When I saw the Twitter explosion on Monday about Jacob deGrom I had to sit back and laugh because once again people just can’t see what is happening. Everyone involved in this situation handled it totally correctly and by that I mean deGrom, his agent and yes the Mets too. Please permit me to explain.

The Mets are in control of the wheel here and as such, they would never trade him with two years left till he hits free agency. I am sure a long-term deal will be explored in the off-season by both parties, but not one team has approached the Mets with an offer that even approaches what he is worth.

That being said, I think it was very smart of the deGrom camp to bring this up at The All-Star Game with the media hungry for stories, but the Mets are the ones in the driver’s seat.

For the past two months, the media has been begging the Mets to trade deGrom and Noah Syndergaard and rip it down to a total rebuild.  But to me, that is not the way to go because teams are not offering them the right packages.

Believe me–they are listening–but teams like the Yankees, for instance, are offering for the most part B-Level talent.  I will make this even simpler to understand–for the offers the Mets are getting, they would be better off keeping this duo intact even if they DO lose them to free agency down the road.

The other thing people are missing here is that if a new General Manager is in place for the team come the fall, it is TOTALLY unfair to move either of these pieces now because that should be up to the new person in charge.

My sense is whether it is a new GM or the current cast in some way this will be an off-season decision.

From the perspective of the deGrom camp,  I totally understand wanting the money now and not waiting till he is 32 years old when the well might dry up a bit.  So I do think both parties can come up with a satisfactory compromise to the tune of five years and $100 Million come this winter.

But please understand the Mets possess control of the situation here and if they sign deGrom, most likely the Syndergaard camp will come calling shortly after that. So the longer they wait, they will have more time to deal with that second potential decision as well.

I can safely tell you as a person who has been involved with on-air talent contract negotiations that control of the wheel dictates how the conversations go and the Mets have that right now. It is unfortunate that injuries delayed deGrom’s entrance into the majors but in reality, that is the way the collective bargaining agreement is structured.

If you take all the drama out of how this was covered in the media, this is the reality…Both parties will gain from structuring a deal this off-season. The Mets would have him till age 35 at which time his skills as a pitcher will be far less than right now and he will benefit receiving a five-year guarantee of a salary somewhere between $20-25 Million beginning two years earlier than he would see it on the open market.

In the meantime, let’s not rush to react to everything said by either camp. It will continue through this season but I firmly believe in the offseason cooler heads will prevail once the Mets’ GM issues are resolved.

I say that because Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard are BOTH part of the solution–not the problem. And keeping the best pitching duo in the sport together makes baseball sense and business sense for all parties involved. These negotiations will have moments that will be tough on all concerned but in the end, I firmly believe BOTH will be Mets for many years to come no matter what the media wants.