Author’s note: Thanks to the First Lady of TRDMB, MetsFan4Decades, for bringing this to our attention.
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Jose Reyes definitely has the Mets in a serious headlock.
According to Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal, Jose has talked with Scott Boras about changing agents:
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/new-york-mets-SS-Jose-Reyes-on-super-agent-scott-boras-radar-061711
If true, this would almost certainly mean that Jose’s days as a Met are most definitely numbered. Jose’s current agent, Peter Greenberg, received criticism for Jose’s last contract, and defended it by suggesting that it was security which Jose was after and that he was happy with the Mets.
Considering that Jose has clearly shown himself to be 100% healthy and that he has taken his game to new heights and MVP level, one can certainly understand his wanting to maximize what will surely be–despite disagreement from Fred Wilpon–a Carl Crawford-like deal.
With Boras as his agent, should Jose finish the year with even close to the numbers he currently is projected for, he would be a free agent as a 28-year-old shortstop, amazing offensively, a fine fielder with an excellent arm, and one of the fastest players in the game.
Yes, Jose is not exactly a Keith Hernandez or a Derek Jeter when it comes to instincts and leadership, but a fine case sure could be made that were he surrounded by the kind of veteran winning players the Yankees, Red Sox, or Phillies have, Jose could be an incredibly frightening force.
With Boras’ tactics of exaggeration, drama, and secret phantom teams bidding, Jose might indeed be salivating over what Boras could extract in a bidding war between the game’s highest spending teams.
Sure it is Jose’s right; absolutely and positively. But as our faithful and wise commenter Darknova posits, “If Reyes goes to Boras, that’s a slap in the face to the fans.” Yes, it sure would be a slap to the folks who ARE at the games, who are holding up signs begging for Jose to be re-signed, who visit internet sites dedicated to Jose’s remaining a Met, and who have made him one of the all-time favorite Mets.
Time will tell, but should this become reality, it would indeed be a truly dark and hugely disappointing day for Met fans.
But it is Rosenthal, so let us hope that this is another fair and balanced report which is also false.
21 comments
Dirtysanchez
6/18/2011-7:10am at 7:10 am (UTC -4)
Man I hope ken is wrong on this one. Its over if reyes gets with Scott
njstuckintx
6/18/2011-8:14am at 8:14 am (UTC -4)
If he can put together a big book on Ollie, can you imagine the size of the novel on Jose?
I don’t think that Boras would make Jose un-signable for the Mets, but it would take a whole new philosophy on the direction of the team, at least in their current financial mess.
And I’ll say 2 things here on Reyes:
1. I love him & want him on this team long term. He’s young, dynamic on the base paths and while playing the field. Jose is not replaceable.
2. Talk about a perfect storm for Jose to have a career year. It’s not very likely that after he signs a 7 year mega deal, he comes close to replicating this for an extended period of time. Maybe 1 or 2 years, at this level. That’s speculation for sure, but I’ve never seen a single one of these mega deals be worth every penny. Even Arod, who was an offensive juggernaut for a long long time had not played up to the amount of his contract, specifically all the time on the DL. And to make it more personal, we can look to Beltran. The dude has been one of the ALL TIME Met offensive players, yet with the amount of time spent on the DL, makes the contract just silly (length & cost vs. overall output).
I hope the Mets sign Reyes, and if they do, please do not expect to see 2011 in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and (if with Boras), the option year of his contract for 2019!
gategem
6/18/2011-3:20pm at 3:20 pm (UTC -4)
Let us say the Mets do not sign Beltran and instead employ a marginal player in CF. Do the Mets make the playoffs in 2006 and do they make a run at the post season in 2007 and 2008? I highly doubt it. Now consider the improvement in attendance for those years and couple that with an increase in other sources of revenue due to the increased popularity of a winning team. These facts must enter into the equation when calculating Beltran’s worth to the franchise versus his costs.
stickguy
6/18/2011-9:14am at 9:14 am (UTC -4)
Jose is good. and having a big year. And frankly, greenburg can get every bit as big a contract as Boras, so Reyes does not have to leave anything on the table.
only difference might be, Boras is more of a snake charmer that will convince Jose he really does want to move to Seattle so that Boras (er, jose) can make a couple hundred K next season!
