Anxiously Waiting For Mets to Flex Their Financial Muscle

The MLB hot stove has been relatively cold since free agency officially opened up after the World Series concluded. Unless you’re the Atlanta Braves, that is.

After coming within one game from their first Fall Classic since 1999, general manager Alex Anthopoulos continued executing the club’s free agent acquisition strategy of securing veterans to higher paydays on one-year deals. Their first strike included nabbing Drew Smyly for $11 million, before more recently doing the same with Charlie Morton to the tune of $15 million. Their rotation is looking rather formidable when you account for the young talent already there:

Braves' 2021 rotation:
1. Max Fried
2. Mike Soroka
3. Charlie Morton
4. Drew Smyly
5. Ian Anderson
Depth: Kyle Wright, Bryse Wilson. Atlanta will be in a formidable position, in defending its NL East titles.

— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) November 24, 2020

I’m not gonna lie, for a team like the New York Mets — who need plenty of rotation help behind Jacob deGrom and Marcus Stroman — I had the sads for a few minutes after hearing the Morton news. But these were a different version of the sads. Like, the type I got over quickly because of the situation New York is currently positioned in.

During the Wilpon regime, watching Morton come off the board would’ve been frustrating for a couple reasons. One, for the simple fact that spending $15 million was always a barrier. And two, because there are only so many attractive starting pitching options in the second tier of free agency each year, so any subtraction tightens the belt even more.

That’s the past, though, and even though this new regime is still settling in, it truly feels they’ve been around for a million years.

We heard that Sandy Alderson had an interest in Morton, but it just didn’t work out. The Braves have been impressive with their quick strikes, but as a club that’s won three-straight National League East titles, their roster was already looking more complete than the Mets. Alderson said himself during media availability on Tuesday that New York isn’t just one or two players away from getting over the hump in 2021, and these things take time to develop.

With that in mind, I — like every other Mets fan — am chomping at the bit to see how a true big-market club acts in Flushing. Per a report from ESPN’s Buster Olney, the Mets appear likely to end up with two of the top four available players, when considering both free agency and trade opportunities.

If Olney's report is true, which two of the following four players would you want the Mets to acquire?

– Trevor Bauer
– J.T. Realmuto
– George Springer
– Francisco Lindor

— Metsmerized (@Metsmerized) November 24, 2020

I’m not here to debate which two of the four New York could end up with. There are many valid arguments with solid reasoning for any of the permutations that can be made. The one commonality is each will carry a financial obligation typically avoided by the Mets during the previous regime. And that’s just thinking about one player, not multiple.

Here are the contract predictions for each of the three free agents, per MLB Trade Rumors:

• Trevor Bauer: four years, $128 million
• George Springer: five years, $125 million
• J.T. Realmuto: five years, $125 million

Acquiring Lindor may not immediately come with a long-term financial commitment, but if the Mets pony up the player/prospect capital to make a deal, you better believe they’re going to do everything possible to lock him in for the long haul. If they do, the contract would be worth at least 10-times his likely 2021 salary, which should be around $20 million.

So, anyway you slice it, experts are pegging the Mets to ultimately be spending more than $200 million this winter in future contract obligations. That’s a ton of money, but it’s necessary to invest in a club if they’re going to succeed, and our new owner has paid that kind of money for weird-looking art in the past. Spending it on players will be a no-brainer.

While we’ll get used to this kind of spending immediately, it’ll still be a weird feeling because we haven’t seen this kind of shopping spree ever. After all, the Mets have only awarded five contracts of at least $100 million in franchise history: David Wright ($138 million), Johan Santana ($137.5 million), deGrom ($137.5 million), Carlos Beltran ($119 million), and Yoenis Cespedes ($110 million).

Doing this will resemble the offseason leading up to 2005 when Omar Minaya nabbed both Beltran and Pedro Martinez to free agent deals before continuing to bolster the roster the following winter with guys like Carlos Delgado, Billy Wagner, and Paul Lo Duca.

It’s refreshing to know that if the Mets want a player that’ll add value to the organization, money will no longer be a stumbling block to make it happen. We’ve known this since the minute Uncle Stevie was expected to take over the new owner. Once things became official, he and Alderson said as much during their introductory pressers, too.

But you know what? Old habits die hard, which is why I’m anxiously waiting for New York to make that first big splash. It’ll happen at some point soon, and the market for the most coveted players is typically slow moving, so we need to trust the process and let it all play out.

Once it finally does, though, I’ll be able to see with my very own eyes that this new era of Mets baseball isn’t just a dream, and that’s a beautiful thing.