{"id":10775,"date":"2026-04-21T13:21:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T13:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/21\/the-opener-mets-counsell-mlbtr-chat-mlb-trade-rumors\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T13:21:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T13:21:31","slug":"the-opener-mets-counsell-mlbtr-chat-mlb-trade-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/21\/the-opener-mets-counsell-mlbtr-chat-mlb-trade-rumors\/","title":{"rendered":"The Opener: Mets, Counsell, MLBTR Chat &#8211; MLB Trade Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>   By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlbtraderumors.com\/author\/charlie-wright\" title=\"Posts by Charlie Wright\" rel=\"author\">Charlie Wright<\/a> |   at April 21, 2026 8:14am CDT  <br \/>Here are a couple of items to monitor on Tuesday, plus a link to submit questions for a live chat with MLBTR&#8217;s Steve Adams.<br \/><strong>1. Mets&#8217; losing streak<\/strong><br \/>The last time the Mets won a game, the Artemis II crew was still in space. New York has dropped 11 straight after a sweep against the Cubs over the weekend. The club is back home tonight to face the Twins for a three-game set. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mcleano01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-04-21_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><strong>Nolan McLean<\/strong><\/a> will get the ball with a chance to stop the skid. The Mets&#8217; return to New York means we&#8217;re officially on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/sotoju01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-04-21_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><strong>Juan Soto<\/strong><\/a> watch. Manager Carlos Mendoza said the star outfielder would come back from his calf injury during the homestand.<br \/><strong>2. Counsell bristles at Ohtani Rule<\/strong><br \/>With pitching injuries mounting in Chicago, Cubs manager Craig Counsell shared his take on the two-way player rule, which allows teams to carry a pitcher who doesn&#8217;t count against the team&#8217;s total. \u201c<em>I\u2019ve never understood it<\/em>,\u201d Counsell told reporters, including <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7214140\/2026\/04\/20\/dodgers-cubs-shohei-ohtani-craig-counsell\/\">Patrick Mooney of The Athletic<\/a>. \u201c<em>It\u2019s an offensive rule, essentially. It\u2019s a rule to help offense, more than anything, if you ask me. And then there\u2019s one team that\u2019s allowed to carry basically one of both, and he gets special consideration, which is probably the most bizarre rule. For one team<\/em>.\u201d<br \/>Players meet the two-way designation by pitching 20 innings and playing 20 games as the DH or in the field, with three plate appearances needed for those games to count. The requirements can be met in the current season or either of the two previous seasons. Teams are limited to 13 pitchers on the 26-man roster before September.<br \/><strong>3. MLBTR chat today:<\/strong><br \/>Our guy Steve Adams will be around at 1 pm CT today to discuss everything going on around the league in a live chat. If you have something to ask him, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/live.jotcast.com\/chat\/chat-with-mlbtrs-steve-adams-4-21-26-24577.html\">use this link<\/a> to submit questions. Follow the chat using the same link, which will also provide a transcript of the conversation once it&#8217;s over in case you missed it.<br \/><em>Photo courtesy of Vincent Carchietta, Imagn Images<\/em><br \/>Hate the Cubs but hate Ohtani more.<br \/>Ridiculous rule for one player. If Ohtani doesnt come to MLB, the rule doesnt exist. He didnt get this exemption when he was with the Angels. Basically, special rules for the rich.<br \/>Hate the Yankees, but hate sweet potatoes more\u2026.<br \/>Please login to leave a reply.<br \/><a class=\"button login-button\" href=\"#\">Log in<\/a> <a class=\"button\" href=\"https:\/\/traderumors.com\/registration\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\">Register<\/a><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlbtraderumors.com\" title=\"MLB Trade Rumors\">MLB Trade Rumors<\/a> is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com<br \/><a href=\"#\">Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information<\/a><br \/> \t\t\t\t<label for=\"user_login\">Username or Email Address<\/label> \t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"log\" id=\"user_login\" autocomplete=\"username\" class=\"input\" value=\"\" size=\"20\" \/> \t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t<label for=\"user_pass\">Password<\/label> \t\t\t\t<input type=\"password\" name=\"pwd\" id=\"user_pass\" autocomplete=\"current-password\" spellcheck=\"false\" class=\"input\" value=\"\" size=\"20\" \/> \t\t\t<br \/><label><input name=\"rememberme\" type=\"checkbox\" id=\"rememberme\" value=\"forever\" checked=\"checked\" \/> Remember Me<\/label><br \/> \t\t\t\t<input type=\"submit\" name=\"wp-submit\" id=\"wp-submit\" class=\"button button-primary submit wp-element-button\" value=\"Log In\" \/> \t\t\t\t<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirect_to\" value=\"https:\/\/www.mlbtraderumors.com\/2026\/04\/the-opener-mets-counsell-mlbtr-chat.html\" \/> \t\t\t<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/traderumors.com\/registration\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\">Register<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/rss\/articles\/CBMihgFBVV95cUxQMDNyd0tLeTZZTU1Ob2t2MEtYYm45MEZIV1lqUW04VExlaGs5ZmJQU2pvTllGVXoxck05RERQT19tRmI3c0FtYXZack83MC03Yk1STHhYNEF4Y19JZnBRdDZwb09BcEFOYUxKU3ZjVkRGTHRWZWxKRUNNZTUtVEtrc2tWMFZDZw?oc=5\">source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Charlie Wright | at April 21, 2026 8:14am CDT Here are a couple of items to monitor on Tuesday, plus a link to submit questions for a live chat with MLBTR&#8217;s Steve Adams.1. Mets&#8217; losing streakThe last time the Mets won a game, the Artemis II crew was still in space. New York has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10775","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}