CAPTAIN KIRK: With Michael Bourn agreeing to a four-year deal with the Indians last night, the Mets are left with limited options to cover center field, including sophomore Kirk Nieuwenhuis. (EPA)
PORT ST. LUCIE — Look, no one among us expected the Mets to be negotiating with Michael Bourn as pitchers and catchers reported to Tradition Field. So there shouldn’t be outrage now that Bourn ultimately turned down his surprise suitors in Flushing for a second such team, agreeing to a four-year, $48-million contract with Cleveland last night that — critically — featured a vesting option for a fifth year at another $12 million.
At the same time, though, let’s not give the Mets an A for effort, either.
The Mets’ talks with Bourn ultimately didn’t reach the finish line for three reasons: 1) the Indians offered a better package, as the Mets discussed concepts for four years yet didn’t include that vesting option; 2) Bourn favored the Indians, whom he viewed as closer to contention in a more winnable division than the Mets; 3) the Mets never wanted to give up their 11th overall selection in the 2013 draft as compensation for signing Bourn.
That last hurdle proved the toughest to overcome; an arbitration procedure on whether the pick should be protected — the Mets posted the 10th-worst record last year, and the Basic Agreement calls for the top 10 picks to be protected, but the Pirates’ failure to sign Mark Appel last year gave Pittsburgh the ninth overall selection and pushed the Mets back a slot — needed 2-to-3 weeks to expedite, which would’ve required Bourn to essentially sit in limbo while that process took place. And there certainly was no guarantee that an arbitrator would have ruled in favor of the Mets and the Players Association on this matter.
It’s the Mets’ right to want to protect that pick, which we’ll now all be scrutinizing for years to come, and it’s not unreasonable. Seattle, which goes right after the Mets at number 12, also held reservations about giving up its selection for Bourn, even though the Mariners, too, could’ve used the speedy center fielder. Nevertheless, the Mets can’t claim they went all-out for Bourn. Because they didn’t.
So now, with all of the big outfield names off the board, the Mets will be fielding a ragtag group that prompted Sandy Alderson to joke, at the general managers’ meetings last November, “What outfield?” An extreme long shot run at a playoff spot remains just that.
The Mets move forward with a likely center field platoon of the lefty-hitting Kirk Nieuwenhuis, whose energy they like, and the righty-hitting Collin Cowgill, whom they received from Oakland in a trade. Just as they were planning to do before Bourn’s market shrunk when Philadelphia (Ben Revere) and Washington (Denard Span) picked up center fielders in trades with Minnesota and sat out this portion of the trade market. Everyone knows that this Mets season is realistically more about developing youngsters like Travis d’Arnaud and Zack Wheeler than about vying for a playoff spot.
“I hear about [the Bourn stuff] from you guys and stuff like that,” Nieuwenhuis said yesterday, following the Mets’ workout and before Bourn and Cleveland completed their agreement. “You guys are doing your job. But I think that stuff is out of my control completely. When you start thinking about stuff that is not in your control, it’s really detrimental to your play on the field.
“I think I had a little bit of that last year. I was kind of surprised that I let myself get into that a little bit [when he slumped]. But it is what it is, and you learn from it.”
The Mets have learned, too, from the days when they panicked and rushed into agreements that proved disastrous (Oliver Perez, Luis Castillo). Of course, they hope soon to exist with higher stakes, where it matters whether they get someone of Bourn’s caliber.
You could argue that Bourn was worth giving up the 11th pick, or that he wasn’t. Both sides are reasonable; while Bourn brings a lot to the party with his baserunning and defense, he is 30, and you naturally wonder how a player so dependent on his legs will age.
However, if the Mets expected Bourn to chill on the sidelines for weeks while this draft-compensation issue was resolved, with no promise of a happy ending, then they can’t expect their fans to salute them for this endeavor. They played chicken with agent Scott Boras and lost, which puts them in good company but, more relevant for now, keeps them as a likely fourth-place entry.