Offishial news, 12/14/20: Mets trending up; “Indians” on the way out

Mets making moves

Over the last three seasons combined, the Marlins have been the weakest link in the National League East (.394 winning percentage). But the Mets have been the division’s laughing stock, insisting that they are ready to contend for the postseason yet failing to do so, hindered by a series of their own transactional and tactical mistakes.

During a painfully slow 2020-21 winter across Major League Baseball, the Mets are among a small number of teams actually addressing their deficiencies. This past week, they officially made Jared Porter their new general manager and reportedly won the bidding war for catcher James McCann with a four-year, $40-plus million deal and hired Dave Jauss as bench coach. And they aren’t done yet—every significant free agent with the exception of J.T. Realmuto is still a plausible target.

It is still premature to forecast how 2021 will play out, but unless the Marlins make some tangible improvements to their roster, they are in serious danger of being leapfrogged by New York in the NL East hierarchy.

Walk-off links

• Cleveland’s baseball team will no longer be called the Indians.
• In case you missed it, Louis Addeo-Weiss and Alex Contreras joined me to discuss the Marlins’ early offseason activity (or lack thereof).

• Updated stats for Marlins prospects in the Dominican Winter League: Lewin Díaz is 7-for-43, .163/.265/.256 with 1 HR and 8 K; Jesús Sánchez is 10-for-36, .278/.297/.472 with 1 HR and 10 K; Jorge Guzman has a 18.00 ERA, 2.00 WHIP and 0 K in 1.0 IP; Joe Dunand is 16-for-47, .338/.413/.585 with 3 HR and 22 K. A more extensive winter ball update is coming Thursday.

• Jazz Chisholm is changing his uniform number to No. 2 after wearing No. 70 last season.
• Eager to compete with Jazz for playing time, Isan Díaz isn’t looking back at his 2020 “roller coaster.”
• We are now 58 chapters into the All-Time Marlins Countdown.
• Former Marlins Wei-Yin Chen and Adam Conley (Japan) and Josh A. Smith (Korea) have each recently signed contracts to pitch in overseas leagues in 2021.
• Paul Severino shares a bunch of his stories and professional tips on Broadcaster Hour (his interview actually went slightly longer than one hour).
• The subject of Old Gator’s latest book review is an autobiography from a pair of all-time greats.
• Lewis Brinson and Monte Harrison had some fun at the Dolphins game, even though the home team came up short.
• Congrats to Jordan & Madison Yamamoto and Robert & Hayley Dugger! Both couples celebrated their weddings this past weekend.
• Marlins Historian wants to know when you joined the Marlins fanbase.