There has been a lot of chatter about the possibility of a long term extension for New York Mets’ ace Jacob deGrom, but there have been precious few negotiations to this point. The sides had an informal discussion at the Winter Meetings last month, but there haven’t been any further contract talks to date. SNY baseball insider Andy Martino notes that while both sides have indicated a new contract is a priority, there is an artificial deadline of sorts to reach a deal due to the salary arbitration calendar.
deGrom is eligible for salary arbitration this season and should earn roughly $14-16 million in this process. The Mets have obviously offered deGrom arbitration, and the sides have until January 11th (a week from today) to settle on a one year deal or go to an arbitration hearing. The idea of a hearing is a bad idea for the Mets, who would likely lose based on deGrom’s excellent 2018 campaign, but they have been operating on a “file or trial” approach where they go straight to arbitration if they don’t agree to a deal by the deadline. Assuming the two sides don’t agree to a one year pact at this point, they would still be able to negotiate a multi-year deal at any point in the 17 days before the first hearings are held.
There is no drop dead date for talks to end, but if the Mets and deGrom end up in arbitration it could lead to some hurt feelings between the sides. The Mets would be arguing that deGrom isn’t worth the salary he feels he deserves, which could cause friction in contract negotiations. There is also the possibility that deGrom’s camp could opt to impose a deadline of their own on extension talks, like the end of spring training. This is a tactic that deGrom’s agency, CAA, used in 2012 with Washington Nationals’ infielder Ryan Zimmerman.
Simply put, if the Mets and deGrom can’t come to a long term deal in the next six weeks or so the odds of one being struck before the start of the season severely diminish. This would be a very bad outcome for the Mets and GM Brodie Van Wagenen, who have made it very clear they view deGrom as a long term piece of the franchise’s core. The Mets may have missed the boat on an affordable deGrom extension by failing to negotiate last winter, when he was coming off a solid but unspectacular year. deGrom went on to put together a historic 2019 while journeyman pitchers like Nathan Eovaldi and Patrick Corbin got huge jackpots in free agency, which no doubt increases the price for a guy with deGrom’s resume. Keep an eye on this situation in the weeks to come.
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