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Nationals-Mets Series Postponed

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12:16pm: Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo tells reporters that the fourth suspected positive has indeed been confirmed (Twitter links via Jesse Dougherty and Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post). The organization currently has 10 individuals in quarantine: the four positive cases and six (five players, one staff member) impacted by contact tracing.

11:23am: Major League Baseball announced Friday that it is postponing the entire weekend series between the Nationals and the Mets to allow for additional testing and contact tracing in the wake of multiple positive Covid-19 tests among the Nationals’ roster. At least three Nationals players tested positive leading up to Opening Day, and the team is said to be awaiting definitive word on what it believes is a fourth positive test.

It would appear, then, that the Mets’ season opener will be pushed back to Monday in Philadelphia. It’s not clear when the Nationals will get underway at this time. The league’s press release indicates only that it will “continue to provide scheduling updates as available.” At the moment, the Nationals are scheduled to host the Braves in a three-game series beginning Monday before traveling to the West Coast to take on the Dodgers next Friday.

Under the league’s 2021 health and safety protocols, an individual who tests positive is subject to a 10-day quarantine period, while close contacts are subject to seven-day quarantines. The first positive test for the Nationals came Monday morning, although the result wasn’t learned by the club until early Wednesday. Details surrounding the additional positives and potential absences — including the identity of the players in question — remain unclear.

Mets, Francisco Lindor At Impasse In Extension Talks

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March 31, 9:36 pm: There haven’t been any new discussions or proposals between the sides, hears Jeff Passan of ESPN (Twitter link). The Mets have not come off their $325MM offer, while Lindor is holding firm with an ask “more than $50MM” greater than that.

March 31, 10:15 am: The stalemate remains in place this morning, tweets Thosar, who adds that neither side expects additional discussions at the moment. Optimism of a deal being reached today is currently low. One source tells Newsday’s Tim Healey: “No talks and none expected.”

March 30: 10:14 pm: The Mets’ $325MM offer does not contain any deferred money, Heyman hears (Twitter link). Lindor is holding firm on his $385MM ask, Heyman adds.

12:07 pm: Cohen commented on the negotations via his Twitter account, saying “I have made a great offer [to Lindor].  It does take two to tango.”  Another tweet praised the shortstop, saying “Lindor is a heckuva player and a great guy . I hope he decides to sign.”

10:24 am: The Mets and Francisco Lindor appear to be at something of a standstill, with reports from SNY’s Andy Martino and MLB Network’s Jon Heyman last night indicating that the team put forth a 10-year, $325MM offer. Newsday’s Tim Healey, meanwhile reported that Lindor’s camp countered at $385MM over 12 years.

Martino reports this morning that while there’s some pessimism from the Mets, they’re also “brainstorming” some creative options to try to get a deal across the finish line. The Mets, according to Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News, were rather surprised by Lindor’s recent counteroffer. Thosar reports that the Lindor camp at one point suggested that the extension could check in below Mookie Betts’ 12-year, $365MM deal with the Dodgers.

Lindor’s $385MM asking price would be the largest commitment ever made to a player in terms of new money tacked onto a deal. That title currently is held by Betts and his $365MM deal with the Dodgers, which narrowly eclipsed the 10 years and $360MM the Angels added to Mike Trout’s contract on his last extension (bringing his total commitment from the Angels to $426.5MM over 12 years.) San Diego’s Fernando Tatis Jr. has the largest contract ever signed by a shortstop, recently agreeing to a 14-year, $340MM extension.

Like Betts, Lindor is heading into his age-27 season with a hefty arbitration salary already agreed upon ($22.3MM, in this case). His new contract would begin in his age-28 season, as was the case with Betts in Los Angeles. It’s not exactly surprising that Lindor’s camp would seek to top the Betts mark — thus giving them claim to the largest extension in MLB history — but at this point it seems as though the two sides are at an impasse with regard to contract length.

