HELLO, GOODBYE: Chipper Jones, saluting the crowd before his final series in New York started with a 3-0 Braves win, said the Mets and David Wright (above) should not wait until his free-agent winter to nail down a deal. (
)
To Chipper Jones, the boss-employee relationship he has enjoyed over the years in Atlanta basically came down to one thing:
The Braves never even let him sniff the free agent marketplace.
You listening, Mets? David Wright, a potential free agent after next season, has made it clear he is not into midyear negotiating.
“I can honestly say one reason why the Atlanta Braves and I have had such a good marriage is because the Braves have never allowed me to go to free agency,” Jones said yesterday when asked specifically about Wright’s desire to stay with the Mets his entire career. “They’ve never allowed me to get close to free agency. I’ve never gotten into a free-agent year without having a long-term deal signed before spring training. That’s huge.
“When your employer impresses upon you they want you there and they don’t want you to go somewhere, they don’t even want you sniffing the other side of the fence, that’s big.”
The future first-ballot Hall of Famer’s remarks kicked off his New York farewell weekend and was followed by the Mets again saying farewell to anything resembling offense as they wasted a fine start by Jon Niese in a 3-0 defeat to the Braves. It was the Atlanta staff’s third straight shutout and the ninth time the Mets have been blanked.
Jones went 0-of-4 as the Braves scored on solo homers by Jason Heyward and Dan Uggla plus an unearned run through a sacrifice fly by David Ross. The Mets had five singles, five walks and 24,071 fans reaching for antacids with their 11-strikeout, 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position attack against Paul Maholm (12-9) and five Atlanta relievers.
Niese (10-9) threw six innings, surrendering five hits, including Heyward’s blast, the only run he allowed.
“I wish I had that pitch back,” Niese said.
“We’re not getting many hits at all, especially with two outs. We get a lot of singles,” Mets manager Terry Collins said. “Our pitching was fine.”
On a typical night in Queens, more intriguing were Jones’ words as they pertained to Wright. If the Mets’ franchise-face third baseman sticks to his words — there is no reason to believe he won’t — the only time to re-up him will be this winter.
Wright, on several occasions in June, said he won’t negotiate during the season. The Mets hold a $16 million team option on Wright for 2013, and if they don’t extend him in the upcoming offseason, he likely will enter free agency after next season. Mets general manager Sandy Alderson repeatedly has said he wants to sign Wright long-term.
“When you talk about a contract, it’s going to end up being somewhat selfish,” Wright was quoted as saying in June. “We should be talking about ‘we’ as a group and not ‘me’ as an individual in the middle of the season. … The offseason is a much better time where you can sit down and really figure something out.”
Should the Mets let it go beyond the offseason and Wright stays true to form, the team might have to explore trade options. Or they can avoid a lot of public ill will and go the route the Braves took with Jones, who said playing his entire career with one team “was very important for me.”
The Mets could do the same for Wright.
“I’m a southern kid, I grew up in the South,” Jones said. “I was born into the Braves organization. I grew up in the Braves organization and I reaped the benefits of the professional life at the big-league level in Atlanta. … To me, it really didn’t seem like the grass was all that greener because I got spoiled with the success the Atlanta Braves organization had.”