The Gang’s Still Here
Mets’ incumbent core intact as camp opens, plus news and notes from PSL
Image credit: Chris Simon/Roberto Carlo
For all of the pre-and-post-lockout tradewinds that had been blowing, Jeff McNeil, Dominic Smith, and J.D. Davis each began 2022’s truncated version of training camp in Metropolitan orange and blue.
Mind you, this might not be the case in a day, a week, or a month. But for now, even as the hot stove (also in an abbreviated, hyper-driven state this spring) is boiling, the gang’s all here.
With McNeil, Smith, and Davis all in the fold, the Mets are primed to have what experts refer to as a deep roster. So deep, in fact, it’s likely that Smith and Davis would be utilized solely as bench bats. Not that there’s anything wrong with that!
If those guys are your reserves, it’s fair to assume your team is in good shape, depth-wise. In the Mets’ case, that is accurate.
Starling Marte. Eduardo Escobar. Mark Canha. Robinson Cano back from suspension. The depth that was already here. It all adds up. We’ve come a very long way from looking to Scott Hairston and Omar Quintanilla as next-men-up, haven’t we?
With upgrades, moderate or otherwise, still presumably on the Mets’ minds and a wild trade market in full swing, it’s highly probable that names and proposals are still being tossed around.
As Mets general manager Billy Eppler intimated to the assembled media corps in Port St. Lucie on Sunday, the team is feeling good about where they’re at. He also noted that this new regime will not be shying away from opportunity if it happens to knock. Playing it coy. We dig it.
What the future holds for that aforementioned trio or, to go a level deeper, the prospects just outside the zenith of the Mets’ system, will be revealed soon enough.
In any case, the breed of decision this organization is being presented with in 2022 is stark in comparison to what we’ve seen in what feels like perpetuity leading up to this point.
A pleasant change of pace, no doubt.
Jacob deGrom spoke with the media from Port St. Lucie on Monday, getting what could have been (and likely still will be) a source of distraction out of the way by confirming that he would indeed be opting out of his contract at the end of the season.
“Yeah, [opting out] is the plan,” deGrom told reporters. “As a player, you build in opt-outs. That’s the business side. For me, I don’t want that to be any distraction.”
DeGrom is set to earn $33.5 million in 2022 with $15 million deferred ($21.8M against the luxury tax payroll, per Spotrac), $30.5 million in 2023 ($12 million deferred), and $32.5 million in 2024 (club option; $15 million deferred).
Fear not. As mentioned previously, this is a new age in Flushing; one that boasts an owner who loves to spend and, in deGrom’s case, a star player who apparently has no interest in leaving.
“I’ve said it before. I’ve loved being a Met and think it would be really cool to be one for my entire career,” he said. “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.”
New teammate Max Scherzer and crosstown ace Gerrit Cole each set and reset the market in their own right since deGrom signed his five-year, $137.5 million extension with New York in December 2018.
It’s simply smart business for deGrom to hit that button himself following the season and move the goalposts (foul poles?) again. No concerns here.
And finally, some incredibly scary and sobering news.
Pete Alonso narrowly escaped tragedy on the road in Tampa on Sunday, walking away virtually unscathed after his pickup truck was struck and flipped multiple times en route to Port St. Lucie.
Here’s Pete speaking on the incident from the clubhouse on Monday, and be sure to check out Deesha Thosar’s report in the New York Daily News with a first-hand account via Alonso’s wife, Haley, who was driving behind and witnessed the crash (Alonso was t-boned by a driver running a red light).
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I'm not going to look it up, because I doubt it's truly as good as I remember, but Scott Hairston raked that year.