The biggest offseason in Mets history starts now
The latest updates on qualifying offers and players electing free agency. Plus, a look at the offseason Steve Cohen's been waiting on for four years.
What’s Up with the Mets? 🍎
The Mets extended the $21.05 million qualifying offer to 1B Pete Alonso, LHP Sean Manaea and RHP Luis Severino – the club would receive draft pick compensation if any of the players signed elsewhere this offseason
David Stearns announced that the entire Mets coaching staff will be returning for the 2025 season
SS Francisco Lindor and 1B Pete Alonso were named 2024 Silver Slugger finalists
Rumor Mill 💭
Teams that will be “in” on Juan Soto in free agency could include the Mets, Yankees, Dodgers, Giants, Phillies, Blue Jays and Nationals (MLB.com)
Brewers closer Devin Williams could be a trade candidate after the club declined his $10.5 million club option (MLB.com)
Roster Moves 📰
3B Luis De Los Santos claimed off waivers from Blue Jays
RF DJ Stewart outrighted to Triple-A Syracuse, elected free agency
LHP Joey Lucchesi outrighted to Triple-A Syracuse, elected free agency
LHP Matt Gage outrighted to Triple-A Syracuse
Declined their $7.75 million club option for RHP Phil Maton for the 2025 season, making him a free agent
Claimed RHP Kevin Herget off waivers from the Brewers – Herget, 33, appeared in just seven games in the big leagues last year and posted a 1.59 ERA
LHP Joey Lucchesi and OF DJ Stewart were officially outrighted to Triple-A Syracuse and elected free agency
RHP Kevin Herget claimed off waivers from Brewers
SS Ronny Mauricio activated from 60-day injured list
RHP Christian Scott activated from 60-day injured list
RHP Paul Blackburn activated from 60-day injured list
RHP Sean Reid-Foley activated from 60-day injured list
The offseason that Steve Cohen has been waiting four years for… ✍️
Since the news originally broke that Steve Cohen agreed in principle to purchase the New York Mets, the eccentric billionaire has lied in wait for over four years.
While he would make headlines over the course of multiple offseasons with his big-name acquisitions and vociferous spending that fans of this team had never seen before, it was almost exclusively on a short-term basis. Ever since the acquisition and extension of Francisco Lindor, his first blockbuster move as owner, Cohen has balanced short-term, high AAV contracts with an unanticipated level of patience.
The biggest contracts the franchise has doled out since then have been to Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander and Starling Marte, all of which were deals that were guaranteed for four years or less. And while the club has sought out moments to be opportunistic whether it be with Carlos Correa (before nixing the deal on a failed physical) or Yoshinobu Yamamoto (who took a similar offer to sign with the Dodgers), this ownership has been incredibly selective with the major moves they’ve looked to make over the years.
That same approach can be applied to Cohen’s search for a President of Baseball Operations that spanned three years – because he refused to settle. He knew that David Stearns was his ultimate prize and while he looked to make improvements in the years before he could get him, he was comfortable waiting on that ultimate reward.
Despite wielding baseball’s highest payroll over the past few seasons, Cohen has remained patient when it’s come to big-time, long-term spending as he waited, and waited and waited for the day to come where he would finally unleash his full potential as the Mets owner.
Today, that day has finally come.
With the 2024 season coming to a close, free agency is officially underway for the 2024-25 offseason. For Steve Cohen and the Mets, this is the winter they’ve been waiting years for.
From the moment the news came out that Cohen would purchase the Mets in the summer of 2020 (though it would not become official until the following year), the rumors had already begun to swirl around this club going after Juan Soto.
At the time, Soto was just 21-years-old in his third major league season with the division rival Washington Nationals. And though his free agency remained many years away, Soto and the Cohen-led Mets seemed destined to intersect when the time finally did arrive. In that time the superstar outfielder has been traded twice, to the Padres and then the crosstown rival Yankees, and has continued to post unreal offensive numbers.
Over the first six years of his major league career, Soto has hit .285/.421/.532 with 201 home runs, 179 doubles, 592 RBI, 655 runs scored, a .953 OPS and a 160 OPS+.
After turning down a myriad of contract extension offers from his clubs over the years, Soto has finally reached his ultimate goal by reaching the 2024-25 offseason; not too dissimilar from Cohen.
The Mets will be far from alone in trying to compete in this monster of a bidding war as the Yankees, Dodgers, Giants, Blue Jays and others are expected to jump into the ring. This has the potential to be a long, arduous process that brings many twists, turns and rumors along with it over the next few weeks if not longer.
At the end of the day, though, it is becoming harder and harder to see any other team getting in the Mets’ way here. This is the moment that Cohen has been waiting for since 2020, and the very player he has been eying year-after-year. He has the financial might to outbid anyone and offer the largest contract that Soto can get, and do it while giving Soto a legitimate chance to win and an opportunity to continue to live in New York.
To this point in his ownership, Cohen has not won an honest-to-god bidding war on a legitimate superstar player. Aside from losing out on Yamamoto, that has largely been by their own choosing to sit out and to a point, that’s okay. They chose not to throw their hat in the ring for Aaron Judge or Shohei Ohtani, they sat out last offseason, and they have been incredibly selective with the long-term money they’ve elected to hand out over the years. But we have now reached the day where Cohen needs to finally get his man, and there is no better one to get than Juan Soto.
These are the moments Mets fans dreamed of when Cohen acquired this team, and now is the time to finally get this done. No matter what.
There are other marquee free agents as well this offseason that I would anticipate the Mets go in on even if they do acquire Soto, in large part because they have approximately $170 million (a lot of which has been dead money) off of their payroll entering the 2025 season. There will be a lot of buzz surrounding if the club will look to re-sign Pete Alonso and Sean Manaea, and I expect that this team will also show interest and be involved on free agents such as Blake Snell, Corbin Burnes, Max Fried and more.
At the end of the day, though, it all comes down to Soto. These are the types of sweepstakes that can solidify what an owner and franchise are truly capable of – see what the Yankees and Dodgers have done over the years – and after making it to the sixth game of the NLCS, now is the time to strike.
Steve Cohen and the Mets should be commended for the level of patience they’ve shown over these last few years, but the wait is officially over.
Here we go…
Around the League 🚩
RHP Gerrit Cole agreed to return to the Yankees on the original four-year, $144 million contract that he opted out of over the weekend
Dodgers LHP Clayton Kershaw declined his $10 million player option for 2025, but is expected to return to the club on a new deal
Rangers RHP Nathan Eovaldi opted out of his contract, declining a $20 million player option for 2025 and officially becoming a free agent
The Braves picked up their $16 million club option for OF Marcell Ozuna
Atlanta declined their $8 million club option for C Travis d’Arnaud, making him a free agent
The Rangers declined their $6.5 million club option for LHP Andrew Chafin, making him a free agent
13 players were extended qualifying offers on Monday including OF Juan Soto, RHP Corbin Burnes, 3B Alex Bregman, LHP Max Fried, SS Willy Adames, OF Anthony Santander, OF Tesocar Hernández, RHP Nick Pivetta, 1B Christian Walker and RHP Nick Martinez