Jacob deGrom
After a series of offers which were angrily rejected by the other side, you’ll note there was an important development as it pertained to the owners. Before proceeding further, it is important to hone in on what the owners first offer entailed. As reported by various outlets, the owners initial offer was an 82 game season.
Put the financial details aside for a moment (that’ll be addressed later). The owners initial proposal was to play 82 games or essentially half a season (plus one game). When taking into account how part of these offers constitute a bit of posturing, the owners were saying 82 games were feasible, and there might be some room to fit in some additional games.
In the players proposal of 114 games, there was an important response from the owners. First and foremost, their proposal was to reduce the games from 82 to 50 with them finally honoring their agreement to pay the players their full prorated salaries. Without prompting, that 50 number was reduced to 48 games (if you’ve followed Jacob deGrom‘s career, you can expect no support for 48).
The next part was especially dubious. As reported by Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, Tony Clark said, “In fact, Rob confirmed yesterday that, ‘We can pay you 100 percent of salary right now.'”
And there you have it. Despite protesting otherwise, the owners have the money.
So, what the all amounts to is the owners attempts to reduce the amount of money they have to pay the players, and to a certain extent, to shield them from financial losses. On the latter point, it should be noted the owners continuously refuse to open their books. When they don’t do that, no one can know with any certainty what is truth and what is conjecture.
Really, at this point, no one knows if the owners will suffer losses. Remember, a loss of revenues does not necessarily mean a financial loss. Any business, including Major League Baseball, can see revenues decrease and still break-even or realize profits. With MLB still having media rights deals, having significantly decreased costs (in the billions of dollars), and the ability to purse additional revenues when baseball does return, it is quite possible no Major League team will suffer any real financial losses.
If there are teams who do, like the New York Mets for example, fact is, they were already experiencing losses. To that point, there is a legitimate question if they suffered a loss across all of their baseball related companies. Going back to the Mets, yes, there are reports the team lost money, but then again, they made money off of SNY, which is part of their baseball business enterprise.
The overriding point here is the owners admit they have the money to play baseball in 2020. While the players and fans want more games, they want fewer. This isn’t about getting back and selling the game. It’s about breaking the union and selling more postseason games.
Ultimately, the owners have no real interest in returning to play games. Every proposal where they limit the amount of games played says as much. That goes double when you consider they admit they have the money on hand to do it right now.
In the second inning, the Mets jumped out to a 2-0 lead over the Astros on a pair of RBI from Jeff McNeil and Michael Conforto. Typically, that is far more run support than Jacob deGrom gets.
For some reason, the Mets ace game out after five. Walker Lockett pitched a scoreless sixth before allowing a three run homer to Michael Brantley. He took the loss in what was a 6-2 Mets loss.
This past week, the New York Mets released 39 minor league players. They were far from the only team who took that action. Every MLB undertook the same process with the COVID19 shutdown, the ever increasingly likely cancellation of the minor league season, and the contraction of 42 minor league teams.
This led to a variety of reactions. Many were sad, and some were angry. There was also Andrew Church who eviscerated the Mets and Tim Tebow. Lost in that was the purge of minor league talent.
Make no mistake, every minor leaguer who was released was a talented baseball player. They had enough talent to get a contract to play professional baseball. The issue at the moment was teams like the Mets thought better to get rid of them so they wouldn’t have to pay them $400/week.
When you look at the players who were released, you really have to question whether the Mets would’ve released Jacob deGrom under similar circumstances. Don’t be so sure they wouldn’t have.
Going back a decade, deGrom was a ninth round draft pick out of Stetson University. While much has been made about his being a collegiate SS, truth be told deGrom had converted to a pitcher Junior year. That year, he pitched and played short. It was his pitching which caught the Mets attention.
Just because he caught the Mets attention, it doesn’t mean he was good right away.
As a 22 year old, deGrom was assigned to a Kingsport franchise which is in line to be contracted. Despite being over a full year older than the competition, he did not pitch well.
In the six starts deGrom made, he was 1-1 with a 5.19 ERA, 1.577 WHIP, and a 7.6 K/9. Batters hit .324/.360/.472 off of him. At the end of the year, he underwent Tommy John surgery to repair a torn UCL.
At that time, there was nothing which could give you any indication he was about to become a pitcher who would have a dominant 2015 postseason in addition to consecutive Cy Youngs.
No, he looked like an older prospect for his level who couldn’t beat younger batters, and worse yet, he had a busted elbow. If you’re looking to not pay players, and you’re looking to cut down the amount of people in your system to prepare for a loss of affiliates, deGrom was going to be in real danger of getting released.
If that happened, deGrom doesn’t get the chance to get healthy, learn a change-up from Johan Santana, and start on a path towards being a potential Hall of Famer. No, in all likelihood, his career would’ve been over.
Now, it’s very possible none of the 39 players released by the Mets could’ve done what deGrom did. Most and maybe all don’t even make it to the majors. However, that’s not the point.
The point is unless you give prospects real time to learn and develop you’re never going to find the next deGrom. The same can be said for Mike Piazza, Jeff McNeil, of Seth Lugo. For that matter, the Mets miss the 2016 postseason without undrafted free agent T.J. Rivera.
In the end, MLB franchises opted to end the dreams of minor leaguers over $400/week. In the process, they’re going to potentially miss out on the next diamond in the rough, or even that key player who gets them to the postseason thereby making the franchise millions of dollars.
Much like we’re seeing with Jacob deGrom, for one reason or another MLB The Show doesn’t have Marcus Stroman pitching to the level he does in real games. We saw that again today as he took the loss against the Phillies after allowing three runs over five innings.
The Mets offense amounted to a Michael Conforto solo homer off Vince Velasquez in the Mets 5-1 loss.
The first round in the Citi Bracket and the first round of the tournament are complete. There was no surprise with David Wright and Jacob deGrom advancing, but there were still some significant upsets at least as far as seeding is concerned.
The biggest upset of the tournament so far was Wilmer Flores over Jose Reyes. That made Flores the lowest seed to advance. That is likely due to a combination of Flores love of the Mets as well as Reyes’ domestic violence. The other upset was Pete Alonso over Noah Syndergaard, but that was likely driven by Alonso’s all-time great rookie season coupled with his off the field actions.
The second round of the Citi Bracket will feature 2015 postseason heroes deGrom and Curtis Granderson. We will also see Alonso and Carlos Beltran face off. They are 1-2 in the Mets single season home run totals.
Starting tomorrow, there will be the second round of the tournament which brings us back to the Miracle Bracket with Tom Seaver facing off against Rusty Staub.
The Mets had the tying runs on base with no outs in the ninth. J.D. Davis would prove to be unable to hit one out in the bandbox that is Citizen’s Bank Park. From there, the Mets wouldn’t be able to push home a run in the Mets 6-4 loss.
Somehow, Jacob deGrom took the loss after allowing six runs over five innings. Clearly, MLB the Show needs to correct their algorithms.