The fact remains, Reyes’ agents have a projection of where all negotiations should begin. If they feel a FAIR offer is 95/5, then the offers for Reyes will have to tank for him to make less than that. That would be the starting point. So it’s in the Mets best interest to see what the market says and keep tabs on Reyes.

You forgot one option….

If they think that much about me then why not just stay here not have to move continue to live in the biggest maket with the most marketing and sponsorship deals instead of moving to Kansas City where there is much less money to be made OUTSIDE of my Salary and nothing else to do on my day off!

Sure he might think he can get much more on the open market!
But he could also get less and by the time he figures it our we reduce our offer to PAY LESS!
Because he looked a gift horse in the mouth and it cost him!

However, I question it’s validity. For example, would you say the Cardinals do or do not want to retain Albert Pujols? Of course they do, but they let hit him the market. And why did they?

Think about this for a second. If I’m a buyer and you believe you are worth 120mil for 7 years (hypothetically). How can I know that is fair market value, unless the market dictates that?

What if Reyes’ best offer out there is 5 yr/95 mil? Couldn’t you make a serious argument that by letting him hit the market he saved the Mets potentially 2 contract years and millions of dollars?

Or what if somebody signs Reyes to a dumb contract. If Reyes’ agent believes Washington will offer 7yr/140mil lets just say, then he’s not going to let Reyes sign for less anyway.

Sports agents have data analysts and their job is to take the profile of their clients, and set a market value for that player based on their past and predicted progression. This is so if they find Reyes is WORTH 5/90, they don’t go into a negotiation starting lower than that number. They don’t just take offers and pick the best one. There is more work to it than that.

So if Reyes’ agency says “Based on the market projection, Reyes can get 120/7 somewhere” and we all KNOW the Mets aren’t signing him to that without proof he can get that, then why wouldn’t he hit the market?

The only way Alderson can make a wise choice for the sake of the franchise is for Reyes to hit the open market. The same goes for the Cardinals. Pujols wants obscene money right? And like a 10 year deal? So the Cardinals have to take the risk and let another team make an offer.

If Pujols wants to be a Cardinal, he and his agent will contact the Cards with a chance to match or beat their best offer… just as Reyes would.

And please do not forget. All this talk about the Yankees signing Sabathia etc. Don’t forget Derek Jeter hit the open market last year.

What you guys don’t seem to understand is how to play the negotiation game!
First thing you do is ASK the other side what he wants. What will get the deal done?

If he balks at giving a number then you make a lower offer than you actually think he is worth (TO YOU) on the Market! Now he has to either come up with a counter offer to give you or go look elsewhere and if the MARKET is LOWER (as you seem to be suggesting) than your number then you now have the option to say sorry my offer is lower now because you let the Market lower it by refusing my original offer!

You seem to think that you can’t LOWER an offer as quickly as you can increase one!

Bottomline here is you should NEVER operate under what you think someone else will give them you should approach based on WHAT YOU WOULD PAY some other guy with those same numbers!

Tell the player what that number is and if he balks then you lost NOTHING!
If the Market goes higher well you can still increase your bid and if he declines your original and the Market lowers you can decrease that offer just as quickly!

By not making an offer you saved nothing because now your letting someone else set what you have to pay!

If you make a good and reasonable offer of what you think a guy is worth be him yours or someone else’s property then you have a shot at keeping him BEFORE some idiot overbids him!

And chances are likely the number will ALWAYS go UP not down when the Market comes into play!
The best way to avoid that is to pay him what he’s worth to you BEFORE Washington has a chance to offer him A-Rod like money like they did with Werth!

And bottomline if you can’t figure out what a fair market value is for a player you own you have no business being a GM for an MLB team in the first place!
Because if you don’t know how much your OWN players are worth how the hell can you tell what some other team’s player is worth when you make an offer for them in FA?

This is largely a product of the WAR metric, Phantom Wins, Phantom player = Phantom Results!

They believe War tells them what they will get if they just put a guy from AAA in.

THATS why Spending = Failure!

Just throw a AAA body in there…
Hence the lets trade anything we DO have or let it go in favor of picks methodology,
SO they can keep the conga line of replacements going when the WAR metric fails them and they don’t get the PHANTOM results their metric said they would get if they just replaced him!

Also, I will criticize Alderson no more or less than I did Minaya. I dont have an agenda here and I have always been critical of what I consider to be bad moves regardless of who was running the show going all the way back to Grant. I don’t sway with the wind. I shoot from the hip, never take anything at face value, and won’t change my views just because the Mets have given me access.

I also let my other writers and readers post their opinions even if I totally disagree which you won’t see anywhere else especially among staff writers. We don’t all feed off the same brain here.

You can disagree with me all you want , but please don’t question my Mets loyalty because you disagree. I was one of the original Mets blogs on the internet, long before everyone jumped into the pool. And nobody encourages a wider diversity of opinions than I do on MMO. Nobody.

You left Reyes NO CHOICE but to shop around FOR an offer you naver gave him!

Taking your SS and his wife out to a restaurant for a business meeting and letting him know for you directly how much you mean to the future of your franchise and discussing a starting point only would have helped, not hurt.

That’s how you do business.

and players don’t play for GMs, they play for money. And they care about how much the check is. I highly doubt that any FA ever refused to sign because the GM was deliberate, or a boring speaker.

If boring and depressing turned off FAs, they yanks would never get any.

Having a night dedicated to celebrating him and giving out banners of him. Somehow, dinner and a movie doesn’t quite stack up to that.

This would not hurt netotiations or the dollar amount but let Jose know how much Mets want him back are willing to work instead of comments at pressers that he won’t hear.