WASHINGTON — April 1, 7:09 p.m. It’s been circled on the Mets’ calendar for what seems like decades, not merely months. The exact moment real baseball, a game that actually counts, begins new.
So why does this supposedly euphoric time in Metsville feel somewhat less magical, like an existential dread is tugging on everyone’s unbridled joy?
Maybe because this year’s Opening Night also happens to be the expiration date Francisco Lindor has attached to his contract negotiations, and those talks remained at a standstill deep into Wednesday afternoon.
Lindor isn’t ruining the start of the baseball season for the Mets. We got that a year ago, due to a worldwide pandemic, the first in over a century. But the public nature of Lindor’s contract talks — over historically gigantic sums of money — has derailed the optimism to a certain degree.
How could it not? When the Mets acquired Lindor and Carlos Carrasco in early January, people already were counting down to Opening Day. The expectation was that team’s new multi-billionaire owner Steve Cohen soon would pony up to keep the 27-year-old franchise shortstop in Flushing for the rest of his career.
And Cohen did, presenting Lindor with a 10-year, $325 million offer (along with picking up the tab on his chicken parm entree) to stay. Of course, it wasn’t that easy, and these negotiations wound up taking a detour from Cohen’s vision of culture change to the same LOL Mets that prevailed during the Wilpon regime.
But this really isn’t about being cheap or short-sighted. Just a difference in opinion of what Lindor is worth playing out publicly at a very inopportune time. Most people were under the impression this deal would get done as soon as Cohen pushed past $300 million. The owner probably was himself.
Lindor’s camp just believes otherwise, as his 12-year, $385-million counter plainly suggests. On the surface, $60 million looks like a huge gap. But on the annual basis, which is how salaries are broken down for payroll tax purposes, Cohen’s offer comes out to $420,000 more per year.
The numbers, however, can be cooked any way they want: signing bonuses, deferrals, opt-outs, etc. Which is why this current impasse is so frustrating for everyone hyped up for the 2021 season. For six weeks of spring training, Lindor earned rave reviews across the board. He was every bit as advertised — brilliant glove, potent bat, great teammate, almost like another coach in the clubhouse.
And then the money had to get in the way. If these negotiations were happening in December or January, we wouldn’t think twice. That’s how the offseason business is done. The problem is the Mets and their fans have fallen hard for Lindor — rightfully so — which makes the idea of these talks collapsing difficult to stomach.
Just listen to Pete Alonso, who didn’t hesitate Tuesday when asked what Lindor is worth, replying that the Mets should pay him $400 million. If I’m Cohen, I’m probably not thrilled my own first baseman is negotiating against me, but Alonso was just trying to emphasize what Lindor has meant to the Mets since his arrival with a nice, round number.
In the same breath, however, Alonso tried to put a not-so-negative spin on Lindor getting to Opening Day without an extension, thereby opening the door for him to leave via free agency at the end of the season. That’s six months away — seven, if the Mets reach the World Series — but the possibility still has dominated the Mets’ conversation over the past week.
“I don’t view that as a disappointment at all,” Alonso said, “because we have him now. But if he were to choose to go to free agency, and if he feels that’s the best decision for him, then more power to him . . . If we were to get him, I’d be so stoked to be his teammate for an extended period of time. But also for him, I have to understand what he has to do on the business side.”
It’s just that the timing isn’t great for the Mets. We should be talking about how Alonso — after shedding his social-media accounts — looks primed to threaten his 53-homer mark from his rookie season. Or if Jacob deGrom’s freakish upticks in velocity give him the inside track for a third Cy in four years. Or can sophomore manager Luis Rojas flourish with a return to (more) normalcy and an improved roster?
Or this: I picked Lindor to be the NL MVP this year based not only on his immense talent, but his immediate, obvious impact on the Mets in spring training. We can’t wait to see what this guy can do when the lights finally go on up here. Instead, there’s the buzz kill of wondering what might happen if Lindor isn’t signed to a long-term extension and a disgruntled fan base voices that frustration when the Mets return home to Citi Field at the end of next week.
“I don’t know,” Rojas said when that scenario was posed to him. “I think the fans are going to appreciate the way he goes about the game every day. This guy’s here to win.”
But for how long? It’s the darker side of this year’s Opening Day for the Mets, with a sense of closure — good or bad — on the horizon.
