Today is the final game of Spring Training, as the Mets have a road game against the Orioles to close out Grapefruit League play. The Mets and Orioles are in a three-way tie with the Rays for the worst record in Florida, so a win would get them out of last place. Either way, they won’t have the worst overall record, as out in Arizona, the Reds sit with an 8-17 mark, compared to the current 12-16 ledger of the Mets.
Essentially, most teams want to come out of Spring Training healthy. The Mets suffered two injuries to perspective starters early in camp and there’s a chance neither will be out for a month of regular season action. And fortunately both happened in the infield, where the team has its best depth.
Most of the position players who figure to be on the MLB squad to open the season hit reasonably well in Florida and the starting pitchers did likewise, with the glaring exception of Steven Matz. And even he had a good outing in his last Spring appearance. In the pen, Luis Avilan and Jeurys Familia had good Springs, too. The rest of the pen? Eh, not so much.
Ruben is back. Signed a minor league deal on Saturday. Hope he is a good luck charm.
So is Rene Rivera.
And Dominic Smith homers with two outs in the ninth to turn a one-run deficit into a two-run lead and a win over the Orioles.
No last place finish in the Grapefruit League!
It will be really interesting to see who makes the final roster.
JdG gets a 4/$120 extension on his current contract. I think that’s not too shabby. Maybe he can pitch now, and Syndergaard may shut up?
The breakdown is a $7MM salary for this year and a $10MM signing bonus (which can be spread out over the other four years, in effect saving $8 towards the luxury tax ceiling of $208MM, possibly allowing for more salary? I’m going to faint), then $23MM in 2020, followed by two $33.5MM years and an opt-out, then $30MM, followed by a team option $32.5MM in 2024. The soap opera ends.
Actually Gus, I think the soap opera is just beginning.
Wheeler: lock him up
Conforto: lock him up
Nimmo: lock him up
Syndergaard: lock him up
Alonso: lock him up
Rosario: lock him up
How does spreading $10 million over future years help luxury tax prospects? According to Cot’s, Mets are under $160 million this year – nowhere near the tax threshold. If anything, they’ll be closer to that in future years, especially if they sign Syndergaard and others to extensions.
If anything, this seems to be a further continuation of the ancient practice of backloading deals to pay as little money as possible in the current season.
I understand their tax threshold to be closer to $180something. I guess that Cano’s contract counts against the overall roster, but not against the payroll the Coupons have to pay?
Kyle Dowdy lost to the Rangers. Find it hard to believe he’s not better than Tim Peterson.
JDG’s deal was almost exactly what i predicted. Glad the Mets locked up this franchise icon and we’ll never have to see him wear another uniform. Hope we can do it for Thor too.
The Mets have deferred >50M$ of his salary payable 15 years after this or that. deGrom will be on the books forever. You say, same for Scherzer! True, but the Nats have been at the luxury threshold for some time, and the Lerner family worth more than 1B$. Strategically this could mean making room for “locking up” the list of players coming (Im curious, if Conforto finishes top 5 MVP, will there be a riot to lock him up? Wheeler? — On the “pay them what they are worth” notion) *or* the Wilpon’s “out of money” situation after buying Syracuse and all the shares to make them 65% (or whatever) owners of the club.
Also, the deferment plan was apparently suggested by DWright.
Curious how you all see this.
As a general rule, I’m not a fan of deferred payments and backloaded contracts. If the Wilpons are on strong financial footing, as they claim, then there shouldn’t be a need for this. Sure, you can say this is a smart business decision, since a dollar today is worth more than a dollar 15 years from now. But it’s lazy and it takes on a life of its own. Soon you have to defer money for Conforto and Syndergaard and Nimmo and before you know it – you have two payrolls for an ownership group that claims it can’t afford one big market payroll.
And let’s face it – we’re either dealing with crooks or incompetents when it comes to money management. Should we trust the group that “fell” for a Ponzi scheme to handle this correctly?
I don’t like the Wilpons…I believe they’re shitty, deceitful people who do not Love Our Baseball Team. However, I think they’re competent to decide the best way to have and spend Hundreds of millions of Dollars