In a move that came as at least a little bit of a surprise, the Mets re-signed Jesse Winker last week to a one-year, $7.5 million deal. David Stearns’ end-of-season news conference implied that there was very little chance Winker would be back, and while the Mets were linked to multiple other corner bats (more on that later), there were few if any rumors around Winker. From that perspective, this signing came a bit out of left field.
From a purely aesthetic perspective, this is a fun move. Winker started out as the perfect baseball villain with the Reds, someone you could hate as a Met fan but never for malicious reasons.