Korner Konfidential — Mets Hot Stove Report: Day 15

Day 15 — Friday, November 13, 2026. The first first-base domino fell Friday — and it did not fall in Queens. Jake Bauers, the top name on the Mets' first-base board, signed with Boston, which means the supplement David Stearns promised now has to come from a shorter list. The Skubal consensus, meanwhile, stopped sounding like a race and started sounding like a coronation the Mets themselves are trying to talk down: nearly everybody in the game expects him to sign here, says the beat, and the club is downplaying its chances to anyone who will listen. And awards week closed the way it ran all week — unanimously — with Pete Crow-Armstrong and Yordan Alvarez taking the MVPs without dropping a single first-place vote. Still no Mets signing. Sorted, as always, into what's reported and what's just talked about.

🔥 THE BIG BOARD — Reports

Tarik Skubal, dealing for Detroit. Photo: Jeffrey Hyde, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).

Bauers to Boston: four years, $58 million — the first-base board loses its top name. The winter's second significant signing landed Friday, and it stings a little in Queens. First baseman Jake Bauers and the Boston Red Sox are in agreement on a four-year, $58 million contract, ESPN's Jeff Passan reported Friday (via Mets On SI). Bauers was the biggest free-agent name at first base — a career-best .266 with 26 home runs, 86 RBIs and an .874 OPS for Milwaukee in 2026, then the NLCS MVP (.286, a homer, a .983 OPS) for the World Series champions — and he carried a $23.15 million qualifying offer, so Boston surrenders a draft pick on top of the $14.5 million average annual value. For the Mets, the math the other way is the story: Stearns told the beat Tuesday the club will supplement first base around Jared Young, 'part of a solution,' and a four-year, pick-costing commitment to a platoon-adjacent bat was always an awkward shape for that plan — Mets On SI makes exactly that case. But a plan is only a plan until the list shortens, and the list just shortened. What remains on the reported board: Alec Bohm, whose representatives the Mets met with in Las Vegas and who would play first here; Ty France, generating interest and due a marker now that Bauers has set the price; and the trade constructions in the Speculation Desk below. No Mets offer to Bauers was ever reported. No offer to anyone at first base has been reported. The position Stearns named a priority on Tuesday is, on Friday, still entirely unaddressed — with its best free agent gone.

Sources: Mets On SI (Passan / ESPN)

Skubal: 'nearly everybody in the game expects' a Mets signing — and the Mets are downplaying it. If the GM meetings produced one sentence that will follow this winter around, Anthony DiComo of MLB.com posted it Friday: 'If there was one glaring takeaway from this week, it's that nearly everybody in the game expects Skubal to sign with the Mets. I don't know who else is really even in the conversation,' an NL executive said (via Metsmerized's Morning Briefing). Mark Feinsand of MLB.com used nearly the same words Thursday — the Mets have 'both the need and the financial means' — and ESPN's team of Jorge Castillo, Alden Gonzalez and Jesse Rogers calls the Mets the 'industry favorites,' with the meeting next week in California now the fixed point everything else orbits (via Bleacher Report). Against that chorus, the counter-reporting is about posture and price. Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported Thursday evening that the Mets 'are downplaying their chances of signing Skubal to everyone who'll listen,' while rivals believe they could be the Dodgers' stiffest competition — and that Skubal and Scott Boras have made the terms of entry plain: no interest in a short-term deal, and 'you better come in with an offer exceeding $325M if you want a seat at the high-stakes table.' Los Angeles, Feinsand adds, prefers the short, high-AAV shape — a Tucker-style four years and $240 million — that Skubal has no interest in. The meetings before Thanksgiving remain Mets, Dodgers, Padres and Blue Jays, with two mystery teams in the six-club count from earlier in the week. Read it plainly: the expectation is real, reported, and league-wide — and an expectation is not a signature. The Mets have been the industry favorite before, in winters that ended with somebody else's press conference. Next week is the week.

