Nothing ever comes easy for the New York Mets. So why should keeping the most electrifying player in the majors, and quite possibly ever to play on the Mets, be any different. There will be plenty of teams who will be looking to sign Jose Reyes. As much as I would love to see Reyes here, at what cost do you bring him back?
Reyes has already cost the Mets Francisco Rodriguez. No major loss at all there. Mets GM, Sandy Alderson, was forced to send Carlos Beltran to San Francisco. Now there was the biggest loss of the season. It goes right up there with losing Ike Davis for the season. All of this was done to save money in hopes of pursuing Reyes at the end of the year.
Andy Martino of the New York Daily News stated the Mets are very unlikely to sign him to a seven year deal. It makes sense. Reyes has been injured often throughout his career with the team so far. You sign him to seven years, who knows what you are signing up for. Quite frankly, I’ve never been a fan of signing players to a contract for more than four or five years, which is what the Mets will likely offer.
So you offer him four to five years, with some provisions. Maybe you offer the sixth year as an option or a guarantee as a last resort. You can come up with different contract scenarios. It is all about the money though. In a recent podcast I did with Kerel Cooper from On The Black for The Five Tool Show, we touched in the subject. I stated that money talks. If the money is not talking, Reyes could be walking. So do you offer him around $85 million to start negotiations and work from there? Do you make sure you keep it under $100 million?
The question Alderson will have to ask himself is this: What is the value of a player who brings everything that a leadoff hitter should bring: speed, the ability to hit to get on base and make fielding look easy? Then you have to consider all of the holes the Mets will need to fill during the offseason like the bullpen, a starting pitcher, right field and maybe center field if the Mets trade Angel Pagan.
So much to think about and what happens with one player, could possibly determine what next year will be like. If the Mets front office is edgy now, they will be having seizures when the last out is recorded in the World Series.
Sandy has proven in the K-Rod and Beltran deals that he knows what he is doing.He was well aware of the market and value of each of these players. He is well aware of the parameters necessary to sign Reyes. He did not deal him at the deadline which leads me to believe he is willing to meet the Crawford deal if some other team offers it. I hope he can get Reyes at 5/100M, it would be advantageous for the team, but Sandy has positioned himself so that if needed he has salary flexability to match another teams Crawford like contract. The newspapers are going to be quoting sources from now until November but until I hear different from Sandy himself, I’ll believe Reyes will stay a Met.
Right on, ‘sense. This is a great article, but I agree with you 100%. I have to: I may start crying otherwise…
[…] contract negotiations with Jose Reyes. I gave my own opinion on this topic in my new article for Mets360.com. Reyes will need to give the Mets a hometown discount even though Alderson has dumped […]