Catch me up in 30 seconds…
Steve Cohen said on Twitter on Saturday that the Mets have “lots of irons in the fire” in response to a fan asking to be kept informed of the team’s offseason plans.
Sandy Alderson told MLB Network Radio the team will be “more active on the free-agent market than the trade market.”
Non-tender candidate Steven Matz is getting “back to basics” working with Mets coach Phil Regan.
47-year-old Bartolo Colon wants to play one more year and retire with the Mets.
ON THIS DATE IN 2012: David Wright agrees to an eight-year, $138 million contract extension.
Love Me Tender
I will run the risk of sounding like an old man since it was my birthday this past weekend and I’ve decided to just own it (37 btw). Have you ever heard the song Love Me Tender? For some of you, of course you have. For others, anything recorded pre-Drake is considered back in the day, and even Drake’s Thank Me Later album is back in the day.
Elvis Presley released Love Me Tender as part of a four song EP in November 1956, only months before the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants received permission to leave New York for sunny California, a departure that would pave the way for the creation of the New York Mets six years later.
As the song goes,
Love me tender, love me sweet
Never let me go
We have reached the point on the baseball calendar when organizations must decide whether they love some of their young players or if it’s time to let them go.
MLB teams must decide by Wednesday, December 2 whether to offer a 2021 contract to players on their 40-man roster who are due for arbitration with less than six years of service time. While mostly a procedural deadline that rarely generates many headline-making decisions, this year could be different.
As teams grapple with historic revenue losses due to the pandemic, it’s possible a larger percentage of players from the roughly 200 due for a non-tender decision could find themselves on the free agent market.
What do teams gain by non-tendering players under club control?
They avoid an arbitration process that could overvalue the player
They create an extra spot on the 40-man roster
Will the Mets non-tender anyone?
For the Mets, the name that has been mentioned the most as a potential non-tender candidate is starter Steven Matz. The 29-year-old with just over five years of service time is coming off a disastrous 2020 campaign in which his ERA nearly reached the double digits at 9.68.
Since breaking onto the scene back in 2015 with a 4-0 record and 2.27 ERA, it’s been difficult to trust Matz as a reliable starter. You could point to his 2019 season as reason to believe he can be a suitable back-of-the-rotation left-hander, but if you’re a Mets fan and you’ve watched him take the mound over the past several years, you’ve probably exhausted your patience in believing he can become much better than an average starter… at best.
Matz is stinkin’ up the joint has been an all too common phrase from my dad.
The decision whether to non-tender Matz is no longer a financial decision for the Mets. Obviously, Steve Cohen can afford to pay him the estimated $5 million he would earn in arbitration. But if the Stony Brook native isn’t good enough to crack the rotation and carries little value as a mop-up man in the bullpen or potential chip on the trade market, it might be best to cut ties and use his 40-man roster spot on someone else.
Of course, nothing would prevent the Mets from non-tendering him and re-signing him on a cheaper deal. Just because Cohen is willing to spend a lot of money, it doesn’t mean the team shouldn’t be prudent in how they spend it.
With or without Matz, the Mets need to sure up their rotation that includes Jacob deGrom, Marcus Stroman, David Peterson, and eventually Noah Syndergaard. I would highly doubt the team enters the season with Matz and Seth Lugo as their back-end rotation options. This is an area where they are expected to use their vast new financial resources to bolster the roster.
What would worry me about letting Matz go is gambling against depth. It’s one thing to find a replacement to pencil into his rotation spot, but as Mets fans know, injuries always happen. Right now, the only other southpaw starter on the 40-man roster is Thomas Szapucki, who hasn’t thrown a pitch above Double-A.
What should the Mets do with Matz: Keep him around. Use some of their financial might to pay whatever the arbitration process promises. You can never have too many starters, even if they are average.
Any other non-tender candidates?
It seems unlikely for the Mets to have a long list of non-tender players considering they are trying to build up organizational depth and increase spending on talent, not the opposite. Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs compiled a list of players “likely” to be non-tendered and the only Met included was outfielder Guillermo Heredia.
FUN NOTE: Wilmer Flores is the only Met to be non-tendered since 2015, which ironically is tied with the Marlins for fewest in the major leagues during that time.
MLB Trade Rumors listed Heredia, along with Matz, and right-handers Robert Gsellman and Nick Tropeano as potential non-tender candidates.
Will there be some intriguing non-tenders from other teams?
Where the non-tender deadline becomes interesting for the Mets is the opportunity it could create to feast on players that other teams decide to let loose. As Sandy Alderson indicated in his recent MLB Network Radio interview, the organization is looking for players on the free agent market who don’t cost the team anything other than money to acquire.
As the rest of MLB’s owners cry poor while sucking on their cigars in a tropical resort somewhere, Steve Cohen is cutting his teeth with the Mets, ready to pounce on any tweet he finds interesting as quickly as he is ready to open his wallet for undervalued talent.
One name familiar to Mets fans who could find himself a free agent is Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez. While it’s unlikely the Bombers let him walk, it’s possible. And what would be better to reverse the New York narrative than having the Mets pick up a player the Yankees didn’t want to pay and have him rejuvenate his career only a short subway ride away?
Kris Bryant is the biggest name who could be non-tendered, but it seems logical to believe the Cubs would try to get something in return for him via trade rather than just letting him go for nothing other than immediate salary savings.
If you want to exchange Matz for another tall, 29-year-old pitcher who has seen his promising career interrupted by injuries, perhaps right-hander Jon Gray becomes that player. He, too, is coming off a dreadful 2020 season in which he pitched poorly and was ultimately shutdown due to shoulder issues. He could find himself non-tendered.
Finally, Eddie Rosario is an intriguing non-tender candidate who could be forced out of Minnesota as their outfield is crowded with up-and-coming prospects and they look for ways to manage their payroll commitments. Rosario is projected to have an arbitration number close to $10 million. The 29-year-old isn’t an ideal candidate for the Mets, but if the DH returns, he could offer another power bat who can at least pretend to play a corner outfield position, which would free up the team to explore trade options using Dom Smith or Brandon Nimmo if they don’t want to dip into their farm system to acquire talent, as Alderson has repeatedly stated.
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