Korner Konfidential — Mets Hot Stove Report: Day 3
Day 3 — Sunday, November 1, 2026. The calm before the storm — and you can hear the storm warming up. No signings yet, because the market doesn't open until tomorrow, but Sunday still moved the board: the Japanese and Korean postings are now official, Tampa Bay made its Rasmussen decision, and three more names — a starter, a closer and a familiar center fielder — joined the free-agent pile. Tomorrow is the big day: signings open, every option gets decided, and the Mets owe three 40-man cuts by evening. Sorted, as always, into what's actually being reported, and what's just being talked about.
🔥 THE BIG BOARD — Reports
Teruaki Sato at Koshien. Photo: とらとうはんしん, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).
The postings are official. Sunday was the first day players could be posted, and the names we've been tracking are now formally on the market: Hanshin posted Triple Crown winner Teruaki Sato, Seibu's Kaima Taira and Hokkaido's Hiromi Itoh were posted from Japan, and Hanwha third baseman Si Hwan Roh was posted from Korea. Negotiations can start Monday. The Japanese players get a 45-day window on paper and Roh gets 30 days — his closes December 1 at 5 PM ET, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post — but with the expected lockout hitting December 1, every one of these clocks effectively runs out at the end of November. For the Mets, Sato (.306/.383/.609, 39 home runs) and Taira (NPB-best 1.36 ERA; the Mets are among the clubs that scouted him) are the two with real Flushing links. Itoh and Roh (.283/.360/.505, 29 homers at age 25) are new names on the watch list — no Mets link has been reported for either. Yet.
Sources: NBC Sports · MLB Trade Rumors (Roh/Sherman) · Metsmerized
A price tag takes shape on Skubal. Brief update on the winter's biggest name: ESPN's Alden González reports a league executive's read on Tarik Skubal — “The price will be huge, but I don't think he's touching 400,” and executives have a hard time seeing ten years, let alone the twelve that stretched Yamamoto's guarantee. That still leaves a number north of $300 million, with the Dodgers hoping to bring him back and the Mets the obvious other team to watch. The market opens tomorrow; this is the last day of guessing what the bidding looks like.
Drew Rasmussen. Photo: Raysfanjake1984, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0).
Tampa Bay made the Rasmussen call. The Rays exercised Drew Rasmussen's $20 million club option for 2027 on Saturday — the richest single-season salary in franchise history, up from an $8 million base because he stayed healthy and hit his escalators (16–5, 2.67 ERA, a career-high 172 innings for the AL champions). Read that carefully before you cross him off: MLB Trade Rumors still ranks him the No. 2 trade candidate in baseball, the Rays have never carried a nine-figure payroll, and he's down to one year of control. The option doesn't end the trade idea — it prices it. If Tampa moves him, everybody knows the number now.
Sources: MLB Trade Rumors · Associated Press via NBC Sports
Two more arms join the pile. San Diego declined its $14 million club option on Nick Pivetta, making the 33-year-old a free agent (Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune). The fine print matters: Pivetta's player option became a club option after an elbow injury cost him more than 130 straight days on the injured list, there are questions about that elbow, and he still put up a 2.86 ERA in eight starts — San Diego can try to re-sign him on a new deal. And in Cincinnati, closer Emilio Pagán declined his $10 million player option (Francys Romero) after saving 25 games with a 3.38 ERA and converting all 19 of his chances after returning from injury. Neither has been linked to the Mets — file Pivetta with the veteran starters and Pagán atop the growing bullpen tier, because this bullpen needs late-inning bodies.
A familiar center fielder is free again. Baltimore declined Luis Robert Jr.'s $20 million club option, paying the $2 million buyout instead (Associated Press). Robert's 2026 started in Queens — .223 with 10 home runs in 58 games, interrupted by nearly three months lost to a lumbar disc herniation — before the Mets put him on outright waivers in August and the Orioles claimed him; he played three games there before a hamstring ended his season. He's 29, the tools are still the tools, and the injury list is still the injury list. No reunion reporting — this is ex-Met news, filed where it belongs.
