Morning Briefing: MLB Squashes Rays’ Dual City Proposal

Good morning, Mets fans!

Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times goes into detail on the recent news of MLB rejecting the dual city proposal for the Tampa Bay Rays. The club brought forward an proposal to play half their games at Tropicana Field, while playing the second half of the season in Montreal, Canada. This was seen by Rays upper management as a viable option to keep the Rays in Tampa Bay long term but was ultimately denied by Major League Baseball.

Now onto the morning briefing!

Latest Mets News

Former Met Edgardo Alfonzo gets another crack at managing a baseball club, as it was announced yesterday that he will become the new manager for the Staten Island Ferry Hawks of the Atlantic League. The Ferry Hawks will make their debut as a ball club this season, filling in the spot in Staten Island previously held by the now defunct Single-A Staten Island Yankees. As for Alfonzo, this will be his second go around managing a club, as he previously managed the Mets then Single-A Brooklyn Cyclones in 2019 to a NY-Penn League title.

Latest MLB News

According to numerous sources, the owners and the MLBPA will meet in person to discuss the players counter offer to the owners proposal. Last week, both sides met through Zoom where the players rejected an offer from the owners. This will be the second meeting both sides will partake in since the owners locked out the players on December 2nd.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, along with Maria Torres, discuss corruption regarding the international signing process and how it can exploit Dominican and other Caribbean players.

Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post tweeted that Kevin Frandsen will take over color analyst duties for the Washington Nationals TV broadcasts on MASN. He replaces longtime analyst F.P. Santangelo. Frandsen, who previously played in the major leagues as a utility man, transitioned into a broadcasting role after his playing days and has been featured on MLB Network as well as an analyst for the Philadelphia Phillies.

Latest on MMO

The MMO Shop is now full with new options, which now includes this Keith Hernandez #17 T-shirt! Follow the MMO Twitter account and retweet the tweet below for a chance to win a Hernandez T-shirt for yourself!

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Matt Musico asks the question on the Mets catching situation and how they will fare offensively.

John Sheridan highlights the three Mets prospects that landed in the Top 101 by Baseball Prospectus.

John Flanigan goes in depth on free agent OF Nick Castellanos.

On This Date in Mets History

2001: Then GM Steve Phillips assisted in a three team swap that saw eleven players change uniforms over the course of one day. The Mets sent OF Benny Agbayani and IF Todd Zeile to Colorado for 1B/OF Ross Gload, P Craig House and former Met prospect Alex Ochoa. Phillips then flipped Ochoa, alongside P Glendon Rusch and PH Lenny Harris to Milwaukee for OF Lou Collier, P Jeff D’Amico, OF Mark Sweeney and OF Jeromy Burnitz. While six new players would enter the organization, only two would have time on the major league roster, those two being Burnitz and D’Amico.

Let’s go Mets!

The post Morning Briefing: MLB Squashes Rays’ Dual City Proposal first appeared on Metsmerized Online.