The New York Mets under Steve Cohen and Sandy Alderson were busy Saturday finalizing deals with free agent catcher James McCann, and locking down a new General Manager in former Arizona Diamondbacks Assistant GM Jared Porter.
Regading McCann, the Mets fill a major need, starting catcher with a player who has thrown out 36 percent of attempted base stealers in his career and was known as a good pitch framer during his tenure with the Chicago White Sox, and before that the Detroit Tigers.
Lifetime, McCann is a .249 career hitter with 65 homers and 252 RBI. His most productive offensive year came in 2019 where he hit .273 with 18 homers and 60 RBI. Unfortunately he also struck out a career high 137 times in 2019.
Last year in a COVID-shortened season, McCann hit .289 with seven homers and 15 RBI in 31 games.
The Mets wanted to upgrade the position from 34-year old catcher Wilson Ramos who had a disappointing 2020, where he hit only .239 with 5 homers and 15 RBI. Two years ago, Ramos was phenomenal for the Mets batting .288 while belting 14 homers and 73 RBI. Still the Mets get a player who is four years younger than Ramos, and is better defensively.
Of course, everyone will compare how McCann does with the likes of J.T. Realmuto who was also a free agent. Realmuto is a much bigger offensive threat than McCann is, averaging about 21 homers a year and a career average of .278. However, Realmuto stated he concerns about playing in New York very early in the process, and demanded a contract in the neighborhood of $200 million, which had to play into the Mets thinking. There was no way the Mets could confidently absorb that contract and proceed with finding other top free agents like George Springer or Trevor Bauer.
With McCann in tow for $40 million over 4 years, the Mets have created flexibility for themselves now and in the future.
Meanwhile, the Mets surprised many with the announcement that Jared Porter would become the clubs new General Manager, who will work under President Sandy Alderson. Porter replaces Brodie Van Wagenen who was fired a month ago.
Porter spent the past four years working in Arizona for the D-Backs as their assistant GM, but what makes him an attractive candidate is his vast experience working under Theo Epstein both in Boston with the Red Sox and in Chicago with the Cubs.
It will be interesting to see how much power Porter will receive as GM. The Mets wanted to hired a President of Baseball Operations, but decided to wait when they coudln't get permissions to interview certain candidates. As a result, Alderson has assumed the role of President of Baseball Ops as well as Team President. Porter comes from a scouting background. It will be very intriguing to see what influence, power and say he will have in final decisions out of the Mets front office.
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