SNY tweeted out today that the Colorado Rockies want to engage in trade talks with the New York Mets for Nolan Arenado. In 2019 Arenado signed an 8 year $260M extension that would make him a free agent in 2027. The 5-time All-Star had a subpar 2020 at the plate batting .253 with 8 HR’s in 48 games. Defensively, Arenado bagged his 8th Gold Glove Award which has been a yearly occurrence since he debuted for the Rockies. Although few are skeptical of Arenado’s home/away splits, there is no debate that Arenado is at the least a top 3 3rd baseman in baseball.
Trading for Arenado isn’t necessarily a need for the Mets right now, but boy would that be a splash acquisition for Steve Cohen and newly hired GM Jared Porter. The Mets have the pieces to make this trade happen but the tricky part of this deal is Arenado’s option to opt out of his contract extension after the 2021 season. Would trading whatever package the Mets put together for this deal be worth the risk of Arenado possibly opting out of his contract. Arenado would make $35M a year on his extension. I personally don’t think he would opt out of this deal because financially it doesn’t make sense. It’d be hard to land a deal that would let him earn more than $35M a year over the next 7-8 years and he would be 31 years old at the time he signs the new deal. I think the Mets should jump on this deal because I don't believe the Rockies asking price would contain a lot of assets to acquire Arenado. Acquiring Arenado makes the Mets much more dangerous in the NL East and makes them a legit threat to the Dodgers if they can stay healthy, of course. The Mets would still have enough money to go out and sign Springer who they are currently the favorite to do so. The Mets should have an exceptional core of players that should be appealing enough to make Arenado stay with the Mets.
I think the Rockies trying to reach out to the Mets to engage in a trade shows one thing about the Rockies. They are broke. They can't afford to pay Arenado’s contract so they’re trying to dump him. I would be curious to see if Trevor Story becomes available via trade soon. The Rockies seemed to sign Arenado to a contract extension almost out of panic. The deal was signed shortly after Machado, Harper, and Trout were all signed to record-breaking deals. Colorado quickly signed Arenado to an extension before his price could go up any higher. Giving Arenado the option to opt out after the 2021 season shows that either Arenado didn’t have faith in the Rockies to build a championship team and rightfully so. Or, the Rockies knew that they wouldn’t have a championship team and were hoping he would opt out, but they would still be able to say they signed their superstar to a big extension. Now, with the pandemic hurting a lot of franchises financially, the Rockies are trying to get out of this deal a year earlier to avoid paying Arenado the $35M he is owed for this season.
The Mets are building a good foundation and it seems like Steve Cohen is making all the right moves to get this team going in the direction of a championship which started with bringing back Marcus Stroman and signing FA catcher James McCann to a 4 year deal. I think the Mets should put a package together and jump on this deal.
Comments