As the 2022 season ended, the New York Mets and owner Steve Cohen were wrapping up a major-league payroll record by shelling out about $430 million in salaries plus luxury tax penalties. Then Cohen doubled down, going on a further spending spree in the run-up to 2023. In free agency, the Mets added future Hall […]
When the New York Mets signed Justin Verlander to a two-year, $86 million contract in December, there were a few reasonable ways for fans to look at it. Yes, Verlander is entering his age-40 season. But he is also the defending American League Cy Young Award winner. And sure, he underwent Tommy John surgery as […]
UPDATE (Dec. 21, 2022, 9:16 a.m.): As it turned out, the Mets were even bigger winners than we thought. In addition to all of the moves detailed below, it was reported early Wednesday morning that Carlos Correa would not be heading to the San Francisco Giants after all, instead signing with the New York Mets […]
Baseball’s postseason is finally upon us, and that means it’s playoff prediction time for our MLB forecast model. Before first pitch in today’s wild card quadruple-header, let’s run through how our Elo-based projections see the October (and November) action playing out. Who’s favored in the wild card round? Elo ratings and series win probabilities for […]
A common gripe, as Major League Baseball’s postseason ballooned in recent years, has been that the lowered standard of admission would devalue and de-intensify the regular season. Gotta-have-it games, tough managerial decisions, final-out bursts of euphoria or despair — for the best teams, the teams that really matter, these sorts of things would be consigned […]