Sources: Metsmerized (DiComo / MLB.com) · Yardbarker (Feinsand / Nightengale) · Bleacher Report (ESPN)

MVP: unanimous, both leagues — Crow-Armstrong and Alvarez close awards week. Thursday night's verdicts completed a clean sweep. Pete Crow-Armstrong — the former Mets farmhand, it must be said in this space — won the National League MVP unanimously, all 30 first-place votes and 420 points, after a 40-40 season: an NL-leading 119 runs, a share of the major-league lead with 45 home runs, 41 stolen bases, a .280 average and 107 RBIs, with Platinum Glove defense in center for Chicago (Reuters; ESPN's tally). He is the Cubs' first MVP since Kris Bryant in 2016 and the ninth Cub ever to win it. Shohei Ohtani, the winner the last two years, finished second with 264 points; Milwaukee's Brice Turang was third with 190. In the American League, Houston's Yordan Alvarez was likewise unanimous — 420 points — after challenging for the Triple Crown: a batting title at .316, 42 home runs, 106 RBIs, and league leads in on-base percentage (.432), slugging (.601) and OPS (1.033). Tampa Bay's Junior Caminero was second (267) and Kansas City's Bobby Witt Jr. third (188). With Misiorowski and Schlittler unanimous Cy Young winners on Wednesday, 2026 becomes the first season in which both MVPs and both Cy Youngs were elected unanimously. No Met placed in either league's top group. Awards week is over; the stove is the only show left.

Sources: Reuters

Housekeeping. Still no Mets signing or trade by press time Friday — Bauers-to-Boston joins Pagán-to-Detroit as the winter's only significant deals, neither of them here. The Arizona Fall League semifinal was played Friday afternoon in Arizona — Glendale at Surprise, the 18–10 Saguaros hosting — with the league wrapping Saturday, November 14; the result lands in tomorrow's edition. From here the calendar tightens: qualifying-offer answers and the Rule 5 protection deadline Tuesday, November 17 (Irving Cota's case is the Mets' live one), the tender deadline November 20, the Skubal meetings in California next week around the Owners Meetings, and the December 1 lockout over all of it.

🗣️ THE SPECULATION DESK — Talk, Not News

France is the must-get now — an argument, with a price marker attached. Mets On SI's pivot column argues the Bauers deal makes Ty France the Mets' plan of attack at first base: a right-handed platoon partner for Young, the better defender of the two departed-or-available names (15 Defensive Runs Saved to Bauers' minus-4), a .295 season with 21 home runs and 72 RBIs for San Diego, and — per Will Sammon's earlier reporting, cited in the piece — interest from multiple teams with a deal that 'could find a deal quickly.' Bauers' $58 million now sets the neighborhood France's camp will point to. Understand the label: no Mets-France talks are reported anywhere. It is a well-argued fit with a real market marker behind it, filed here as talk until a meeting or an offer is actually reported.

Sources: Mets On SI

The Seattle backup plan: Miller, Hancock or Kirby. Sportsnaut's Friday construction starts from a reported layer and builds a Mets layer on top of it — keep the two separate. The reported layer, via ESPN's Alden Gonzalez: Seattle plans to address its roster needs 'by moving at least one of their starting pitchers, with Bryce Miller, Emerson Hancock, and George Kirby the more attainable ones,' and wants right-handed hitting for the left side of its infield or the outfield corners. The constructed layer is Sportsnaut's: that a Mets club shopping for exactly that kind of controllable starter — and holding infield names like Ronny Mauricio and Ryan Clifford — is a natural caller if the Skubal chase fails. No Mets-Seattle talks are reported. As a Plan B menu, though, it is a more serious one than most: three former top-five organizational prospects, two of them first-round picks, from a club that has announced, in effect, that the shelf is open.

Sources: Sportsnaut (Gonzalez / ESPN)

Pricing the Burleson construction. The Alec Burleson watch-list item from Wednesday got a price tag Friday, in a Yardbarker/SI evaluation of what a Mets trade for the Cardinals' first baseman could look like: controllable pitching as the lead piece — St. Louis needs rotation help across the board — plus a third piece compelled by Burleson's two years of club control. The market logic in the piece is worth noting even as talk: with Bauers gone and Bohm and France 'quite average' as the remaining free-agent crop (their words), a 28-year-old everyday bat at .279 with 26 homers and a league-leading 116 RBIs would draw a crowd if St. Louis shops him at all. Nothing — still — reports that St. Louis will, or that the Mets have called. The name stays on the watch list, now with a shape of cost attached.

