With the season still paused, let's dip into the Mets mailbag...

@bigdog44K: When do the owners sell the team?

We've gotten a ton of questions over the past several weeks about how the current shutdown will impact the sale of the Mets. We can tell you that the team is still for sale -- nothing has changed there -- and at least one man is pursuing a bid. As you know, that man is named A-Rod.

It's difficult to assess the impact of coronavirus on the franchise value. This crisis is touching every aspect of the economy.

Here's how the sale process will work: Once the Wilpons and Saul Katz get an offer that they deem worth pursuing -- and by the end of this it's likely that multiple groups will competing, as happened in Miami when Jeffrey Loria decided to sell -- they will ask Major League Baseball to conduct diligence on that group.

If the buyers make it through that, the other 29 owners would ultimately vote to approve the sale. Some folks involved consider it a wild card whether those owners would let A-Rod into their club. But anyway, that's our reporting on the process. Hard to estimate exact timing, but it's not a stretch to think that new ownership would in place for the 2021 season.

@MichaelScottLGM: Can we hear some injury news? Conforto's oblique? Is Cespedes benefiting from layoff? Will he be ready? Betances with the velocity figured out? Lowrie's entire left side or whatever? Anything else you've heard?

So here's the thing with that. Brodie Van Wagenen is declining to give injury updates on players during the shutdown. We have tried. I know you want to know.

@zevi_weis: Who is the DH if "the plan" happens?

Yoenis Cespedes and Robinson Cano are the obvious answers. You could DH Cano and slide Jeff McNeil over to second base -- though I will say that the Mets have been highly reluctant to consider anything that would move McNeil off third. They seem to really want him to remain there this season.

Beyond the obvious, what about using the DH sometimes for Pete Alonso? That would create a path to playing time for Dominic Smith, who the organization has always regarded as a superior defender.

@Dave_Schoenfeld: In the event of a shortened season, or a season with limited days off/frequent double headers, will the league expand rosters to help with bullpen management/fatigue?

Oh yes. Without a minor league feeder system to replace injured or underperforming players, MLB would need to allow for dramatically expanded rosters under any plans to play this season.

That would also allow them to begin before starting pitchers are fully stretched out. It takes nearly all of the six-week spring training for starters to get their arms and bodies ready for the regular season. There is no way the league is going to do another six weeks of spring training this year.

Expect that at the beginning of a regular season, starting pitchers would last a few innings and be followed by the parade of relievers allowed by an expanded roster.

@ortega_ronnie: Which signing last year would've been a bigger disaster A.J Pollock or Bryce Harper?

Harper, because of the length of his contract. What an insane piece of short-term, in-the-moment thinking by the Phillies to offer him 13 years. Thirteen years! He finished the first year of that contract tied for 59th in MLB in WAR.

Look, Harper is a really good player, if not the top-echelon player that his talent once suggested he would become. But the Phillies must have fallen under the spell of some temporary psychosis to think a commitment that long was a good idea.

@p_ruane2: Thoughts on the team extending StroDaddy?

We get a lot of questions on Mets extensions, mostly regarding Noah Syndergaard, Michael Conforto and Marcus Stroman. The answer is essentially the same for all of those players: With the team near the luxury tax and with the ownership situation unsettled, it's hard to imagine any extensions.

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