According to Joel Sherman on Twitter, Neil Walker has accepted the Mets $17.2 million qualifying offer.
Walker will clearly be the everyday second baseman next season which pretty much leaves Wilmer Flores, T.J. Rivera, David Wright, and Jose Reyes jockeying for playing time at third base or backing up at all four infield positions.
Terry Collins has himself a very strong infield bench and the ability to shape his starting lineup depending on each games’ matchup.
With this signing, it seems the Mets infield is fairly set for 2017. I’d expect any further acquisitions this offseason to bolster either the bullpen or the outfield.
Original Post – Nov 13
The New York Mets officially extended a qualifying offer to Neil Walker last week, and he has until 5:00 PM on Monday to either accept or reject the $17.2 million dollar one-year deal.
According to Ken Davidoff of the New York Post, the two sides have yet to engage in any substantive discussions about a multi-year extension that would keep Walker off the free agent market.
Last week at the GM Meetings, Sandy Alderson told reporters that there was some debate in the front office about tendering Walker the QO and whether or not he would accept it.
“I think there was some deliberation with regard to a qualifying offer for Neil,” Alderson said. “In the end, we decided that we very definitely wanted to make the offer. We’d love to have him back, and felt it was the appropriate thing to do. And we understand there’s a possibility he may accept it. We’re not unaware of that possibility.”
Walker, 31, is one of ten players to receive a QO this offseason, and he could be one of the only players that may accept it.
The former Pirate and Pittsburgh native is coming off back surgery that ended his season prematurely in 2016, though when healthy he had a couple of very productive months in April and August sandwiching a few months that were not nearly as productive.
Overall. Walker batted .282/.347/.476 for the Mets with a career high 23 home runs and 55 RBI in 113 games played.
Alderson said he understood the risk with Walker’s back, but that he was comfortable with the decision to go forward with the QO.
“The more time that passes, the more comfortable one can become — or uncomfortable, I guess, if things go the other direction,” Alderson said.
“But certainly with the passage of time you have a little more information in terms of post-surgery issues. So at this point, I think, we felt comfortable assessing the risk that exists.”
My gut feeling is that Walker will play it safe and accept the qualifying offer, but we’ll know for sure later today.
