Lindor all smiles after trade from Indians to the Mets
NEWYORK» Francisco Lindor smiled widely for a full
40 minutes, enthralled to join a New York Mets team bulking up under new owner Steven Cohen.
“They say it’s probably very contagious,” the Mets’ new shortstop said. “I’m living my dream. I’m living the life I always wanted, so I don’t see why not.”
Cleveland traded the four-time All-Star to New York along with pitcher Carlos Carrasco on Thursday for infielders Andrés Giménez and Amed Rosario plus a pair of minor league prospects, righthander Josh Wolf and outfielder Isaiah Greene.
“I’m excited to be with the Mets organization. I’m not against a long term. I’m not against it,” Lindor said in a news conference from Florida, wearing his new team’s royal blue cap. “It has to make sense of both sides.”
Lindor said he would not want to negotiate once he starts spring training, preferring to focus then on playing and hopefully winning. He earned
$6,481,481 prorated from a $17.5 million salary last year, is eligible for arbitration next month and can become a free agent after this season. His agent, Dave Meter, had discussed a long-term deal with the Indians.
“We talked and we gave it our best effort on both sides,” Lindor said.
But the Indians did not think they could afford a multiyear contract with the 27-year-old, so they chose to make the trade.
Cohen, a billionaire hedge fund manager, bought the Mets on Nov. 6 from the Wilpon and Katz families. The Mets had the third-highest payroll last year behind the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees, and the Mets’ offseason has included giving pitcher Marcus Stroman an $18.9 million, one-year deal; injured right-hander Noah Syndergaard a $9.7 million, one-year contract; right-handed reliever Trevor May a $15.5 million, two-year agreement; and catcher James McCann a $40.6 million, four-year deal.
Outfielder George Springer and second baseman DJ LeMahieu remain possibilities among free agents.
80 percent say Tokyo Olympics should be called off or won’t happen
TOKYO» More than 80% of people in Japan who were surveyed in two polls in the last few days say the Tokyo Olympics should be canceled or postponed, or say they believe the Olympics will not take place.
The polls were conducted by the Japanese news agency Kyodo and TBS — the Tokyo Broadcasting System.
The results are bad news for Tokyo organizers and the International Olympic Committee as they continue to say the postponed Olympics will open on July 23.
Tokyo is battling a surge of COVID-19 cases that prompted the national government last week to call a state of emergency. In declaring the emergency, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said he was confident the Olympics would be held.
Japan has controlled the virus relatively well but the surge has heightened skepticism about the need for the Olympics and the danger of potentially bringing 15,000 Olympic and Paralympic athletes into the country.
R&A says no plans to award the Open to Trump’s Turnberry
ST. ANDREWS, SCOTLAND » Donald Trump’s ownership of Turnberry will prevent the Scottish course from staging the British Open for “the foreseeable future,” the chief executive of the R&A said Monday.
Turnberry hasn’t hosted the tournament since it was bought by Trump in
2014.
“We had no plans to stage any of our championships at Turnberry and will not do so in the foreseeable future,” R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers said.
Slumbers’ comments came a day after the PGA of America voted to take the PGA Championship event away from Trump’s New Jersey golf course next year. Last week, there was a Trump-fueled riot at the Capitol as Congress was certifying the election victory of President-elect Joe Biden.
“We will not return (to Turnberry),” Slumbers said, “until we are convinced that the focus will be on the championship, the players and the course itself and we do not believe that is achievable in the current circumstances.”
The last British Open at Turnberry was in 2009, when Stewart Cink beat
59-year-old Tom Watson in a playoff.