Yankees, Mets need to write a few more checks to keep pace with rivals
Mets owner Steve Cohen and Yankees managing partner Hal Steinbrenner. Credit: Jim McIsaac; Newsday/J. Conrad Williams
As strange as it was to see Pete Alonso wearing an Orioles jersey during Friday’s introduction at Camden Yards, or Edwin Diaz slipping on Dodger blue 3,000 miles away in Los Angeles minutes later, the truly unsettling part for those mourning their departures was the unbridled ambition of their new teams.
Alonso’s unveiling, with agent Scott Boras seated beside him, came off as a civic holiday in Baltimore, with his five-year, $155 million contract — the largest ever handed out by the Orioles — a relatively small price to pay for such a watershed moment. At the opposite end of the dais, next to president of baseball operations Mike Elias, sat billionaire owner David Rubenstein, who gave the impression the winter shopping spree was far from over.
“We have resources to do other deals as well and we don’t have particular constraints,” Rubenstein said. “We don’t have any particular limit that we’ve imposed on [Elias]. As long as the baseball rules are what they are today, we can do what we want to do and we’re prepared to do what we need to do to get the team to be at a championship level.
“We’re ready to go. If there are other great players we can get, we’ll try to get them.”
I’m old enough to remember hearing similar pledges by the New York owners, but that bravado has been tempered lately, and their recent behavior on the free-agent front has suggested otherwise. While the Mets’ Steve Cohen has used his October apology as the last public comments involving his team, the Yankees’ Hal Steinbrenner took some serious heat for saying the franchise’s annual financial tab — the payroll, stadium lease, etc. — had the potential to outweigh revenues.
Perhaps more revealing, and troublesome, is that their top rivals have sprung into action to fill the void. In a 24-hour span at last week’s winter meetings in Orlando, the Mets were outbid by the Dodgers for Diaz, who did not go back to Cohen for a last/best offer before taking L.A.’s three-year, $69 million contract. Then they let Alonso walk without even making a bid to retain the franchise home run leader.
President of baseball operations David Stearns has yet to comment on either Alonso or Diaz, but the Mets did respond Saturday by reaching agreement with Jorge Polanco on a two-year, $40 million contract, according to a source. The switch-hitting Polanco (.821 OPS last season) figures to be Alonso’s primary replacement, but despite playing three infield positions, he has played only one game at first base.
We never thought Cohen’s cash would sit on the sideline this offseason, but the Polanco signing backs up Stearns’ preference for shorter-term, higher AAV deals — the kind of thinking that led to Alonso being cut loose. That philosophy also makes it more challenging to land the top-end free agents such as Cody Bellinger or Kyle Tucker. Either would fill the Mets’ need for a big outfield bat — but their contracts could stretch further than Stearns wants to go.
The same applies to the market for starting pitchers, another thing on the Mets’ extensive shopping list — and there’s plenty of competition. The Orioles are likely to have Framber Valdez and Ranger Suarez next in their sights, with Tatsuya Imai — the recently posted Japanese ace — expected to get a deal beyond six years.
The market-maker for now has been Dylan Cease, who agreed to a seven-year, $210 million contract with the Blue Jays, albeit with $64 million deferred.
“It takes a long time to get where Toronto is to make these kinds of moves,” said Boras, Cease’s agent. “I’m sure that’s why they decided it was clearly in their best interests to do so.”
The Mets are supposed to be there, too. Or at least they were a year ago, when they signed Juan Soto to a 15-year, $765 million deal coming off a deep October run (and six-game NLCS loss to the Dodgers, the eventual champs).
What we do know so far is that Stearns is intent on competing with a dramatically different core now that Alonso, Diaz and Brandon Nimmo changed zip codes within the past three weeks.
It hasn’t helped that the biggest moves of the winter meetings involved the Mets’ fiercest rivals, with the Dodgers swiping Diaz, the Phillies re-signing slugger Kyle Schwarber (five years, $150M) and Atlanta adding high-leverage reliever Robert Suarez (three years, $45M) and outfielder Mike Yastrzemski (two years, $23M) and retaining closer Raisel Iglesias (one year, $16M).
The Yankees have reason to be concerned as well. After tying the Blue Jays for first place in the AL East and losing out on a tiebreaker, then being dominated by Toronto in the Division Series, the Yankees have watched the defending AL champs reload with Cease, righthander Cody Ponce — last year’s KBO MVP (three years, $30M) — and reliever Tyler Rogers (three years, $37M). There’s also the belief that the Jays will wind up with either Tucker or Bo Bichette, two of the most dangerous free-agent bats still available.
The Orioles’ aggressive play for Alonso comes after signing closer Ryan Helsley (two year, $28M) and trading for outfielder Taylor Ward, who averaged 31 homers and 90 RBIs the past two seasons for the Angels. Once Baltimore acquires another front-line starter, the AL East will get that much tougher, and the Red Sox still plan to add another plate threat (Bichette? Alex Bregman?) after trading for Sonny Gray, who’s made himself Public Enemy No. 1 in the Bronx.
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman left Orlando empty-handed but brought back Amed Rosario on a one-year deal Saturday after stressing the need for a righty bat at the winter meetings. Bellinger remains Cashman’s top priority, but with Boras at the helm, that could take a while. And with the market still developing, the prices almost certainly will be going up.
“Our ownership has obviously demonstrated year-in and year-out how massively committed they are,” Cashman said. “But at the same time, that’s not an open blank checkbook either.”
Steinbrenner is going to have a write a few more checks to keep pace with what’s going on this winter. Same for Cohen, who has to flip the demoralizing narrative that’s snowballed since the All-Star break last season.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
