On Wednesday, Scott Boras told reporters the Mets have not approached him about an extension for right-hander Matt Harvey who is currently arbitration-eligible and is expected to earn roughly $.5 million dollars. “With a player that caliber it does happen, but probably not until January,” Boras said.
Boras has been a thorn in the Mets’ side over the years, but he took it to a whole new level in 2015 when he went public with concerns Mets were putting Harvey in harm’s way and ignoring medically imposed innings limits. It elicited a stern response and denial from Sandy Alderson and put his client and the Mets in an awkward and defensive posture.
Last week, assistant general manager John Ricco reiterated what Sandy has said – that the team currently has no plans to discuss extension deals with any of their starters.
In the wake of recent mega deals to top of the rotation starting pitchers like David Price ($217M), Zack Greinke ($206M) and Jordan Zimmermann ($110M) – and even outrageous amounts of money being thrown at mid-rotation pitchers like Jeff Samardzija ($90M) – you have to appreciate the position the Mets find themselves in with their arsenal of elite cost-controlled starters.
But wouldn’t it behoove the team to keep that cost control as long as they can before Matt Harvey, Zack Wheeler, Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz, and Jacob deGrom start nearing their arbitration and free agent years?
With Harvey now in his first season of arbitration and looking at a potential $4.5 million dollar raise, it’s easy to see how quickly things can begin to escalate and put the Mets in a situation where they must decide which pitchers they will be able to logistically keep and which they will be forced to deal. There is no team in baseball that could afford to keep five starters like this under team control once they start hitting those $10 million, $15 million and $20 million plateaus. It’s impossible.
Wheeler, deGrom and Syndergaard start seeing their arbitration clocks begin after the 2017 season, only two years away. So I was a little surprised to hear Ricco admit that the none of the Mets young starters have been approached about a multi-year deal that could at least buy out their arbitration years and perhaps even a year or two of free agency. You would think establishing some cost certainty with their most valuable assets would be high on their priority list.
After a 2011 season that saw the now-dearly departed Jon Niese post a 4.40 ERA and 1.412 WHIP, the front office saw fit to sign the left-hander to a 5-year contract that bought out all his arbitration years and one year of free agency – and actually three years if you count his 2017 and 2018 team options. Shouldn’t some attempt be made to explore a contract like this with Jacob deGrom at the very least – who is at the same exact point in his career as Niese was when the Mets locked him up?
It may be too late for giving Harvey an extension given that he now has three huge payday’s coming before he hits free agency and gets his $200+ million dollar mega deal. Plus with Boras as his agent, the odds are slim he’d sign any contract that delays his free agency for one minute.
While I would love to see the Mets touch base with all five pitchers and at least inquire and explore the possibilities, they still have at least a year until Syndergaard, Matz and Wheeler are at that Niese-Threshold.
It’s deGrom that I’m most concerned about locking up right now. Waiting another year on him may put him exactly where Harvey currently is and his agent may just advise him to keep pitching light’s out and exploiting the arbitration process for an easy $25 million before hitting free agency.
