One of my dad’s sayings was, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.” And it’s clear that this offseason for the Mets is going to drive home that point for me. At the conclusion of the season, my belief was that the club’s top priority was to re-sign Marcus Stroman. And it appears that both Billy Eppler and Sandy Alderson before him have other ideas.
Stroman himself has talked about wanting to come back but his understanding was that the front office had other ideas. Eppler has already made a splash by signing three position players. And the expectation was that he would make a similar move with pitching, adding multiple guys on the same day, or close enough for hand grenades.
And today could be that day. MLB seems on the verge of locking out the players. It’s an unfortunate thing but – from their POV – a necessary part of the bargaining process. We don’t need to overact and lose all perspective and claim this means beyond a shadow of a doubt that the season won’t start on time. But we do need to realize that this move will have repercussions.
And one of those is that there is no adding players to your roster while the lockout is in place.
So, expect to see a flurry of moves today and tomorrow. Likely the Mets but other teams, too. We’ve already seen it with Kevin Gausman and Jon Gray, both of whom were targeted by the Mets, seemingly over Stroman. They both signed deals yesterday. Also on Sunday was news that the Mets made a mega offer to Max Scherzer and hoped to hear back one way or another today.
Scherzer has been a great pitcher for a number of years, reliably putting up fWAR seasons of 5.4 or greater for the last eight full seasons. While he doesn’t have the monster 9.0 year that 2018 Jacob deGrom posted, he’s finished in the top five of the CY Award voting each of those eight seasons, including three times that he’s walked away in first place.
It’s good that the Mets are pursuing guys at the top of the market. Still, the question remains: Why aggressively court Scherzer while Stroman is still there? This is not to suggest that Stroman is better than Scherzer. It’s just that Stroman has gone on record saying that he wants to come back to the Mets. And Scherzer, well he’s never said anything that even hints at a preference to be in New York.
Perhaps this is another way where the upcoming lockout comes into play. The Athletic’s Evan Drellich wrote this in a labor piece:
At a crucial time, Scherzer serves on the Major League Baseball Players Association executive subcommittee, a group of eight players who are intimately involved in ongoing talks between the players and owners.
It wouldn’t be a shock if Scherzer wants to have his own contract situation settled before turning his complete attention on the league’s issues.
And maybe Stroman, who has no such obligations, just doesn’t have that same urgency. No one will ever accuse Stroman of lacking confidence and perhaps he’s willing to see the other top hurlers in the game get their payday before he signs a deal. Certainly, if Scherzer gets an AAV of $40 million, coming on the heels of Gausman’s 5/$110 deal with the Blue Jays, Stroman can ask for a nine-figure contract.
Maybe the Mets are banking on Stroman to wait until Scherzer signs. And wouldn’t it be something if the Mets got both of those pitchers in the same offseason? It would make the impact of the three hitters signed by Eppler earlier look like a cocktail weenie, by comparison.
The odds of that happening are slim. And the fear is that while chasing Scherzer they lose out on Stroman. While the latter might be willing to wait, there’s absolutely no reason for him to do so if some team out there hits the magic number today, whatever that number may be in Stroman’s mind.
My hope is there will be another article on the site today, one talking about a big pitcher that the Mets have signed. Right now, it seems like Scherzer is the guy the Mets are targeting. But Stroman would be an attractive consolation prize.
I don’t know what to make of this Scherzer talk, Bri. It seemed like a foregone conclusion that he wanted to be in CA, and absolutely not NY. Still, it’s hard to look a gift Scherz in the mouth, even if that gift costs $40M per season
And why have they dropped Stro like a hot potato? Do they have some point they’re trying to overemphasize since Thor and Loup bailed?
As I’ve said, money talks. Yes, a few players will turn down the biggest offer, especially if taxes are a factor, but most will not. And Scherzer is big on the union and the big contracts being taken, and he has a home in Florida, where the Mets train.
I’m hoping for deGrom and Scherzer putting it to teams in a series, and in the playoffs!
If they somehow also sign Stroman, the rotation of deGrom, Scherzer, Stroman, Walker and Carrasco might be something. And I still like Megill and Lucchesi as backups/long men.
I’d say that rotation is potentially deadly
” It’s just that Stroman has gone on record saying that he wants to come back to the Mets.”
Why is anyone still pretending that anything that comes out of any player’s mouth should be taken seriously?
As for Scherzer, it’s hard to say he doesn’t deserve the money, but man, it isn’t be good for the game when a team like the Mets is able to offer him $40m+ for a season when there are other teams that only have payrolls in the $50-60m range.
Since none of us are in the actual negotiations, all we can do is go by what is said or reported. That Stroman says he wants to come back but the Mets are focusing on other players is significant – whether you give it any weight or not. And certainly it seems like Stroman was correct – they were focused on Scherzer.
Time and time again we’ve seen that these words are meaningless though. So I just wonder why anyone bothers paying attention to them.
But i understand that you’re running a blog and sometimes this is the only fresh material you have to work with, so i guess it’s like a double edged sword.
Interesting that the Mets, so far, are signing relatively short-term deals now. Too many years for Lindor, but we’re seeing 2-4 years for admittedly older players.
I wonder if they will sign Baez for 5 or 6 years.
Also will Stroman get a 5-year contract from the Mets, like Gausman received from the Jays?
Steve,
This is a solid strategy for any team, but most especially a team with a wealthy owner. Overpay for shorter-term deals. It may drive up “inflation” but it allows for tremendous flexibility. 3 years and less for everyone…so Mr. Baez, are you interested?
I made a joke with my son that for $43.3 million, you could get a player to join his junior varsity team. It’s like when you hear about some millionaire who gets Britney Spears to perform at his daughter’s sweet 16.
Cohen understands this. With few exceptions (Gausman apparently), most players and all agents will go for the highest bidder.
Also, for the record, I’m a big Marcus Stroman fan. I’d love to see him back. My concern with him is that smaller pitchers don’t usually age well. St Louis should sign him and Andrelton Simmons and form the best defensive infield ever behind him.
I’ve seen the Stroman/STL/infield thing elsewhere and I’ve kind of kept it in my back pocket as an article idea if he re-signed with the Mets. Without doing the research yet, my opinion is that the number of runs that Stroman allowed in 2021 due to balls that the infield should have converted into outs is very small and possibly none.
He gave up 70 runs this year and 17 HR. Those 17 HR accounted for 26 runs when you add in the guys on base. Not sure if that’s a good or a bad total – just that it eliminates a chunk of potential runs from consideration. Guess you’d have to see how they reached base, too. It’s a pretty big project, which is another reason I haven’t done it yet…