New York Mets rumors: Trade candidates, HOF, Pedro blasts Fiers and more!

The New York Mets and Major League Baseball in general have had a busy start of the week. Several prominent news appeared, some of them related to the Queens’ squad.

Here are the New York Mets’ news and rumors of the day:

Andy Martino: The Mets would be “more than happy” to trade Yoenis Cespedes and Jed Lowrie ahead of Spring Training. However, according to Andy Martino of SNY, it hasn’t been easy for obvious reasons.

The “obvious reasons” are that they are veterans on the wrong side of 30, with expensive contracts and a long injury history. Cespedes hasn’t played since 2018 with heel and ankle injuries, while Lowrie only took eight plate appearances last season.

Both of them are very productive when healthy, but there just hasn’t been much interest around the league.

NBC Sports: Former ace (and Mets pitcher) Pedro Martinez blasted Mike Fiers for being the “whistleblower” in the sign-stealing scandal.

“If he was to do it when he was playing for the Houston Astros I would say Mike Fiers has guts,” Martinez told WEEI’s Rob Bradford, Lou Merloni and Mike Mutnansky at the Red Sox’ “Winter Weekend” event in Springfield, Mass. “But to go and do it after you leave the Houston Astros because they don’t have you anymore, that doesn’t show me anything. He’s just a bad teammate.”

Carlos Beltran, appointed over the winter to manage the Mets, lost his job because of his involvement in the scandal.

BBWAA: The former captain of the cross-town rivals, the Yankees, is now a Hall of Fame player. Derek Jeter, with a whopping 99.7 percent of support (only one vote shy of unanimity) will be in Cooperstown alongside former Colorado Rockie Larry Walker.

Jeter earned 396 of 397 possible votes. Walker passed through the 75 percent threshold by a meager six votes. Curt Schilling, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens all finished over 60 percent.

Jeff Passan: The Mets’ pitcher will have a difficult foe to retire in the 2020 season. The Atlanta Braves secured the services of outfielder Marcell Ozuna, formerly on the St. Louis Cardinals, on a one-year, $18 million contract.