Sources: Associated Press via NBC Sports · Amazin' Avenue
Housekeeping. Vidal Bruján has landed: the Braves signed the former Met utility man to a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training. Bruján played nine games for the Mets in 2026 (1-for-11) and elected minor league free agency in October, so that small chapter is officially closed. Everything else on the Mets' own desk — the three 40-man cuts, the qualifying-offer decisions — comes due tomorrow evening.
Sources: NBC Sports
🗣️ THE SPECULATION DESK — Talk, Not News
The prediction of the day. Bleacher Report's post-World Series roundup closes its Skubal file with four words Mets fans will take: “Prediction: Skubal signs with the Mets.” Enjoy it for exactly what it is — a prediction, sitting right under reporting (above) that says even the executives doing the pricing can't agree on the years or the total. Talk tier. A fun one, but talk.
Sources: Bleacher Report
The Sato déjà vu warning. Rising Apple walks Mets fans through the ghost of winters past: Stearns personally scouted Munetaka Murakami last year, the Mets backed off over strikeout concerns, Murakami signed small with the White Sox — and then hit 35 home runs and dragged Chicago to the ALDS. Now Stearns has made the same trip for Sato (SNY's Chelsea Janes: “Don't rule out Teruaki Sato as a big addition”), and Rising Apple flags the fit problem the Harper prediction danced around on Saturday: Sato has played only third base and right field, and those spots now belong to Bo Bichette and Carson Benge. Their argument — somebody moves, or the cold corner becomes Sato's classroom — is analysis, not reporting. But the question is real, and as of today Sato is officially posted, so the Mets have to answer it with a bid or a pass.
The lockout won't slow the chase — supposedly. Ken Rosenthal, on Foul Territory, expects teams to pursue the players they want despite the labor uncertainty, reasoning that a salary cap is unlikely to take effect immediately and clubs will sort out payroll consequences later. That's an expectation from a plugged-in voice, not a promise from any front office — but if he's right, tomorrow's opening bell could be louder than the lockout talk suggests.
Beat Tweets
The beat is quiet today. We swept the Mets beat — DiComo, Puma, Sammon, Britton, Martino, Gelbs, Ragazzo, Heyman, Sherman, Goodman, Albanese, Mastracco and Pantorno — and found no news-bearing posts with verifiable status IDs to embed since yesterday's edition. The one piece of beat news that did land, Joel Sherman's posting-window report, is covered on the Big Board above with its article links. When the beat talks in embeddable form — and tomorrow, with the market opening, it should — the tweets will be right here.
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 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.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC (LIDOM). The headline act is Jefferson Rojas, the Mets' No. 1 prospect, playing third base for the Gigantes del Cibao. In just his second game he went 3-for-4 with two home runs — the first a 401-foot shot at 106 mph off the bat, the second 429 feet — and both blasts are right here. Through his first seven games: .250/.308/.583 while learning a new position on the fly. Also in the league: Christopher Morel (Águilas Cibaeñas) is off to a .200 start with a homer, bouncing between first base and the outfield corners; Vidal Bruján (Escogido) is at .214/.343/.464 — and as of today he's a Brave, signed to a minor league deal (see Housekeeping above); infielder Eddinson Paulino is getting regular run at second; and reliever Ofreidy Gómez has thrown scoreless innings. (Baseball America)
VENEZUELA (LVBP). Francisco Alvarez gave Magallanes a night on Saturday: a game-winning grand slam in the eighth inning, 2-for-5 with five RBIs for the Navegantes del Magallanes. The big day lifts him to .308 with an .846 OPS in 14 at-bats this winter. He's sharing a clubhouse with Luis Torrens, who's been moonlighting at first base and DH (2-for-14 early; it's winter ball, folks). Reliever Joander Suarez has four appearances (5.79 ERA), and relief prospect Saul García is on the Magallanes roster. (Metsmerized)
MEXICO (LMP). Marco Vargas has cooled after his hot start — he's at .237/.293/.345 in 11 games for the Yaquis de Obregón, though the legs still work: four stolen bases, and his latest line was 1-for-3 with two RBIs and a walk. Catcher Alejandro Urías has seen spot duty behind the plate. (Metsmerized)
ARIZONA FALL LEAGUE. A rough Saturday for the Mets' contingent: the Surprise Saguaros lost 11–2 and fell to 12–9. Peyton Prescott's fifth start went sideways — five runs (four earned) in 2⅓ innings, and his AFL ERA jumped from 3.68 to 6.52 across 9⅔ innings. Irving Cota allowed two runs in 1⅔ innings (ERA up to 4.26). At the plate, Boston Baro and Bruin Agbayani both went hitless with a walk; Baro scored one of Surprise's two runs, and their OPS lines sit at .778 and .440. The lines that still shine from earlier in the fall: Ryan Lambert (five scoreless, hitless innings, seven strikeouts, 98.7 mph on the gun), Brendan Girton (4⅔ scoreless) and Cole Mathis (.580 OPS, with a homer). The AFL wraps up November 14. (Metsmerized)
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 — The prize. ESPN exec chatter: huge price, but not $400M and probably not 10 years. Market opens Mon Nov 2. Status: everybody's Plan A, nobody's promise.
