batmagadanleadoff

What leaks? "Pete Alonso is willing to compromise with a three year deal! And despite lots of interest, it's only open to the Mets! What a guy!" "Can you believe it? Even after Pete came to the Mets with a three year deal structure, they still refuse to compromise on money. Steve Cohen is gonna have to get involved." "Did you guys hear that the Mets are forcing a deadline on Pete's negotiations?" "WTF. Check out this low-ball offer the Mets made. After everything Pete has done." "The Mets have moved on from Alonso. Their plan B is Brett Baty. Get ready for life without Pete Mets fans." I just don't get what all the fuss is about these supposed "leaks" or whatever they are. The parties can divulge to the press whatever they wanna divulge about the negotiations. Also, I don't see what kind of an edge Boras gets from this info or leaks or whatever it is. If the info is true, then it's info that the Mets already know. I don't think that Boras is that dumb that he thinks the Mets are gonna go against their plan and crumble just because the dumb and uninformed portion of the Mets fanbase reacts to this info the way that dumb and uninformed people tend to react to things. Is that what Boras thinks is gonna happen? That the Mets are gonna be goaded into paying Alonso way more than they were willing to pay because some idiot calls up Mike Francesca and blows a gasket on live radio over Alonso's unsigned status? Maybe that's how things worked under the Wilpons. Not that they'd have the money to even be in the Alonso talks. The Mets are offering Alonso in the 23M-24M AAV range. Freddie Freeman, a better first baseman, got a $27M AAV contract. Miguel Cabrera got the highest AAV ($31M) in baseball history for a first baseman. But Cabrera was a triple threat -- not only capable of leading the league in HR's and RBI's like Alonso, but in batting average as well, unlike Alonso.Cabrera was a four time batting champ. He was also toast by his age 32 ssason. If the Mets offer is so bad, some team would have topped it by now. ST is one month away and the big ticket FA purchases are always the first dominoes to fall during the off-season. The Mets offer sounds very fair. Maybe the Mets left a little wiggle room to raise their offer. But they're definitely in the ballpark of what seems fair and reasonable. I also think that some other team would need to blow the Mets offer out of the water. Because if they just top it by a little bit, why would Alonso take the little bit of extra money to walk away from his cherished team and the great city that he came to love? And he'd be in line to shatter most of the Mets franchise major batting records. That surely means a lot to Alonso. What's an extra two or three million dollars to a guy that will make between $150M and $200M by the time he's 40 between baseball salaries and endorsements? How much money does a person need? Why would he walk away from all of that for an extra million dollars a year?

Me personally, I tend to believe what's being reported. I don't have all of the details, the granular stuff, the minutiae. But I believe the big, broad picture that other teams are showing interest in Alonso, and that the Mets, truly and sincerely need for Alonso to decide sooner rather than later.

And the Mets might, just the same, be playing their own bluff with this supposed deadline for Pete to come to terms.

Oh. I don't get why all of that is considered a "leak". The negotiations aren't top secret talks held in a SCIF. The parties can say what they wanna say.

What leaks?

Wasn't it reported that the Mets offered 3/90? I guess that was incorrect.

If you wanna blame, blame eff Wilpon for selling out the Mets future. Alonso shouldn't even be a free agent this off-season. It's been like 5 years. wtf cares about the Wilpons? It's 2025, if they don't want to 'overpay' Alonso, that's a decision, but it's not super useful to armchair GM the way you think things happened 6 years ago. It's a factor. It's not the only factor and it's not even the main factor, but it's definitely a factor and something to consider.. Not useful to what? Do you think that my post is gonna screw up the Alonso negotiations?

Jayson Stark voted for David Wright on his Cooperstown ballot. Here comes some brilliant logic: Stark assumes that Wright would've been inducted had he not gotten hurt, and so votes for Wright even though he did get hurt. Maybe the Veterans Committee will vote Bud Harrelson into the HOF one day. Harrelson would've gotten into the HOF if he was as big and strong as Aaron Judge. And Harrelson would've also gotten into Cooperstown had he hit 800 HR's. I guess they're gonna vote players in for things they didn't do instead of the things they did do; for imaginary accomplishments that they never accomplished.

Can't blame the Alonso camp if they end up getting a better deal from some team other than the Mets. If you wanna blame, blame eff Wilpon for selling out the Mets future. Alonso shouldn't even be a free agent this off-season.

Can't blame the Alonso camp if they end up getting a better deal from some team other than the Mets.

The Athletic is reporting that Alonso's market is starting to heat up, with three other teams, including the Blue Jays, in talks with Boras. The Jays, though, would prefer to keep Guerrero.

Past few weeks, if you ask me.

