Today starts the Major League Baseball Winter Meetings, easily the busiest and most media-saturated four days in the offseason. Held in Orlando this year, all 30 clubs as well as every agent worth their salt will be in attendance, so there are always lots of balls in the air, with trades, free agent signings, and rumors galore dominating your push notifications.
In addition to the individual team/player negotiations, there are also a few league-wide events that are taking place over the next four days.
Contemporary Era Hall of Fame Vote
Today, the Contemporary Era Committee will meet and vote on the eight players on their ballot. Of those eight, there are three ex-Mets being considered: Carlos Delgado, Jeff Kent, and Gary Sheffield. The other five players on the ballot are Don Mattingly, Fernando Valenzuela, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Dale Murphy. The results of the vote will be announced at 7:30pm tonight on MLB Network.
This is the fourth year that the top six spots in the MLB Draft will be determined by a draft lottery. There are 15 teams in the lottery, which is open to all non-playoff teams aside from the Rockies, Angels, and Nationals. Per MLB.com:
Since the Rockies received a lottery pick in the 2024 and ‘25 Drafts, they are not eligible for this year’s lottery — teams cannot receive a lottery pick in more than two consecutive years. The Nationals and Angels are “payor clubs” — teams that give rather than receive revenue sharing dollars — and payors cannot receive a lottery pick in consecutive years.
As for exactly how the lottery works, it’s not too dissimilar from how other leagues do their drafts, but here are the official rules, again via MLB.com:
Each MLB team that missed the…postseason was assigned a series of four-number combinations to be drawn from the machine. The 1,001 possible sequences were distributed according to win-loss record.
With the Mets’ .512 winning percentage, they have a 0.67% chance of pulling the first pick in the draft.
The Winter Meetings officially conclude with the Rule 5 Draft on Wednesday. For the major league portion of the Rule 5 draft, any player who is not on a team’s 40-Man Roster can be claimed and is instantly added to the new team’s roster for a cost of $100,000. That player must remain on the roster for the entire season and cannot be optioned to the minor leagues. If that player is waived, once they pass through waivers, they are offered back to their original club at the league for $50,000.
The Mets added Nick Morabito to the 40-Man ahead of the deadline to protect him from being poached in the Rule 5 draft.
The last significant player the Mets grabbed in the Rule 5 Draft who made an impact on the team was 2014’s selection of Sean Gilmartin.
If the Mets’ – or any other club – does not have an open spot on their 40-Man Roster as of Wednesday morning, they will not participate in the Rule 5 Draft.
Various Awards Announcements
Award winners will be announced for three categories as part of the Winter Meetings: Scout(s) of the Year, the Baseballe Writers Association of America Excellence Award, and the Ford C. Frick Award. The Frick Award is of particular interest to Mets fans this year, as Mets broadcaster Gary Cohen was nominated for the honor for the second consecutive year.