General manager Billy Eppler and owner Steve Cohen admitted that the Mets will be taking more of a muted approach in free agency this winter. Whether that was a tactic to shed the veteran contracts of Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander at the trade deadline remains to be seen.
So with the door seemingly cracked open for Cohen to flex his financial muscles yet again this winter, the focus as New York’s offseason draws near is just how involved will it be with the Los Angeles Angels’ transcendental talent and arguably the largest of pending free agents in the history of baseball, Shohei Ohtani.
The All-Star pitcher and lethal slugger’s 2023 season is over after the Angels’ smoke-and-mirror jig concluded with the announcement from the 29-year-old’s agent that he underwent elbow surgery on Tuesday.
Ohtani suffered a torn UCL last month, ending his pitching season with a 10-5 record and 3.14 ERA with 167 strikeouts in 132 innings pitched.
At the plate, he continued to be one of the game’s most dangerous hitters, posting a 1.066 WHIP and 44 home runs, which still leads the American League.
A fully healthy Ohtani heading to the market would have easily fetched $500 million if not more — and his value is still incredibly high even though he won’t be able to pitch in 2024.
Such a price tag might deter the Mets from a legitimate pursuit if Eppler and Cohen’s sentiments around the trade deadline are at all valid. The team is focusing on building a winner that can be sustained by the farm system and they picked up invaluable pieces by trading away the likes of Scherzer and Verlander.
But Ohtani is the sort of talent that a team should bend its values for. This is the sort of talent that has not been seen in a century — the Angels star is even exceeding Babe Ruth in the two-way game — and such a notion of him coming to Queens could be a temptation too great for Cohen to pass up.
SNY’s John Harper reported on Monday that the Mets are expected to make the biggest offer to Ohtani this offseason.
In a piece by The Athletic’s Jim Bowden where he spoke with multiple league executives, they still listed the Mets as one of the top landing spots for Ohtani.
The desire to win, coupled with a handsome payday, could coax Ohtani to the East Coast even if it’s a reported preference that he stays out west. While the Mets have admitted that their World Series odds might not be as short in 2024 as they were ahead of the 2022 and 2023 seasons, Ohtani coming to Queens would exponentially help those figures.
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