Outside The Confines: Flushing full of money

If Steve Cohen offers me a $10 million deal to write about the Mets, I’m outta here. Like you wouldn’t do it.

• We’re starting with all the Mets signings and I apologize is some of these are repeating from Friday’s edition. The Mets re-signed outfielder Brandon Nimmo to an eight-year, $162 million deal.
• The Mets also signed former Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks pitcher Kodai Senga to a five-year, $75 million deal. The Cubs were rumored to be one of the finalists for Senga.
• That deal came on the heels of a two-year, $26 million deal the Mets signed left-hander José Quintana to.
• The Mets also signed former Cubs reliever David Robertson to a one-year, $10 million deal.
• Mike Axisa and R.J. Anderson sum up what the Mets have done this offseason and describe the Mets’ strategy as the old George Steinbrenner strategy—just outspend everyone by a lot.
• Mike Lupica writes that the Mets just keep getting better, one big signing at a time.
• Michael Baumann evaluates the Mets big-ticket signings. This piece was even published before the Senga signing.
• David Schoenfield notes that the Mets are definitely spending money, but whether they’ve improved enough to win the NL East (let alone the World Series) is less clear. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• Andrew Tredinnick looks at how Senga fits into the Mets rotation.
• John Harper gets a roundup of scouting reports on Senga, which are quite mixed. Obviously the Mets put their faith in the positive ones.
• Keith Law also gives a scouting report on Senga and he’s less-than-enthusiastic about the right-hander. (The Athletic sub. req.) But Law does say that the Mets were right to take a gamble on him because they can afford it and he provides valuable depth at worst.
• One other signing. The Blue Jays signed free agent center fielder Kevin Kiermaier.
• Justin Choi evaluates the Red Sox signing of outfielder Masataka Yoshida.
• Alden Gonzalez has the inside story of the $1.6 billion spending spree at the Winter Meetings. (ESPN+ sub. req.) And some theories as to why spending went nuts this year.
• Will Leitch has the biggest offseason winners, so far.
• Zach Kram has the winners and losers at the Winter Meetings.
• Ken Rosenthal has an update on where the Hot Stove stands at the moment. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Gabrielle Starr is upset by the Red Sox’s “underwhelming” farewell video to Xander Bogaerts.
• Esteban Rivera looks at what the Dodgers are getting in Jason Heyward and whether or not they can improve his hitting.
• Speaking of former Cubs, left-hander Cole Hamels says he’s healthy and wants to pitch. Hamels has only thrown in one game in 2020 since leaving the Cubs after the 2019 season.
• Mike Petriello has some contenders who still have holes in their lineup to fill.
• Mark Polishuk looks at the Tigers’ offseason goals.
• With Mike Trout, Mookie Betts, Paul Goldschmidt, Pete Alonso and others, Team USA at the World Baseball Classic is going to be an All-Star affair, writes Sarah Valenzuela.
• Former major league pitcher TJ House has come out and announced that he’s gay. He’s also announced his engagement to be married.
• Pirates outfielder Jack Suwinski is spending the off-season operating a hitting clinic in St. Charles, IL, writes Jason Mackey.
• Manny Randhawa recaps the three big trades that new Hall of Famer Fred McGriff was a part of.
• The ten active players with the longest tenure with their current team.
• You may know Old Hoss Radbourn from a snarky Twitter account, but Michael Clair has the story of the real Old Hoss.
• And finally, it was a happy day for Chicago Red Stars’ Mallory Pugh and maybe, possibly future Cub Dansby Swanson over the weekend.

I kept hoping Dansby was going to announce he’d signed with the Cubs at the reception or something. Of course, had he done that, Mallory probably would have asked for an annulment right there.

In case you were wondering, the happy couple met through Swanson’s former teammate Jace Peterson, who is married to Mallory’s sister Brianna. And here’s Kyle Kishimoto evaluating the Athletics signing Peterson.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.