Sources: Yardbarker / Mets On SI

Beat Tweets

The beat is quiet today — with one post that matters, credited above. Anthony DiComo's Friday post on X carried the day's defining Skubal line — the NL executive's 'I don't know who else is really even in the conversation' — and it is credited, in full, on the Big Board. No verifiable status ID for that post surfaced in today's sweep of the 13-handle roster (DiComo, Puma, Sammon, Britton, Martino, Gelbs, Ragazzo, Heyman, Sherman, Goodman, Albanese, Mastracco and Pantorno), so no iframe is embedded here — we don't fabricate embed IDs. No other news-bearing posts with verifiable IDs surfaced since yesterday's edition. When a signing breaks with a verifiable post, this section will carry the iframe itself.

WINTER BALL & FALL LEAGUE WATCH

The stove isn't the only thing still warm. A small army of Mets — big leaguers, top prospects, and a few names only the true sickos know — is playing real baseball right now in the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Arizona. This section stays in the Korner all winter, updated as the numbers move, because on the slow news days this IS the baseball. Today's lines are fresh — through Thursday's games, from the morning links roundup of the latest recaps — and the section runs text-only: no verifiable fresh highlight from games since the last edition surfaced, so there are no embeds, per the house rule.

MEXICO (LMP). Thursday's best Mets line anywhere belonged to Marco Vargas, and it was a perfect one: 2-for-2 with two runs scored, two RBIs, two walks and a hit-by-pitch, playing third base — on base five times in five trips (morning links roundup). Catcher Alejandro Urías added a pinch-hit single in his only trip, 1-for-1, staying the steadiest Mexico bat in the system. Carried from Wednesday's full lines: Vargas was 2-for-4 with a double and three runs that night, and Urías stood 14-for-39 with three doubles in 13 games. (Mets News and Links)

VENEZUELA (LVBP). Francisco Alvarez kept collecting at-bats as the designated hitter Thursday: 1-for-3 with an RBI, a run scored and a strikeout for Magallanes — 9-for-35 with two home runs in 11 winter games, as the arithmetic from Wednesday's line (8-for-32 in 10) carries forward. Carried from Wednesday: Luis Torrens was 1-for-4 in left field and stands an even .300 (15-for-50) in 14 games, and Douglas Orellana has allowed two earned runs in three winter innings. (Mets News and Links)

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC (LIDOM). A brief Thursday line for reliever Jefry Yan with his LIDOM club: a third of an inning, no runs, no hits, two walks (morning links roundup). Carried from the last full lines: Ronny Mauricio is 7-for-31 with a homer in eight games for Licey, Jefferson Rojas is 7-for-34 with his two second-game homers for the Gigantes, and Ofreidy Gómez added a scoreless two-thirds with a strikeout on Tuesday. (Mets News and Links)

PUERTO RICO (LBPRC). No new Ponce or San Juan line surfaced in Thursday's roundup, so the last full lines stand: Jacob Reimer is 8-for-21 with two homers and three doubles in six games after Wednesday's 2-for-4 with a homer and a double; Antonio Jimenez is 9-for-19 with a homer in five games after a 2-for-5 with a triple; Eli Serrano III is 2-for-7 in two games and John Bay 7-for-32 with a homer. Reimer's winter at first base remains the line this column circles, with the big club's first-base board now one name shorter. (Metsmerized)

ARIZONA FALL LEAGUE. The regular season is done and the playoffs are the story: Glendale — the league's worst regular-season club at 10–17 — stunned Scottsdale 17–5 on Thursday to advance, and played the semifinal at Surprise on Friday afternoon, against the 18–10 Saguaros and their Mets contingent (True Blue LA's playoff account; Metsmerized). The league wraps Saturday, November 14. For the Mets, the fall's closing lines stand from Wednesday: Bruin Agbayani 7-for-50 in 17 games, Boston Baro 8-for-40 with a homer and four steals in 14, Calvin Ziegler's hard fall (11 earned runs in 6⅓ innings), and Irving Cota's Rule 5 case — scoreless Fall Stars work included — heading into Tuesday's protection deadline. Tomorrow's edition carries the semifinal result and the final wrap. (Mets News and Links)

Full winter ball stats for every Mets farmhand, updated weekly, live at Baseball America. If a Met does something down there, you'll read about it here.

