Right time to pay up for Lindor, Conforto
WEST PALM BEACH — It was a million-dollar day for Michael Conforto and Francisco Lindor. The shortstop and right fielder, who are both engaged in contract extension talks with the Mets, homered off Nationals ace Max Scherzer in a 6-2 victory on Sunday. The dingers, a two-run homer by Lindor and a solo shot by Conforto, off a three-time Cy Young winner were the latest reminders that Mets billionaire owner Steve Cohen should give his star players whatever they ask.
And the deadlines to meet their magic numbers are quickly approaching. Both Lindor and Conforto are headed for free agency after the 2021 season if they don’t work out contract extensions in the coming weeks. Lindor has made it abundantly clear he will not partake in negotiations once the regular season begins in order to put all his focus into the team. Conforto essentially echoed Lindor on Sunday and said of negotiating past Opening Day: “Ideally, I would not like to do that.”
Conforto, who is typically open and comfortable speaking with local reporters, chose to withhold the status of his contract extension talks. The outfielder confirmed “there’s conversations going on,” but didn’t want to go in-depth.
“At this point, I’m pretty much just focused on baseball,” Conforto said. “I’m not really interested in speaking about the contract stuff. It’s between me and my family, my agent, and the team. So I just want to stay as focused on baseball as I can right now. That’s kind of where I’m at.”
If Lindor and the Mets reach an agreement, he’s expected to receive upwards of $300 million on a longterm deal with the club. Likewise Conforto, a client of mega-agent Scott Boras, should get at least $200 million.
In the case of Conforto, he’s a homegrown talent who enjoyed a terrific 2020 season ahead of his walk year. He stayed healthy, batted .322 with a .927 OPS and 156 OPS+, collected 31 RBI and crushed nine home runs across 54 games in the shortened season. Conforto has developed into one of the leaders on the Mets in his six years in the big leagues.
“I think I’ve been pretty open about that. This is where I came up,” Conforto said after taking Scherzer deep in his second at-bat against him. “I think Jake (deGrom) commented on it earlier this spring that it’s something that us as players, we think is a cool thing to spend your entire career in one place. But there’s so many other factors that go into it.”
Conforto said he spoke to deGrom about his experience signing a team-friendly five-year, $137.5 million contract with the Mets in 2019. Under the previous ownership, the Wilpons and former GM Brodie Van Wagenen convinced deGrom, arguably the best pitcher in MLB with two
Cy Young awards, to receive $27.5 million a year (with an opt-out after the 2022 season). As a comparison, the Dodgers’ Trevor Bauer will average $42.5 million in compensation in 2021 and 2022. Conforto may have received advice from deGrom, but it was “nothing that I’m going to be talking about on here, unfortunately,” the outfielder said, laughing.
If Conforto can put up similar numbers as last season, he has a chance to boost his value. If he doesn’t like what the Mets are offering him in spring training, he could bet on himself and revisit contract negotiations again at the end of the year. The Mets would prefer to avoid that scenario because Conforto will have hit free agency by then. Eight months from now, the competition to keep him in Queens will be very high with plenty of big-market teams looking to add a proven franchise player.
The Mets will try to attach the right dollar amount to show their appreciation for Conforto, especially after letting George Springer walk to the Blue Jays this past offseason. Earlier this month, Mets team president Sandy Alderson publicly indicated he was OK with the fact that the Mets didn’t land any of the Big Three free agents in Bauer, J.T. Realmuto, and Springer because they had bigger fish to fry.
“We had to be mindful of the kinds of negotiations in which we might engage — with Lindor, with Conforto, possibly with (Noah) Syndergaard,” Alderson said. “There are lots of opportunities for us to spend money long-term, so while free agency doesn’t require prospect currency, we were very comfortable with the way things turned out.”