Prismo
6/18/2011-10:29am at 10:29 am (UTC -4)
At least if he hires Boras we know exactly what to do! If that happens, he simply needs to be traded before the deadline. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts about it.
darknova306
6/18/2011-10:48am at 10:48 am (UTC -4)
100% agreed if they find a killer deal for him, but sometimes getting draft picks can be better. Either way, bye bye Jose.
darknova306
6/18/2011-10:58am at 10:58 am (UTC -4)
Jose Reyes is having a monster year and, barring injury, will deserve an equally monster contract this off-season. I absolutely don’t think he owes it to anyone to take a huge hometown discount to stay, but his current agent can get him plenty of money. If Sandy offers a reasonable contract within Mets budget constraints but Reyes signs a bigger deal elsewhere, that’s fine. Get your payday, Jose. I know I would. But if he passes up the Mets to go for a disgusting Boras drama just to squeeze an extra year or an extra $10M from the Yanks/Sox/etc, then that just makes me sad.
metsfan4decades
6/18/2011-11:14am at 11:14 am (UTC -4)
I read in a tweet somewhere last night that one of Reyes’ current agents his godfather to one of his children. That tells me he has a little more than a business relationship with his current agency. Don’t know if that will make a difference or not in what he does.
Also don’t know if this is nothing more than Boras trying to ‘woo’ him over to his agency or if there is a little more to it.
Nothing fans can do about this anyway. Going to have to wait and see how this plays out.
metsfan4decades
6/18/2011-11:52am at 11:52 am (UTC -4)
And yes, I’m reaching here.
When I saw that story break during the game last night all I could think was ‘of course, why wouldn’t Boras want Reyes as a client, especially now?’
(and hey Kingman, didn’t realize I was the first to comment on that here. Thought I’d be on that late side of that since I don’t have a Twitter account but do follow the feed here.)
You all know I was probably one of the few when last season ended that wanted the Mets to extend Reyes then. I was convinced if healthy, we’d seem him return to previous form.
So the thought of no longer seeing Reyes patrolling SS at Citi? Ugh.
He brings so much more than just his record to Met fans. I know the danger of a long contract, a SS who relies on speed and all the other arguments. But even if he does slow down, which he will, he still has great range, he still has a bullet for an arm and maybe he’ll learn in later years that a walk is better than a pop up.
kingman 26
6/18/2011-12:09pm at 12:09 pm (UTC -4)
I was out and about last night, followed the game on my Blackberry, and your comment here was the first I saw of it!
hazmet
6/18/2011-11:28am at 11:28 am (UTC -4)
My question is “what’s took him so long?”, if he goes this route.
Jose signed a terrible deal last contract with his present agent representing him. Really, 5 years for $33.75M in 2007 before the market crash and mega deals were flying all over the place and coming off the 2006 season he had. The dude undersigned last time and he’s not going to let it happen again. For mere mortals that’s a lot of money but in terms of being compensated in Jose’s profession it’s peanuts.
Just because he signs with Boras doesn’t mean the Met’s are out of the game but it does make it more challenging. A Sandy v Scott face off should provide entertainment. In any case, imo, I wouldn’t sign him during the season with his injury history and if he did get injured his price tag would drop closer to the contract that’s about to expire the second he hits the DL. I’d also keep him the entire season unless the deal is unreal, I’d rather have the picks.
How about this scenario: Jose tweaks something in say August, nothing major but nagging say and Sandy puts him on the DL. Then we could here Boras rant that Sandy did it to drive Jose’s price down as an opening salvo. Choose wisely Jose, your currently employer could still cost you a boatload of money with one mis-step.
hazmet
6/18/2011-11:33am at 11:33 am (UTC -4)
ps – I choose not to debate the injury history as to if he has one or not since perception is often reality. Perception: early leg trouble, missed most of 2009 with leg trouble, in and out last season even though the front end was thyroid, etc. That is the perception in a lot of peoples minds and if there is an injury stint this year over the balance of the season it will just feed into that.
stickguy
6/18/2011-2:00pm at 2:00 pm (UTC -4)
I will disagree that he signed some kind of under market (“bad”") deal.
it was reasonable since it bought out his arb years, and maybe 1 year of FA? And it was in the ball park of what other guys in the same situation got.
it was good for him, since it gave him a guarantee boatload of money, without the risk of going year to year. If he blew out a knee in 2007, and missed a year, kiss the big contracts goodbye.
so it was fair since the Mets took all the injury risk (that reyes would have borne if he stayed 1 year at a time.).