📋 RUMOR TRACKER

Tarik Skubal — UPDATE Fri Nov 13: DiComo (MLB.com) — an NL exec: 'nearly everybody in the game expects Skubal to sign with the Mets… I don't know who else is really even in the conversation.' Feinsand: Mets have the need + the means; ESPN (Castillo/Gonzalez/Rogers): Mets are 'industry favorites.' Nightengale: Mets downplaying their chances; Boras' floor is an offer exceeding $325M, no short-term deal; Dodgers prefer a short Tucker-style 4-yr/$240M Skubal doesn't want. Meetings next week (Mets/Dodgers/Padres/Jays + mystery clubs). Janes' shape stands: 7 yrs/$340M. Status: unsigned — meeting week is next week.

Jake Bauers — ✅ RESOLVED Fri Nov 13: signed with the RED SOX — four years, $58M (Passan, ESPN); QO attached, Boston surrenders a pick. .266, 26 HR, 86 RBI, .874 OPS in 2026; NLCS MVP. Status: off the board — was the top FA name at first base; never reported to have a Mets offer.

First base — UPDATE Fri Nov 13: Bauers (above) is GONE. Stearns confirmed the Mets will SUPPLEMENT first base — Young 'part of a solution.' Remaining reported board: Bohm (meeting held) and France (interest market-wide, no Mets talks reported). Burleson/Burger/Torkelson/Lewis = talk only. Status: declared priority; one meeting held; top FA name gone; no offer reported.

Alec Bohm — The Mets MET with Bohm's representatives at the GM meetings (Rosenthal/Sammon) and would use him at FIRST base. .249, 15 HR, .698 OPS in 155 G in 2026, but a .794 second-half OPS. Yankees also met him (for 3B). Status: meeting held — now the only 1B name with a reported Mets meeting.

Ty France — NEW Fri Nov 13 (Speculation Desk): SI argues France is the Mets' must-get post-Bauers — right-handed platoon fit, elite 1B defense (15 DRS), .295/21 HR/72 RBI in 2026; Sammon reported multi-team interest and a possibly quick deal. Bauers' $58M sets his marker. Status: argument only — no Mets talks reported.

Bryce Miller / Emerson Hancock / George Kirby — NEW Fri Nov 13 (Speculation Desk): ESPN's Gonzalez reports Seattle plans to move at least one starter, with Miller/Hancock/Kirby 'the more attainable ones,' seeking right-handed hitting. Sportsnaut constructs the Mets as a natural caller. Status: availability reported; NO Mets talks reported.

Brooks Raley / Alex Vesia / Tim Hill / A.J. Minter — Four lefty check-ins reported (Sammon; Heyman for Minter). Raley: the Mets and Raley have SPOKEN, no deal close (FanSided). Status: check-ins reported; no offers reported.

Jonathan Loáisiga — The Mets have shown interest in the former Yankee right-hander, per the Post (via Rising Apple). Status: interest reported; no talks reported.

Derek Johnson (staff) — Expected to be hired in an ADVISORY role (Nightengale; Sammon). Decade as a big-league pitching coach (MIL/CIN). Status: hire expected — staff, not a roster move.

Kodai Senga — Stearns' plan remains build back up as a STARTER in camp (Puma); Senga wants to start. NOT among the two guaranteed rotation spots (McLean/Scott). Trade interest is buy-low; a deal likely needs the Mets to eat most of the $14M for 2027; partial no-trade. Status: starter plan stated; listening ongoing; no deal reported.

Rotation guarantees — Stearns (Wed) names ONLY Nolan McLean and Christian Scott as guaranteed 2027 rotation spots; expects 'multiple' adds, building a staff 1 through 10 or 12, via FA and trades. Status: the winter's mandate, on the record.

Emilio Pagán — ✅ RESOLVED Tue Nov 10: signed with the TIGERS — one year, ~$11.5M plus a bonus clause (Heyman). Status: off the board; was never Mets-linked.

David Bednar / Adrián Morejón — Morejón prefers to REMAIN A RELIEVER (The Athletic). Both carry $23.15M qualifying offers — answers due Nov 17; signing either costs draft picks. Status: bullpen market, QO clock running.

Devin Williams — Stearns calls Williams the closer 'right now.' The Mets are shopping the reliever market around him. Status: closer, conditionally; no club move reported.

