When last we checked in on Jacob deGrom and the Mets, the reigning Cy Young Award winner was not pleased that talks about a long-term contract extension were not going forward. Now we learn that, if they’re going to proceed, they had best proceed quickly. Mike Puma of the New York Post reports:
After a winter of inactivity in long-term contract discussions, the reigning National League Cy Young award winner has informed team officials he will not negotiate a new deal during the season, an industry source told The Post on Tuesday. DeGrom’s camp has set Opening Day as the deadline to complete any potential long-term deal.
That’s about six weeks.
de Grom avoided arbitration with the Mets last month, agreeing to a $17 million salary for the upcoming campaign, but he obviously wants to secure his long-term future. The Mets should want to do that too, and signing deGrom to an extension seems like a no-brainer. But then again so does doing things like signing Bryce Harper and Manny Machado and there are 30 teams who seem pretty uninterested in that at the moment too. Baseball in 2019.
As Bill wrote last week, deGrom is worth a $200 million+ extension. Clayton Kershaw signed a seven-year, $215 million extension after the 2013 season. Max Scherzer signed a seven-year, $210 million contract with the Nationals as a free agent four years ago. David Price signed a seven-year, $217 million free agent contract with the Red Sox in December 2015. That same winter Zack Greinke inked a six-year, $206.5 million contract with the Diamondbacks.
deGrom went 10-9 with a major league-best 1.70 ERA and a 269/46 K/BB ratio in 217 innings last year, picking up 29 of 30 first-place Cy Young votes.
