The New York Mets‘ news, links and rumors are here! Jessica Mendoza won’t be back with the team in 2020, and the squad will have an intense battle for two rotation spots.
Here are the New York Mets’ news:
MetsMerizedOnline: Jessica Mendoza will no longer be a special advisor to New York Mets’ general manager Brodie Van Wagenen. The GM himself released a statement confirming the news.
Mendoza will have an expanded role on sports broadcasting channel ESPN. However, she will not be a part of the Sunday Night Baseball broadcast crew. She will be a fixture in other shows in the platform and analyze weekday games.
“We are happy for Jessica Mendoza who will be expanding her role at ESPN. To focus more on those new responsibilities she will no longer be a Special Advisor to the Mets,” Van Wagenen said in his press release.
MLB.com: Anthony DiComo wrote about the New York Mets’ rotation and the plans they might have. The first three spots are set in stone, with Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Marcus Stroman occupying them.
There will be three men vying for two spots remaining in the rotation: Steven Matz, Rick Porcello and Michael Wacha. One of them, per DiComo, will go to the bullpen and provide starting pitching depth.
Matz had a good 2019 season and is a homegrown Mets player, but Porcello and Wacha didn’t fare too well last year. They are on incentive-laden deals, however, and will want to prove they belong in the rotation.
“The Boys of Summer” author dies
MLB.com: A famous author, Roger Kahn, died on Thurdsay in Mamaroneck, NY, at 92. He wrote “The Boys of Summer” which was a best seller about the 1950s Brooklyn Dodgers. It was published in 1972.
The MLB.com writeup says that “Kahn grew up a Dodgers fan in Brooklyn, and as a young reporter for the New York Herald Tribune newspaper, got the chance to accompany his boyhood team for the 1952-53 seasons — during a golden age for baseball in New York, as every World Series from 1949-58 featured at least one New York team, and six were played fully within the city’s boundaries.”
During those days, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants and Yankees dominated the scene.
“In both years Kahn traveled with the Dodgers, they lost heartbreaking World Series to the Yankees, giving the Bronx Bombers five consecutive championships, three of them over Brooklyn. In those years, “Wait Til Next Year†was the refrain, and the Dodgers finally broke through to beat the Yankees in the World Series in 1955 for Brooklyn’s only championship. But two years later, both they and the Giants departed New York for California.”