Tom Brennan - McNeil $$$, and What Might McCutcheon’s Career Portend for Carlos Correa?

First off:

Jeff McNeil is going to arbitration over a $1.5 million differential, as the Mets have already agreed to pay Pete $14.5 million with comparable time in. But they offer Jeff less than half that amount despite higher career WAR and his 2022 MLB batting title. Criminal.

I like to drop a bad season when evaluating a player. So, let’s drop McNeil’s 2021 season…what are his numbers over the 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2022 seasons?

1,451 at bats, 467 hits (.322), 102 doubles, 8 triples, 39 HRs, 210 runs, 179 RBIs, and a prodigious slash line of .322/.383/.484. Add to that his defensive acumen at multiple positions and his all out hustle?

C’mon, Mr. Cohen, pay Mr. McNeil. He deserves every single penny of what he is asking for. He deserves more, frankly.

The Veteran “Cutch” returns home to Pittsburgh.

Everyone’s baseball career is different.

But a little comparison here and there between two players the Mets did not get could be enlightening.

The pre-Met, then almost-Met, then non-Met Carlos Correa has 1) been strong in offseason play, 2) had some real excellence in his early career, and 3) will be 28 in the first season of his expensive long term Twins deal, after the Mets greatly modified downward their first “subject to” offer.

Andres McCutcheon? 

He was one of baseball’s very best in his mid-to late 20s:

3rd in MVP voting at age 25, actual MVP winner at 26, 3rd in MVP voting at 27, and 5th in MVP voting at 28. Three Silver Sluggers and a Gold Glove in that four season span.  But…

Never a single MVP vote thereafter. For a reason: performance decline.

Except for one .279 season, he only hit between .222 and .256 in every other year since, and never totaled as many as 29 HRS and 89 RBIs in any season after age 28, and most of those totals in those seasons were well below that.

If in 2022 he was just becoming a free agent, say after his age 28 season, he’d have raked in immensely innumerable dollars, making him (as it turns out) immeasurably overpaid by his subsequent performance.

So…why couldn’t the “almost Met” Carlos Correa also turn out to be immeasurably overpaid? Let the buyer beware.  Today’ delicious  produce can turn into a wilting product before you know it.

After all…Albatross sightings are frequent in baseball. Too frequent.

Look at the struggling Anthony Rendon in the first 3 of 7 seasons of his $35 million per year Angels deal after starting as a National.

I’d like to say he averaged 20 HRs and 89 RBIs per season. 

He hasn’t…he has TOTALED 20 HRs and 89 RBIs in 2020-22.  Averaging 7 HRs and 30 RBIs.

More than $1 million per RBI over those  seasons. Anthony won’t receive a Tony award for that.

So, I like the Mets’ approach with Pham, Vogelbach, Narvaez, Nido. …lower salaries, lefty/righty hitting alternates, short deals…likely productive in 2023…AND leaving the Mets flexible in team salary for future years.

Just food for thought. Speaking of grub…What’s for breakfast, anyway? But, before that corn muffin…

Besides the above topic, don’t you hate static? You reach into a closet and get a static shock?  ZZZAP!

Well, let’s talk about a different kind of static…the kind of static thinking where someone sits with a static view of what they saw of a prospect in September in deciding in their own minds whether that prospect will be ready for opening day 2023, a full 6 months after September.

It ignores that the prospects are without doubt working feverishly this off season to eliminate or minimize their September flaws. 

For instance, Anthony DiComo just wrote this about Brett Baty:

“Working out at the University of Texas’ baseball facility, Baty has put in countless hours fielding topspin ground balls, performing one-handed drills and also reaction-based training, such as the close-range “Ron Washington” drill named after the longtime Major League coach and manager. 

“Baty has also done plenty of conditioning work in his hometown of Lake Travis, Texas, at a private facility where stars such as the NBA’s LaMarcus Aldridge and the NFL’s Myles Garrett train.”

As DiComo’s article continues to elaborate, Baty clearly sees extreme opportunity lying ahead and wants a little “carpe diem” this spring training.   I am sure the approach is the same for Francisco Alvarez this winter. Having seen a brief video of Bryce Montes de Oca working out this off season, ditto on the all-out drive to improve.

So, my thinking is not static about these 3, nor or about Vientos, I’m sure, who likely is working feverishly this off season on tightening his defense.

They will all be in full blown “carpe diem” mode. They’ve had a taste and they want it bad.

May you carpe diem as well, my Latin friends.