Jacob deGrom officially opts out, becomes free agent
Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom looks on from the dugout in Game Two of an MLB baseball doubleheader against the Washington Nationals at Citi Field on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
LAS VEGAS — As expected since he first expressed his intentions at the start of spring training, Jacob deGrom officially opted out of his contract with the Mets and became a free agent on Monday.
This is the first time in his career that deGrom, 34, is a free agent.
His decision headlined the Mets’ early-offseason housekeeping as the annual general managers’ meetings began. The other development of note: Taijuan Walker became a free agent, too, after declining his player option.
DeGrom had been under contract for 2023 at a salary of $30.5 million (plus a $32.5 million team option for 2024). But under the terms of the five-year, $137.5 million extension he signed in March 2019 — negotiated with then-GM Brodie Van Wagenen, who months earlier was his longtime agent and told the Mets to sign or trade the ace — deGrom had the right to opt out of the final guaranteed season.
Over the course of this year, including during camp, when he was diagnosed with a stress reaction in his right shoulder blade, and when he finally returned from injury, deGrom was clear in his desires: He wanted to test the open market.
That doesn’t necessarily mean he will leave the Mets. The longest-tenured player on the team in 2022, deGrom said in March that he wanted to remain in “constant contact” with the club while looking for a new contract.
“That’s the business side of baseball. As a player, you build in opt-outs and that’s the business side of it,” deGrom said shortly after arriving at spring training. “I’ve said it before: I love being a Met. I think it would be really cool to be one for my entire career. But the plan is to exercise that option and be in constant contact in the offseason with the Mets and Steve Cohen and the front office.”
Although deGrom still could have made a lot of money under his now-dead deal, he is a virtual lock to receive more than that $63 million as a free agent. A needle-mover: Last offseason, the Mets raised the bar for salary on elite pitchers by giving Max Scherzer $130 million over three years — a record-breaking average annual salary of $43.3 million.
Upon returning in August from more than a year on the sideline because of a series of injuries, deGrom had a 3.08 ERA and 0.75 WHIP in 11 starts. He struck out 102 batters and walked eight in 64 1⁄3 innings.
Walker, who over the summer hired Scott Boras to be his agent, had a $6 million player option but instead will take the $3 million buyout. Considering the mere $3 million difference there, declining the option was a no-brainer because he is certain to far exceed that amount as a free agent.
In two seasons with the Mets, Walker had a 3.98 ERA. He averaged 29.5 games and 158 innings per year, his first full seasons since 2017.
The GM meetings, which will run through Thursday at the Conrad on the Las Vegas Strip, are the unofficial kickoff to MLB’s offseason, but this year is a little funky. Because the lockout-delayed postseason schedule ran late, some executives arrived here the first day after the World Series, a more compressed arrangement than usual.
So as much as team executives and player agents meet and start to negotiate at this event, many of those conversations will be more cursory than usual because they have had little time to lay groundwork otherwise.
Even after agreeing to a five-year, $102 million deal with Edwin Diaz on Sunday, general manager Billy Eppler and his front office have lots of work to do in the coming weeks and months, including filling a bunch of holes in the pitching staff. But the Mets are positioned much better now than they were at this time last year, when they arrived at the GM meetings without a GM.
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