Trevor Megill — Finished THIRD in the inaugural NL BBWAA Reliever of the Year voting. ESPN reports Milwaukee will 'at least listen' (via Rising Apple). Status: fits/trade-watch only — no Mets talks reported.

Drew Rasmussen — Murray — the Rays 'really prefer to keep him'; Neander expects him anchoring Tampa's rotation. $20M option exercised — NOT a free agent. Status: trade watch, Rays holding firmer.

Alec Burleson — UPDATE Fri Nov 13: a Yardbarker/SI evaluation prices a Mets construction at controllable pitching as the lead piece plus a third piece (two years of control). No named sourcing that St. Louis would move him; no Mets call reported. Status: watch-list talk only.

Carson Benge — ✅ RESOLVED Mon Nov 9: finished SECOND in NL Rookie of the Year voting (Stewart won). Status: award closed; Benge still holds RF.

Kyren Paris — ✅ RESOLVED Mon Nov 9: cleared waivers, outrighted to Triple-A Syracuse. Status: non-roster depth.

Christian Cairo — ✅ RESOLVED Mon Nov 9: claimed off waivers by the DODGERS. Status: gone.

Robert Stock — One-year Major League split contract; out of options. Still on the 40-man. Status: depth arm — the Mets' only signing so far.

Jacob deGrom / Nathan Eovaldi — Grant (Dallas Morning News) believes the Rangers will shop a highly paid star — deGrom ($37M, full no-trade) front and center, perhaps Eovaldi ($24M owed). Status: availability reported; NO Mets talks reported.

Eric Wagaman — Elected free agency (MLBTR, Nov 8). Status: free agent; low-cost depth option.

Teruaki Sato — Heyman links Mets/Phillies/Padres/Yankees — against Britton/Sammon's cooling report and Stearns' supplement-not-splurge 1B framing. Posted Nov 1; window to Dec 1. Status: cooled/downgraded — not closed.

Michael King — Post pricing — at least 3 yrs/$80M. Mets met with him last winter. Status: top consolation prize; circle back.

Clay Holmes — Post pricing — 2–3 yrs, $40–50M after declining his $12M Cubs option. Status: reunion watch, price framed.

Shoki Oda — 18-year-old Japanese RHP met with the Mets, Phillies and Rangers; Dodgers considered favorites; expected $3–5M bonus, signable Jan 15. Status: meeting held — long-term play.

Kaima Taira / Hiromi Itoh / Si Hwan Roh — All posted Nov 1; Taira scouted by the Mets; Roh's window ends Dec 1 (Sherman). Status: posting watch — no new Mets link reported.

Sonny Gray / Nick Martinez / Nick Pivetta / Michael Soroka / Dustin May — All free agents in the veteran-arm tier. Status: no Mets link reported for any.

Kenley Jansen — Free agent after Detroit declined his option; his Detroit closer job now belongs to Pagán. Status: veteran closer on the market; no Mets link reported.

Luis Robert Jr. / Jeff McNeil — Both ex-Mets are free agents. Status: no reunion reporting for either.

Sean Manaea — Sportsnaut predicted he is the Met dealt before Opening Day (talk only). Not a guaranteed rotation spot per Stearns. Status: speculation only — no shopping reported.

Rafael Devers — MLBTR trade candidate in San Francisco; the Mets link is an idea piece only. Status: watch, don't believe yet.

Jack Anderson / Pierson Ohl — Claimed off waivers Mon Nov 2. Status: depth arms with options.

Mark Vientos / Francisco Alvarez — Rising Apple scenario talk only. Alvarez is playing winter ball (see above), not reported in any talks. Status: talk only.

Bo Bichette — ✅ RESOLVED. Opted in for 2027. His return at 3B is why Bohm would be a first baseman here.

Sandy Alcantara — ✅ OFF THE BOARD: Marlins exercised his 2027 club option. Status: staying in Miami.

Vidal Bruján — ✅ RESOLVED Sun Nov 1: minor league deal with the Braves, with a spring-training invite.

40-man roster — Next churn: Rule 5 protection deadline Nov 17 — Cota's AFL finish this weekend could bear on it.

That's the stove for today. Same time tomorrow — if the Mets do something at 11 PM, the Tracker hears about it first.

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