Wright got more money, but he also deferred FA longer (keeping him under team control).
Really hard to say if Jose could have gotten more, because it would have ahd to come from the mets. there was no open market at the time.
darknova306
6/18/2011-2:06pm at 2:06 pm (UTC -4)
Keep in mind also that this was in the early part of Jose’s career where he actually did appear to be injury prone, so there was legitimate health concern for him.
stickguy
6/18/2011-2:16pm at 2:16 pm (UTC -4)
risk mitigation is a huge part of early contracts. Plenty of young guys suffer major injuries (even a succession of minor ones) and never get to hit the FA jackpot. And other guys just never produce as expected, and again don’t cash in big.
So it is hard to say having a chance to lock in a guarantee of 33mill+, while still being able to hit FA at age 28, was some kind of bad deal for jose.
metsfan4decades
6/18/2011-12:25pm at 12:25 pm (UTC -4)
Such a wide difference of opinion on this that I’m reading across the Mets blog sphere.
They run the gamut of:
- Just more made of crap by hack sports journalists.
(I think some Met fans need to get their heads of the sand.)
- Reyes won’t jump ship on his agent.
- Who cares if it’s Boras? Mets can still afford him.
- He’s as good as gone if he signs with Boras.
- He’s as good as gone no matter who his agent is.
- Good. I don’t want him back anyway. Just take the picks or a top tier prospect and trade him. If we sign him for the money and years he’s likely to command, it’ll be a disaster.
I truly don’t know which one is more closer to the truth – other than the first one which I’m pretty sure Boras has reached out to Jose.
However, if Reyes runs wire to wire this season – healthy all year, finishes as strong as he started – he pretty much is going to be able to write his own ticket. One thing we don’t know is what’s in Reyes’ mind right now. I’m pretty much convinced though after the last contract he signed with the Mets, even if he considers a ‘home town discount’ it’s going to be minimal. And who could blame him?
darknova306
6/18/2011-2:04pm at 2:04 pm (UTC -4)
Well, it would be incompetent of Boras NOT to reach out to Reyes. But at this point, who the hell knows what’s going to happen. This just adds one more level to the speculation.
If Reyes wants to get his payday, that’s fine, he’s earned it. To do it Boras-style would be disgusting to watch, and would just become a dog and pony show to squeeze a few more million and an extra year or two out of the high bidder.
I have no clue what’s going to happen, but I’m growing incredibly weary of the topic… and the season isn’t even half over yet. Ugh.
stickguy
6/18/2011-2:08pm at 2:08 pm (UTC -4)
oh, I don’t blame Boras for making the attempt. Just saying the system stinks that lets him!
usually it is the player that pays the price. They might get slightly more (though for top guys, probably not), but they usually have to give up something to get it (comfort level, location, chance to win).
Hey, think A Rod still thinks Texas was the right idea?
stickguy
6/18/2011-2:05pm at 2:05 pm (UTC -4)
it will be what it is. staying or going, I doubt it changes.
but, the system does stink IMO if he can jump ship now. Current agent invests years in the guy, and get tossed overboard just before contract time? Boras coming in at the last minute to steal an established relationship away to get his quick payday (after which he probably ignores Reyes totally, as he moves onto the next player), just seems to stink.
You have to figure that players know also exactly the message they are sending (basically, I am a whore, I will get in bed with a rat, and I am going to play anywhere, good fit or not, to get the last $$).
Oh, and I call bull shit on the idea that you need Boras to get the big $$. Last year, 2 guys signed mind numbing deals (the ones that have reyes fans worried): crawford and werth.
Well, guess what? Neither guy was represented by Scott Boras! and they still got wildly overpaid.
Prismo
6/18/2011-3:53pm at 3:53 pm (UTC -4)
Reyes says “no chance” he switches agents.
So this is resolved.
stickguy
6/18/2011-7:45pm at 7:45 pm (UTC -4)
entirely possible that the whole thing started from the boras side, trying to slime onto a quick windfall.