Is it just me or is taking unusually longer for pages on this website to load, lately? Seems like the site is running slower.

I've thought for months that it will take Cohen to step in and get a deal done. Time will tell Or maybe Cohen and Stearns are on the same page. There doesn't seem to be another market for Alonso. And Cohen has to establish that he's not gonna pay free agents whatever the hell they wanna get paid just because he's baseball's wealthiest owner.

This, of course, could change. There's always the chance that another team could step in and up the Mets offer. But the Mets are probably assuming that Alonso wants so badly to remain a Met, that he'd give the Mets a chance to match or top that offer (unlike deGrom).

Poor Alonso. So long as he prefers to play for the Mets and no other team seems willing to top the Mets offer, Alonso has absolutely no leverage here. None.

If the Mets offered Pete 3/90 in December and Pete now counters with 3/93.3, you'd figure this would gotten done by now, right? If the numbers are accurate and no other team stepped in to blow the roof off of those numbers, then what the hell could be the hold-up? Are the Mets haggling over one million dollars a year?

If the Mets ever reach that point, they won't say so in the way you describe. They'll just sign a different player as an alternative solution and that's how Alonso's camp will get the message.

Jim Bowden, writing for The Athletic, predicts where the remaining top free agents will land. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6039098/2025/01/06/mlb-free-agents-team-signing-predictions/

no one thought this. I doubt that the Mets soured on Alonso so fast, if at all. He led all major leaguers in HR's in 2019, his rookie season, while playing half his games in a pitcher's park and had hit more HR's than anybody else after his first four seasons. That's not why Alonso was allowed to debut on Opening Day of his rookie season, 2019. Fred Wilpon couldn't give a flying **** that Alonso's free-agent eligibility would come a year earlier because Wilpon knew that his days as Mets owner were numbered and that 2019 would very likely be his last full season as owner. So Wilpon went all in on the 2019 season and Alonso's early free agency was going to be the next owner's problem. Fred Wilpon wouldn't be around for that. That's the same reason why deGrom was given an opt-out clause -- because by the time deGrom would be in position to exercise that clause, Wilpon wasn't gonna be around anymore. That would be the next owner's problem. That's also why the Mets signed Robinson Cano to a multi-year back-loaded contract that was guaranteed to age terribly. Because, once again, Wilpon wasn't gonna be around when Cano was guaranteed to collect eight figures while age-reduced to a scrub. That bad contract was also gonna be the next owner's problem. And that's why the Mets traded away a promising prospect with a high ceiling, Jared Kelenic. Because by the time Kelenic panned out, assuming he ever did, Wilpon wasn't gonna be around to benefit from Kelenic's prowess. Wilpon put every last one of his chip on the 2019 season because he knew that for himself, there wasn't gonna be a 2020 season.

How things change. Two or three years ago, you woulda figured that Pete would be in line to score one of the biggest contracts in baseball history.

Pete's lucky to even be a free agent right now. Replay the 2019 season under normal circumstances and 1,000 out of 1,000 times, Alonso's debut is held back for the requisite amount of time so as to delay his free agency eligibility until next year. He'd otherwise be a year older entering free agency.

Ya think so? He's practically on his hands and knees, openly begging the Mets to sign him.

I doubt that you understand. The reason for my post is that David Wright is not a Hall of Famer. He was already done --- toast -- by his age 31 season, four years before he would officially retire, after having already missed large chunks of almost two seasons even before that. He had the talent and the character to make the HOF and was on a HOF trajectory for the first few seasons of his career. But he lacked luck. Injuries demolished whatever chances he once had of Cooperstown enshrinement. Career WAR (49.2) Average HOF 3B (68.4) JAWS (44.3) Average HOF 3B (55.8) But if youse wanna turn this into a Romper Room festival of giddy posts where every Met supposedly belongs in the HOF because they're Mets, go ahead. If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands. If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands. Ring around the rosey. Pocketful of poseys. Yay! I couldn't help but to revisit these posts. The idea that David Wright belongs in Cooperstown is almost as absurd as the notion that Gary Carter's Mets uniform should be retired.. if David Wright's a Hall of Famer, then so are Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry. This is mind bogglingly ridiculous. Wright and Carter were wonderful Mets deserving of much praise. But that's not enough. Some of youse insist on remembering them as if they were Willie Mayses and Mickey Mantles. And then the Beltran thing. If Derek Jeter was ever involved in a cheating scandal like Beltran was, you'd never hear the end of it from Zip a Dee Doo Dah. He'd be comparing Jeter to Charles Manson and Ted Bundy forever.

Good work. I would guess that Seaver also was tops for '68-'77 and '69-'78.