In terms of average annual value, the Mets’ current offer is actually slightly higher than the reported counteroffer. At the very least, it seems the two sides can align on an annual value in the $32MM range. The most straightforward compromise could be simply adding a year at that rate, but Thosar adds that the Mets have not shown a willingness to meet in the middle, which aligns with prior reports that the $325MM figure is the team’s “final” offer.

From a long-term payroll vantage point, the Mets can certainly afford to make such a commitment. New owner Steve Cohen is the game’s wealthiest owner, but even beyond that fact, the team’s payroll is fairly clean. They owe Robinson Cano a regrettable $20.25MM in 2022 and 2023 — the Mariners are covering $3.75MM of his $24MM salary each year — but their only long-term salaries of note beyond Cano are those of Jacob deGrom and James McCann. They’ll owe deGrom $33.5MM in 2022 and $30.5MM in 2023 before deciding on a $32MM club option for 2024. McCann, meanwhile, is owed $8MM both in 2021 and 2022 before earning $12MM in 2023 and 2024.

All told, the Mets have about $93MM in guaranteed salary on the 2022 books at the moment. That number falls to about $70MM in 2023, and McCann’s $12MM salary is the only money they have firmly committed to the 2024 roster. Signing Lindor to an extension of any length wouldn’t considerably impede the team’s efforts to build out the roster in the coming years, although that of course doesn’t mean they should simply hand him a blank check. Any negotiation has its cutoff point, and the Mets appear at or quite close to theirs. Given that they’re also hoping to lock up Michael Conforto and surely want to keep deGrom in a Mets uniform for his whole career, there are some other balls in the air that must be considered by Cohen and team president Sandy Alderson.

The outcome of talks between Lindor and the Mets will have a much broader reach than Citi Field or even the NL East, however. Lindor is currently slated to headline a historic crop of free-agent shortstops next winter — really, a historic crop of free agents in general. If he agrees to forgo that trip to the open market, it’d create less competition for the likes of Corey Seager, Carlos Correa, Trevor Story and Javier Baez, and it would free the Mets up to focus their free-agent efforts on other areas right out of the gate.

Latest On Talks Between Mets, Michael Conforto

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The chances of the Mets extending shortstop Francisco Lindor before his deadline on Thursday appear slim. In further unwelcome news for the Mets, it also doesn’t look as if they’ll prevent outfielder Michael Conforto from reaching free agency next winter.

While Conforto hasn’t set a season-opening deadline for negotiations, the Boras Corporation client and the Mets never came close to reaching an extension during spring training, Mike Puma of the New York Post reports. As a result, “there is a much better chance” that Conforto will test free agency than not after the season, according to Puma.

As things stand, Conforto looks as if he’ll reach the open market as one of the premier hitters available. Conforto, who just turned 28 on March 1, has been a consistently above-average offensive player and sometimes a force since he debuted in 2015. The former 10th overall pick owns a lifetime line of .259/.358/.484 (127 wRC+) with 118 home runs across 2,501 plate appearances. Last year, albeit just a 60-game campaign, was the best yet on a per-PA basis for Conforto, who took 233 trips to the plate and slashed .322/.412/.515 with nine homers. He benefited from an unsustainable .412 batting average on balls in play – up 107 points from his career .305 mark – but still posted an elite .401 expected weighted on-base average and finished 13th in the majors in wRC+ (157).

Along with his offensive prowess, Conforto has shown himself to be a competent defender in the bigs. While he has been out of place in center field (minus-15 Defensive Runs Saved, minus-4.3 Ultimate Zone Rating), it has been a much different story in the corners. Between left and right, Conforto has notched 17 DRS and a 9.6 UZR in just over 3,700 innings of work.

Considering Conforto’s well-rounded game, not to mention his relative youth, he should do rather well on his next deal. A deal worth $100MM or more may be within reach if he continues to produce this year, but it remains to be seen if it will be New York or another club that ponies up for him.

