SAN FRANCISCO — The hottest corner of these playoffs has been third base.
Atlanta’s Chipper Jones completed his career, Cincinnati’s Scott Rolen strongly hinted he was done, as well, and Yankees fans wished Alex Rodriguez would follow. And, in the World Series, a Panda (San Francisco’s Pablo Sandoval) is so far outperforming a Triple Crown winner (Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera).
But in the aftermath of the Fall Classic, the most intriguing third base storyline will have its hub in Flushing, with the Mets trying to finalize a long-term contract with David Wright.
The Mets are doing their best to limit information from escaping about ongoing negotiations. But I have spoken to more than 10 officials outside the organization in the past few days and every one of them thinks the Mets will end up extending Wright — and sooner rather than later because it will give them a base from which to move forward both this offseason and into the future.
The consensus among the executives spoken to is that Mets ownership sees this — at least partially — as a public-relations signing as much as a baseball one. As one NL official said, “If they can’t sign their best player after letting Jose Reyes go, what are they telling their fans? They might be damning themselves to bad crowds and bad press for quite a while.”
In canvassing the officials, the terms that came up most often was about seven years at $127 million. Wright’s buddy, Washington’s Ryan Zimmerman, received a six-year, $100 million extension last spring that when combined with the two remaining seasons left on his old contract was worth $126 million over eight seasons. Thus, Wright would top Zimmerman both in total worth of contract and also average annual value, which would make him second ever among third basemen in both categories to the 10-year, $275 million extension Rodriguez signed with the Yankees.
Also, Wright is due $16 million on a 2013 option. The Mets have until five days after the World Series to trigger that option. If they can finalize the extension before then and add the option, under this scenario, Wright’s total future package would be worth $143 million over eight seasons.
Why is that important? Because it would make Wright the highest-paid Met in history in total package, topping the $137.5 million that Johan Santana received.
The officials said they thought topping Zimmerman and Santana would be benchmarks important to Wright and his representatives.
“This would be a pretty good deal for both parties,” another NL executive said of the suggested deal. “He is still a very good player and when you look at his age [30 in December] and position, there is a little less risk than most guys entering their 30s.”
Of course, this all falls into the educated speculation department. Perhaps the Mets still are reeling enough financially that they do not even want to go this far and will pick up the option and trade Wright. Perhaps Wright — as the face of the franchise — feels he should get closer to 10 years and push the $20 million per-year boundary. Wright, though, has said his quest is to stay a Met for his entire career, while the Mets have said they would stretch at least a little bit financially to retain him.
Yanks’ Soriano could get new stripes replacing Valverde
Perhaps Jose Valverde’s fall will be a financial benefit to another Scott Boras free-agent client — Rafael Soriano. Valverde is the Tigers’ pitching version of Alex Rodriguez — his failures in the playoffs so stark that he has lost his closing job. Unlike A-Rod, Valverde does not have five years of contract to protect him and so it is hard to see Detroit retaining the righty.
Tigers owner Mike Ilitch has a strong working relationship with Boras, having signed many of his clients who were having difficulty either finding a landing spot and/or big dollars. That list includes Magglio Ordonez, Ivan Rodriguez, Johnny Damon and Prince Fielder.
As I reported last week, Boras is strongly indicating Soriano will opt out of his $14 million 2013 contract, making himself a free agent. He is viewed by outside executives as a problematic sign because, as one NL executive said, “Teams no longer like paying big money for closers, there is a lot of tread on his tires and he is not known as a great guy.”
It is still possible that Soriano could opt out and take his $1.5 million buyout and, if the Yankees make him the $13.3 million qualifying offer, return, in which case (add those two numbers together) he would make $14.8 million in 2014 rather than $14 million. Still, Boras believes there will be a market for a proven closer who has shown he can succeed both in the AL East and New York.
* The Players Association noticed Tony La Russa’s recent comments that, if he were in charge of a team, he would not have offered more than five or six years to Albert Pujols last year or Josh Hamilton this coming offseason — and the union was not pleased.
La Russa no longer is a manager, thus an advocate for a team, but rather an advisor to the Commissioner. It is unlikely that too many clubs are taking their financial cues from La Russa. Nevertheless, the PA is very touchy when it comes to any item that even borders on collusion. When asked for comment about this, a union official told me La Russa’s comments had “caught the attention of the PA” and the office will “watch carefully” to make sure no one affiliated with central baseball is running afoul of the anti-collusion language that is part of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Rob Manfred, MLB’s executive VP in charge of labor issues, said he did have a conversation with La Russa to explain how such comments could be perceived.