Welcome to Day 1 of the Steve Cohen era. And while the sale of the team is not exactly official yet, it’s official enough for me as they wait to iron out a few formalities and technical details.
As far as I’m concerned, the Wilpons are out and we are at the dawn of a new age for the New York Mets — hopefully one with a lot less dysfunction and a lot more championships.
Cohen’s first move was a good one, as he convinced former GM Sandy Alderson to return to the organization as the team president overseeing baseball operations.
What happens next is a bit unclear, but I’m pretty certain that the next shoe to drop will be the firing of Brodie Van Wagenen. His two years at the helm of the Mets were fraught with many moves that massively backfired. His penchant for dealing away some of the team’s top prospects to construct his win-now roster will sting for years to come.
The question on most Mets fans’ minds is what kind of owner will Steve Cohen be and the lifelong Met fan has already signaled that he intends to let his baseball operations people run the baseball operations, and that’s incredibly refreshing to hear.
Cohen inherits a team with a very solid offensive core of players, who in fact led the National League in batting. Power hitting Pete Alonso headlines an impressive young group that features outfielders Michael Conforto and Brandon Nimmo, as well as a trio of versatile players in Jeff McNeil, J.D. Davis and Dominic Smith — who had himself a breakthrough season in 2020.
The Mets also have one of the game’s top starting pitchers in Jacob deGrom, and he’s complimented by young southpaw David Peterson, who earned his spot in the rotation with an impressive rookie campaign. After that, your guess is as good as mine, but suffice it to say, the Mets have some work to do this winter.
Fortunately, the team now has an owner with some very deep pockets, who will be able to infuse the Mets with enough cash to fill out the rest of the roster sans the financial restrictions that often plagued the previous regime.
Additionally, you can expect Alderson to put together a front office that will base their decisions on an analytics-based approach and not the shoot-from-the-hip style we’ve seen over the last two seasons.
The Mets will need a frontline catcher and you can bet that free agent J.T. Realmuto will be at the top of Cohen’s shopping list this offseason.
It is also my fervent hope that the Mets will focus on improving a defensive squad that ranked 26th in Defensive Runs Saved this year.
The bullpen is an enigma wrapped in a riddle with Edwin Diaz and Seth Lugo among the key pieces whose roles for next season are very much up in the air.
On the payroll front, it’s good news for the Mets as they have cleared David Wright, Yoenis Cespedes and Jed Lowrie off their ledger and their payroll commitments for 2021 puts them in a good position to be very flexible.
Here’s a rudimentary breakdown of the roster:
Guaranteed Contracts
Jacob deGrom – $36,000,000
Robinson Cano – $24,000,000
Jeurys Familia – $11,667,000
1. Seattle pays $3.75 million of Robinson Cano‘s salary.
Arbitration Eligible
Noah Syndergaard (A4)
Chasen Shreve (A4)
Michael Conforto (A3)
Steven Matz (A3)
Edwin Diaz (A2)
Seth Lugo (A2)
Brandon Nimmo (A2)
Robert Gsellman (A2)
Miguel Castro (A2)
Guillermo Heredia (A2)
Amed Rosario (A1)
J.D. Davis (A1, Potential Super 2)
Dominic Smith (A1, Potential Super 2)
Conforto is likely to see the biggest increase of the group, his salary was set at $8 million for a full 2020 season.
Non-Guaranteed Contracts
Options
Todd Frazier – $5.75 million with $1.5 buyout (team option)
Wilson Ramos – $10 million with $1.5 million buyout (team option)
Robinson Chirinos – $6.5 million with $1.0 million buyout (team option)
Dellin Betances – $6.8 million (player option), includes $3 million buyout if declined
Brad Brach – $2.075 million (player option)
Key Free Agents
Important Dates
Oct. 27: World Series came to conclusion.
One day later: Players file for free agency.
Five days later (Sunday at 5 PM): Teams and players will begin exercising options. Teams will also have to decide on making any qualified offers.
Dec. 6-10: This is when MLB’s annual winter meetings were supposed to be held in Dallas, Texas. But most expect this to be canceled and reworked into a virtual event.
Feb. 27: Spring training officially begins.
April 1: Opening Day 2021. All 30 clubs are scheduled to play.
October 20, 2021: The World Series begins and will conclude no later than October 28 if it goes seven games.
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