Latest On Mets, Michael Conforto

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With the Mets still engaged in extension talks with Francisco Lindor, MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo tweets that the team is waiting to resolve things with Lindor before continuing negotiations with their other major extension candidate, Michael Conforto.  Lindor has made it clear that he wants to reach a new deal by Opening Day, whereas Conforto and agent Scott Boras have each expressed a bit more flexibility to talk during the season, though Conforto has said he would “ideally” prefer to also have a potential new contract finalized before games get underway.

Mets Re-Sign Tommy Hunter

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MARCH 30: The Mets have re-signed Hunter to another minor-league deal, reports Mike Puma of the New York Post (Twitter link).

MARCH 25: The Mets announced Thursday that veteran reliever Tommy Hunter has been released. Newsday’s Tim Healey tweets that the right-hander had an opt-out clause in his contract today. Hunter will head back to the open market in search of a spot with a club that has a clearer path to the big leagues.

Hunter, 34, has been a rock-solid reliever for the past eight seasons but has battled injuries in recent years with the Phillies. A hamstring strain limited his time with the Phils in 2018, and a forearm strain wiped out nearly his entire 2019 season. He returned to the Phils on a low-cost, one-year deal last winter and performed fairly well, logging a 4.01 ERA and 3.57 SIERA with strong strikeout and walk percentages (24.5 and 5.9, respectively).

Dating back to the 2013 season, Hunter carries a 3.24 ERA/3.40 SIERA in 394 innings of bullpen work. He’s had excellent control throughout his career, but Hunter’s once-pedestrian strikeout rates have ticked upward in recent seasons. After punching out just 19 percent of his opponents from 2013-16, he’s fanned batters at a 23.5 percent clip from 2017-20.

Hunter’s sinker, which averaged 96.3 mph as recently as 2017 with the Rays, clocked in at a much more timid average of 92.7 mph with the Phillies this past season, so there’s perhaps some moderate cause for concern. But he still proved effective with that reduced velocity, perhaps in part due to a big jump in his curveball usage. His swinging-strike rate (10 percent) and opponents’ chase rate (34.8 percent) were both within striking distance of the levels he’d set in previous seasons as well, so it doesn’t seem as though the lost life on his sinker was a substantial detriment.

Hunter has pitched in five games this spring, allowing three runs on four hits and four walks with three punchouts through five innings of work. It’s not the most impressive body of work, but it is of course a rather small sample. The more important note for clubs seeking some veteran bullpen depth will be that Hunter has been getting in regular work this spring and should be largely built up for Opening Day readiness.

MLBTR Poll: Will Mets Extend Francisco Lindor?

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The Mets are seemingly running out of time to extend their prized offseason acquisition, shortstop Francisco Lindor. The 27-year-old, who earned four All-Star nods with the Indians before joining the Mets in a blockbuster winter trade, has made it clear he will not negotiate a new contract when the regular season begins Thursday. That means he could become the leading free agent on the board next offseason.

Although the Mets and Lindor are closing in on his self-imposed deadline, they’re not yet moving toward an agreement, per Andy Martino of SNY.tv. The Mets have made Lindor a franchise-record offer worth around $325MM over 10 years, Martino writes, and Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets it’s “believed” the club will not make him another proposal before his deadline. Expectations across the industry are that the two sides will hammer out an agreement, Martino relays, though Lindor is looking for a deal in the 12-year, $400MM range, according to Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News. Indeed, Lindor’s camp has made the Mets a 12-year, $385MM counteroffer, Tim Healey of Newsday reports.

It appears there is a wide gap to close, but it should help the Mets’ chances that they have baseball’s richest owner, Steve Cohen, who had dinner with Lindor on Saturday. Cohen addressed the Lindor situation in a pre-recorded online Q&A with Mets announcer Wayne Randazzo and fans (via Ken Davidoff the New York Post), saying, “It takes two people to sign a contract, not one.” He added: “Well, we have a deadline [March] 31, today is the 29th. It either will or won’t in the next two days.” 

