The majority of the winter the Mets stayed rather dormant, working Rule V drafting, front office and managerial positions, and setting up a game plan. We heard from multiple sources this winter that the Mets would probably go bargain hunting in January for players that are similar statistically to the big free agents or similar to players that would cost prospects to trade. This front office team has really held true to the idea. Below is a list of signings (and one almost signing that is still pending) that have been made so far this month. All of these players have signed small deals, for the most part, look to make the Mets better, and fill in the gaps with the low risk, high reward makeover this team needed:
January 3rd: Signed Chris Capuano
January 3rd: Signed Taylor Buchhloz
January 3rd: DFA'd Igarashi
January 12th: Signed Taylor Tankersley
January 14th: Igarashi Clears Waivers, Mets Maintain him
January 14th: Signed Raul Chavez
January 17th: Signed Willie Harris
January 19th: Negotiating with Mutual Interest with Tim Byrdak
January 20th: Officially Signed Chris Young
January 20th: Signed Scott Hairston
The above also ignores the other players the Mets were connected to this month (thus the gap between the 3rd and the 12th) and ignores arbitration.
All in all it has been an exciting month because it has allowed us to re-focus on baseball which was aided by the Mets signing 40% of their opening starting rotation this month. The Mets also have now signed a slew of pitchers this month to compete for spots in Spring Training.
I'm anxious to see how this all works out.
