Wednesday marked a reasonably vital 10-year anniversary for the Mets, which flew, fairly understandably, beneath the radar. For it was on Nov. 30, 2012, that David Wright signed a seven-year, $122 million contract that every one however assured he would stay a Met for all times, which he did.
We’ll point out the ramifications of that later, however the one factor we all know, 10 years later, is that one of many shortest lists in sports activities started to double that day: Who're the perfect gamers to spend their total profession with the Mets?
Proper now, that record reads this fashion:
- David Wright.
- Ed Kranepool.
Who’s No. 3? Might it actually be Ron Hodges, a profession backup catcher who performed each one in every of his 666 main league video games throughout 12 years as a Met? Are you able to give you a greater various?
Properly, as of this second, there truly is:
Right here’s the half by which it’s crucial to say that, from a sensible and purely goal perspective, it makes little sense to issue that in even just a little bit in case you are the Mets and are calculating how excessive and the way lengthy you need to go as a way to retain deGrom. Steve Cohen absolutely didn’t change into a gajillionaire by main together with his coronary heart when making important enterprise selections.
However from the day Cohen purchased the Mets, he made it abundantly clear that he did so solely together with his coronary heart on the controls. He has established his credentials as a real fan who noticed his first sport as a child again on the Polo Grounds. He has opened his pockets already. He has promised to take action sooner or later, even on the danger of invoking the MLB tax penalty that was truly named for him.
So it's a must to consider that Cohen, like nearly each Mets fan , understands simply how ridiculous it's for a group that has been in enterprise for 61 years to have a participant with a .240 lifetime common and 19 profession residence runs because the third-most-prominent Met-for-life (and in reality you'll be able to in all probability already transfer Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil and, even for the second Michael Conforto, forward of Hodges in the event you like).
(And apologies are so as right here to Ron Hodges; it isn’t a simple factor to compile a 12-year main league profession. It’s not his fault he’s so excessive on this record.)
Once more: This can't be precedence one in these discussions.
However even the Yankees haven’t precisely been shy about reminding everybody that the one factor they will completely supply Aaron Choose that no different group can is that this: He generally is a Yankee-for-life within the mildew of a Gehrig, a DiMaggio, a Mantle, a Ford, a Munson, a Jeter. After all there’s extra worth to being a distinguished Yankee-for-life than a Met-for-life, largely as a result of there have been so lots of them.
Take into consideration this: Of all of the gamers who've performed three or extra years for the Mets, solely 34 have performed each sport of their careers as a Met. Thirty-four. In 61 years.
And deGrom is, with out query, one of many three or 4 finest who've ever performed for the Mets at any time of their careers. He's a bona fide star. If he determined to retire tomorrow he would instantly be No. 2 on the Mets’ record. However he isn’t retiring tomorrow. He’s obtainable. He’s attainable. He’s retainable.
After all, there are different issues to contemplate, beginning and ending together with his well being. The group that indicators deGrom dangers not having deGrom, in keeping with his current historical past, and the Mets know that higher than anybody. You would possibly signal him for 5 years and get 150 begins out of him. Otherwise you would possibly get 50. There's by no means a assure when it includes an arm that throws 100 miles an hour.
And look: As a lot as a group and its followers would possibly like the thought of maintaining a participant round ceaselessly, that’s understandably not as excessive a precedence for the participant. Often.
It was for Wright, who gave the Mets a hometown low cost 10 years and two days in the past, clearly one factor (of many) that augmented his reputation with the followers. It is also destined to function a ceaselessly buyer-beware second.
Wright, in eight full seasons pre-extension: .301/.384/.505, 190 homers, 778 RBIs by age 29, a median of 149 video games performed per 12 months.
Wright, post-extension: .280/.357/.436, 38 homers, 152 RBIs, a median of 65 video games per 12 months.
The day he signed his deal, Wright had in all probability by no means heard of the time period “spinal stenosis” earlier than, which meant that a effective 2013 season and two magical months in 2015 have been basically the one advantages of that deal. Aside from one factor:
It’s arduous to seek out many Mets followers who remorse that Wright signed his deal, and that he now stands because the best Met-for-life. He’s a worthy face of the franchise.
DeGrom’s bodily points are proper there for all to see. They aren’t hidden potholes like Wright’s have been. That’s an element. However so is that this: At his best possible — nonetheless rare that has been currently, nonetheless fleeting it could be — he was among the many best possible to ever do what he does. And thus far, all of that has occurred in a Mets uniform.
In a wage cap sport, on a group with miserly possession, possibly even eager about the Met-for-life component could be 100% silly. However that is baseball. And that is Steve Cohen.
Mets common supervisor Billy Eppler, in a convention name publicizing the Edwin Diaz deal Thursday, thanked Cohen and his spouse, Alex, for “their unbelievable help and dedication to the Mets.”
Of that there's little doubt. And Cohen, as a Mets fan, has absorbed each sling and each arrow that each different Mets fan has throughout the years in terms of the franchise’s largely star-crossed historical past. Sure, if deGrom is hellbent on beginning over some place else, none of that can matter. However cash normally does the loudest speaking …
Homeowners and followers normally have divergent pursuits in such issues.
However on this case, the proprietor is the fan.
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