with the representation of Cesar Izturis. Hopefully they will be discussing a backup role for the veteran infielder, if anything at all.
Also, Jeff Passan of Yahoo! said that New York is trying "very hard" to trade Daniel Murphy. If that happens, it would be interesting to see whom the Mets view as a replacement. In-house candidate Eric Young Jr. would appear to be a downgrade both offensively and defensively.
Even after the Brewers traded Norichika Aoki to Kansas City, the Mets still seem interested in sending one of their first basemen to Milwaukee in a potential trade. Sandy Alderson, though, does not seem optimistic that a deal will get done before the Winter Meetings are over.
Finally, Adam Rubin is reporting that Justin Turner got non-tendered because of a lack of grission.
Around MLB
Joe Torre, Bobby Cox, and Tony LaRussa were all voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. All three managers are men that many Mets fans despise. Not voted into the Hall of Fame on Monday: legendary former union head Marvin Miller.
He'll have to wait a little while, but hopefully Roy Halladay will someday join the three wise men in the Hall. the 36-year-old right handed pitcher announced his retirement today when he signed a one-day contract with the Blue Jays.
In active player news, Matt Kemp's agent feels very strongly that his All-Star client will be traded before the winter is over. Meanwhile, the Phillies are reportedly trying to sell high on last season's breakout sensation Domonic Brown and the Nationals are said to be selling low on second baseman Danny Espinosa.
The Mets have already made a major outfield acquisition, but it's still worth noting that several teams are interested in trading for Mark Trumbo of the Angels. Also, Shin-Soo Choo is now the biggest free agent on the market, and the pursuit of his services has intensified.
The most shocking news of the today could be that our favorite chubby panda appears to be losing some weight. Or it could be that A's pitcher Brett Anderson replies to reporters that are speculating about him on Twitter.
Yesterday at AA
Joshua Ryan reviewed Daniel Murphy's pretty decent 2013 campaign.
Ben Berkon says that the Mets wasted money on Curtis Granderson and should have instead tried to trade for Arizona's A.J. Pollock.
Michael Donato thought way too hard about which number Curtis Granderson will wear for the Mets. We'll likely find out when the team introduces Granderson today at a 12:30 p.m. press conference.
Could there be big news coming today? On this date in Mets history, the team traded away Nolan Ryan, Joe Smith, and Endy Chavez while they acquired Gary Carter, J.J. Putz, and Jim Fregosi. Not all in the same year, obviously.