At the moment, the New York Mets and Francisco Lindor are at an impasse. The Mets made a “final offer” of 10 years/$325 million. Lindor countered with 12 years/$385 million.

At this point, you’d expect both sides to get this done because both sides have a lot to lose.

For the Mets part, it’s Steve Cohen’s credibility. Fans won’t care about Lindor’s demands because Cohen is the richest owner in sports. Many fans will say an extra $60 million is pocket change to him.

Another factor is Andres Gimenez. The once top prospect from the Mets was impressive in 2020, and he has really impressed the Cleveland Indians. It’s an even worse look not to extend or sign Lindor when Gimenez is a budding All-Star.

With respect to Lindor, this is his career and his life. Whatever the deal, this is where Lindor is going to finish his career, and it is where he will live for at least the next decade of his life.

As much as both sides have at stake, it may be nothing compared to Lindor’s agent David Meter. Meter has already had some high profile failures with his negotiations.

The first was Ozzie Albies. The Atlanta Braves signed the young second baseman to a seven year/$35 million extension which was almost universally panned.

Sports Illustrated called the deal “insultingly cheap.” The Ringer called it an “inexplicable contract.” Jeff Passan, now of ESPN, said the deal was universally looked upon as “the worst contract ever for a player.”

As bad as that deal was for Albies, at least he got a contract. Craig Kimbrel couldn’t say the same thing.

Through the first nine seasons of his career, Kimbrel was on a clear Hall of Fame path. His ERA+ was the best all-time, and he was approaching the top 10 in all-time saves. At 30, he was still in the prime of his career.

The end result was Kimbrel not signing with anyone. This was largely because Kimbrel and his agent completely misread the market.

In many ways, like Meter is doing with Lindor, the goal was setting a record contract. This led to an asking price of $100 million. There rumors he wanted a 5-6 year deal. This was not just for a closer, but for a closer who was going to be 31 in the first year of the deal.

You know you’ve done something wrong as an agent when you have a future Hall of Famer in his prime, and you fail to even engage in serious negotiations. Meter didn’t just misread the market, it was like he was a toddler trying to read War and Peace.

This left Kimbrel with little other choice than to wait out teams and for the draft pick compensation to pass. Eventually, Kimbrel did get a three year $43 million deal with the Chicago Cubs.

It should be noted that was a lower AAV than the $17.9 million qualifying offer Kimbrel received from the Boston Red Sox. It was also lower than the offers Kimbrel likely solicited and turned down.

There’s another important element here. Kimbrel had been astonishingly durable in his career. After the long layoff, he hit the IL after just 23 games. He was also terrible in last year’s pandemic shortened season.

These are arguably the two highest profile negotiations Meter has handled, and he and his agency have botched them both. Perhaps, this is a good news/bad news situation for the Mets.

With Albies, the lesson was don’t jump the gun and take a well below market deal. With the Mets offering $325 million, it’s safe to say Meter is past that point. Now, he just needs to learn the Kimbrel lesson.

According to Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News, the Mets were assured Lindor wasn’t asking for an extension greater than Mookie Betts‘. Lindor’s counter-offer was just that. It’s now time for Meter to learn the Kimbrel lesson.

Lindor is the best SS in the game. He’s a superstar who is on a Hall of Fame trajectory. That said, he’s coming off the worst year of his career. Right now, we’re all able to write that off as pandemic related.

Here’s the problem for Meter and Lindor. If he doesn’t return to form, his market is annihilated. The impending shortstop free agent class is too deep, and no one is going to come near the Mets offer.

If Lindor wants to bet on himself, he should, and we should all respect that. There is nothing wrong with that. It’s his career, and he’s earned that right.

However, for Meter, everything rides on this negotiation and season. He can’t mess things up for a third client. Right now, he’s trying to make the Mets pay for his previous mistakes. If he’s not careful, he could be making the biggest mistake of his career.

Ultimately, this is why there should be optimism a deal gets done despite the Mets last offer posturing. The Mets need to continue to change the narrative, and Meter needs to not screw up a high profile deal.