What do you think? Will Cohen & Co. get it done? (Poll link for app users)

Mets Notes: Lindor, Montgomery, Roster Cuts

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Mets owner Steve Cohen had dinner with Francisco Lindor on Saturday night, ostensibly to see if they could close the gap in their extension negotiations, per MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo. The Mets appear willing to cross the $300MM threshold, but that’s not a guarantee to keep Lindor in Queens long-term. The two sides continue to talk, however, and there is growing optimism that an accord will be reached before Lindor’s deadline of opening day. While we wait, let’s see how the rest of the Mets roster is shaping up…

  • The Mets released left-hander Mike Montgomery today, per Tim Healey of Newsday (via Twitter). Montgomery was thought to have a shot at making the Mets bullpen as a non-roster invitee, but he now heads back to free agency. The 31-year-old is best known for getting his first career save to close out the Cubs’ game seven World Series victory in 2016. He never quite rose to the level that many expected of him, but he nevertheless has put together a six-year career as a swingman for the Mariners, Cubs, and Royals. The Royals acquired him from the Cubs midway through the 2019 season with the plan to finally install him regularly into their starting rotation. He made 13 starts the rest of the way covering 64 innings with a 4.64 ERA/4.74 SIERA. He logged just 5 1/3 innings in 2020, however. Montgomery had pitched well in spring training, but the Mets would have been on the hook for $2.25MM if they rostered him, notes MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo (via Twitter). He had an opt-out clause in his contract for today.
  • The Mets also announced a series of roster cuts today. Jerry Blevins, Jerad Eickhoff,  Caleb Joseph, Jose Peraza, Mallex Smith, and Arodys Vizcaino were informed that they will not make the opening day roster, per Mike Puma of the New York Post (via Twitter). Blevins, 37, will head to the Mets’ alternate site in Brooklyn. He’ll be joined there by fellow southpaw Stephen Tarpley, who was optioned to Triple-A. Tarpley has two options remaining.

Mets Make Initial Extension Offers To Lindor, Conforto

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MARCH 25: Lindor and the Mets remain in talks, per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, who tweets that “it feels like there’s a bit of optimism” they’ll reach an agreement.

MARCH 22: As of now, there isn’t much optimism that the Mets and Conforto will reach a deal, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets.

MARCH 21: Conforto told reporters (including Mike Puma of the New York Post) that negotiations were ongoing, though didn’t commit on any specific details.  In regards to any deadline on talks, Conforto said “Ideally, I would not like” negotiations to extend beyond Opening Day.

MARCH 19: The Mets have made an initial extension offer to shortstop Francisco Lindor and to right fielder Michael Conforto, reports SNY’s Andy Martino. No deal is close with either player at this time. The New York Post’s Mike Puma tweets that there’s no real movement in talks at this point.

The initial offer to Lindor, according to Martino, clocked in slightly below $300MM in guaranteed money. Lindor and agent David Meter unsurprisingly countered with a number “well over” $300MM in total guarantees. While the team’s first offering didn’t begin with a three, Martino adds that the Mets are “almost certainly” willing to go to that $300MM mark to sign Lindor.

That said, a $300MM mark as long seemed something of a floor for Lindor in extension talks. Manny Machado received ten years and $300MM from the Padres two years ago — albeit at a younger age. In the 24 months since that time, we’ve seen Bryce Harper (13 years, $330MM), Mike Trout (10 years, $360MM on top of his contract’s two preexisting years), Mookie Betts (12 years, $365MM) and Fernando Tatis Jr. (14 years, $340MM) eclipse the $300MM mark as well.

The length of the Mets’ offer and Lindor’s counter isn’t known, though given his age (27), it stands to reason that he could also be in line for a deal spanning a decade or more at $30MM-plus annually. The Harper and Tatis deals don’t come with that $30MM AAV, but that’s by design in Harper’s case, as he took a longer deal to deflate the AAV and reduce the Phillies’ luxury hit. The Tatis contract, meanwhile, includes all of his arbitration seasons, which naturally suppresses the annual rate. A Lindor deal, assuming it begins in 2022 — he’s already signed for the ’21 season — would be solely be buying out free-agent seasons.