Michael King — Free agent. Mets met with him last winter. Status: circle back.
Clay Holmes — Free agent. Heyman's two-for-one theory pairs him with King. Status: reunion watch.
Teruaki Sato — ✅ POSTED Sun Nov 1 by Hanshin; negotiations start Mon. 45-day window on paper, Dec 1 lockout is the real deadline. Status: officially on the market; Mets interest real, price unknown.
Kaima Taira — ✅ POSTED Sun Nov 1. Mets among the clubs that scouted him (FanSided source). Status: officially on the market.
Hiromi Itoh — NEW Sun Nov 1: also posted from Japan (Hokkaido). Status: posting watch — no Mets link reported.
Si Hwan Roh — NEW Sun Nov 1: KBO third baseman posted by Hanwha (.283/.360/.505, 29 HR, age 25); 30-day window ends Dec 1 (Sherman). Status: posting watch — no Mets link reported.
Drew Rasmussen — UPDATE Sat Oct 31: Rays exercised his $20M option — he's NOT a free agent. MLBTR's No. 2 trade candidate, one year of control. Status: trade watch at a known $20M price.
Sonny Gray / Nick Martinez — Both free as of Fri Oct 30. Status: veteran fallback tier.
Nick Pivetta — NEW Sun Nov 1: Padres declined his $14M club option (Acee); elbow questions after 130+ days on the IL. Status: veteran-arm tier; no Mets link reported.
Emilio Pagán — NEW Sun Nov 1: declined his $10M player option with Cincinnati (Romero); 25 saves, 3.38 ERA. Status: bullpen tier; no Mets link reported.
Luis Robert Jr. — NEW Sun Nov 1: Orioles declined his $20M option ($2M buyout). The ex-Met (58 games in Queens in 2026) is a free agent. Status: on the market; no reunion reporting.
Dustin May — Free agent: declined his $20M mutual option with Milwaukee. Status: veteran-arm tier; no Mets link reported.
Jeff McNeil — Free agent: the A's declined his option and the Mets cover the $2M buyout. Status: ex-Met on the market; no reunion reporting.
Sean Manaea — Sportsnaut predicts he's the Met dealt before Opening Day. Status: speculation only — no shopping reported.
Rafael Devers — MLBTR lists him as a trade candidate in San Francisco; the Mets link is an idea piece only. Status: watch, don't believe yet.
Bo Bichette — ✅ RESOLVED. Opted in for 2027 — see the Korner column, “Bo Knows: 42 Million Reasons.”
Sandy Alcantara — ✅ OFF THE BOARD: the Marlins exercised his 2027 club option. Status: staying in Miami.
Vidal Bruján — ✅ RESOLVED Sun Nov 1: signed a minor league deal with the Braves, with a spring-training invite.
40-man roster — Three cuts due Mon evening Nov 2 (Megill/Polanco/Garrett off the 60-day IL); free-agent signings open Mon. Status: tomorrow is the day.
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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