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Noah Syndergaard began the free agency period with an $18.4 million qualifying offer in hand and New York in his heart.
His intention was not to leave the Mets.
But in the intermediate period between being given the qualifying offer on Nov. 7 and Wednesday’s 5 p.m. deadline to accept or reject, Syndergaard experienced radio silence from the only team for which he had ever played in the majors while other clubs began to woo him. No team more than the Angels.
Their general manager, Perry Minasian, insisted on a sit-down meeting and flew cross-country to have dinner last Friday night with Syndergaard. During that meal, Minasian put on a full-court press, explaining how the Angels envisioned deploying him, keeping him healthy and improving him. Of course, the money mattered. Ultimately, the sides agreed at $21 million.
But that Syndergaard’s camp did not even go back to try to get the richest owner in the sport, Steve Cohen, to match or exceed that before he said yes to the Angels showed how far the right-hander had drifted in a week. He went from thinking about the Mets only to the need to get away to maximize what will become a platform season for Syndergaard to re-enter free agency next offseason.
The Mets were unsure whether to give the qualifying offer in the first place, considering Syndergaard had thrown only two innings in the past two seasons. So they probably were not going to increase their bid to keep him and would just accept the draft pick between the second and third rounds as compensation while deploying the $18.4 million elsewhere.
Still, it underscored a Mets problem at this moment. Syndergaard needed to make a quick decision this offseason and he could not be told who the Mets GM and manager were. The only coach under contract is the pitching coach, Jeremy Hefner. But for the best organizations these days preparing pitchers physically, for the season and for each game, is a collective effort across multiple departments. There were efforts in the first year under Cohen’s ownership to bulk up these areas, but they still pale in comparison to clubs such as the Dodgers, Giants and Blue Jays, among many others.
Minasian is about to start his second year as Angels GM as the successor to the presumptive next Mets GM, Billy Eppler, He came to New York armed with details on, among other things, how his club would have him pitch to individual players on each team in the AL West. He spoke of the success the Angels enjoyed last year with a six-man rotation, which helped get Shohei Ohtani through a season of hitting and pitching healthy. Minasian said the plan would stay the same and showed Syndergaard how pitching in a six-man rotation would give more time for recovery and lower his overall inning total when all he had in 2020-21 in the majors was two one-inning stints to close out the past season. Minasian brought data to show what the Angels liked about his delivery and pitch mix and how to make them even more effective.
The Yankees had expressed interest, but it was clear that if it was going to be them this would have to stretch beyond the qualifying offer deadline. And just to be certain, the Syndergaard camp wanted a physical done and a contract official before the qualifying deadline to have the Mets’ $18.4 million to fall back on should he fail the physical. And in the end, if Syndergaard was going to break from the Mets, he determined it would be best to make a break from New York and the potential distractions that would be caused by staying with a franchise so close in proximity to the Mets.
Many teams such as the Braves and Red Sox, at minimum, checked in. The Blue Jays, though, were the other team most interested. But Minasian, who had been part of the draft apparatus in Toronto when Syndergaard was selected and always valued him highly, was the most aggressive. The Angels did not want to lose a draft pick in compensation. But the cost for the high-end starters — such as Kevin Gausman, Robbie Ray and Max Scherzer — was giving them pause at this point of the offseason and Minasian felt he knew enough about Syndergaard to play the upside gamble before trying to find more rotation help.
And the seduction mattered. Syndergaard is going to pitch at 29 this year. He recognizes how vital it is that he performs well to set himself up to re-enter the market next year at 30 to try to score a lucrative, long-term pact. And here were the Mets not even talking to him throughout this process. Here they were without an infrastructure in place. Here they were unable to provide a detailed plan to him beyond the big picture that Cohen wants to win now.
This is what Eppler is walking into if his deal is finalized this week. The offseason is already a few weeks in and starting pitching — more than any other position — is beginning to move with the expectation of more to come quickly before a potential Dec. 2 lockout by MLB owners if there is no new collective bargaining agreement. And the area the Mets most need to address — more now without Syndergaard — is starting pitching. Yet, Eppler also has to conduct a managerial search, hire a coaching staff, begin to work on infrastructure and culture, familiarize himself with the organization and address other areas of roster need as well.
Syndergaard didn’t feel the love, was concerned about the product — all that is on the to-do list of the new GM — and decided that his best chance to maximize this vital season was to relocate cross-country.
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