There are no details known yet on the Mets’ offer to Conforto, though as a Scott Boras-represented All-Star who is set to hit free agency as well this winter, history suggests a deal could be tough to put together. It’s well documented that Boras clients largely tend to go to the open market, though the narrative that they “never” sign extensions is also something of an overstatement. Carlos Gomez, Carlos Gonzalez, Jered Weaver and Elvis Andrus all inked extensions in the early 2010s, and more recent examples include Stephen Strasburg, Jose Altuve (his second extension) and Xander Bogaerts. There’s certainly precedent for an extension, even if it’s not commonplace.

Lindor has made known that he prefers to cut off talks once the season begins, although Boras declined to state there was any such endpoint with regard to Conforto. Asked by Martino whether April 1 (Opening Day) was a firm deadline for a deal, he replied: “Michael is focused on the season and his performance. Not addressing any contract questions.” That deliberately vague answer doesn’t tip his hand one way or another, but it’s semi-notable that Boras chose not to limit the negotiation period to a confined window, as many players and agents seem to do. Also notable is the fact that the aforementioned Strasburg extension (seven years, $175MM) came in May 2016 — well after Opening Day.

Mets fans are strongly hoping to see one or both players extended beyond the 2021 season, although even if no deal comes together, it’s always possible the club could still pull off a deal in free agency next winter. The Mets needn’t look beyond their own division to see a prominent example of a star player who couldn’t come to terms on an extension with his club but ultimately stayed there via free agency: Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto.

Latest On Mets’ Rotation

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The Mets announced a few noteworthy roster moves Wednesday, per Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. New York cut right-handers Corey Oswalt and Jordan Yamamoto from major league camp, and the club reassigned infielder/outfielder Brandon Drury and catcher Bruce Maxwell.

With Oswalt and Yamamoto on their way down, the Mets appear as if they’ll begin 2021 with left-hander Joey Lucchesi as the fifth starter in their rotation, DiComo suggests. Acquired from the Padres in a three-team trade during the offseason, the 27-year-old Lucchesi combined for 56 starts in San Diego from 2018-19, during which he piled up 293 2/3 innings and recorded a respectable 4.14 ERA/4.10 SIERA with decent strikeout and walk percentages of 24.6 and 8.0, respectively.

Lucchesi wasn’t able to build on his early success last year, as he threw a mere 5 2/3 innings in three appearances in his final season with the Padres. However, he has logged superior results this spring with 8 1/3 innings of three-earned run ball and 11 strikeouts against three walks.

Lucchesi did not look likely to make the Mets’ rotation until righty Carlos Carrasco suffered a torn hamstring last week. Carrasco could be out until at least sometime in May, which will give Lucchesi time to sink or swim in the Mets’ starting staff. Barring any unexpected developments in the next week, he’ll join Jacob deGrom, Marcus Stroman, Taijuan Walker and David Peterson in New York’s top five when the season opens.

Could The Mets Cut Dellin Betances?

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  • With Dellin Betances struggling in Spring Training, could the Mets decide to part ways with the reliever entirely?  SNY’s Andy Martino thinks it may be a possibility, if the Mets see Betances as something of “a sunk cost” who won’t help their efforts to contend.  One would imagine the Mets would try to shop Betances in trades before considering a release, though it isn’t as if Betances’ trade value is high following a rough first season in Queens.  The righty posted a 7.71 ERA over 11 2/3 innings in 2020, recorded more walks (12) than strikeouts (11) and spent a month on the IL due to a lat injury.  Unsurprisingly, Betances exercised his $6MM player option to remain with the Mets rather than test free agency in the wake of his down year.  A four-time All-Star in his heyday with the Yankees, Betances missed almost all of the 2019 season due to shoulder problems and then a partial Achilles tear.
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