New York Post, Tuesday, December 1, 2020
nypost.com
Keeping Matz
makes dollars,
sense for Mets
F
OR just a moment, forget the
Steven Matz who, over five
years ago now, enjoyed the
best debut in Flushing since the
Beatles played Shea Stadium in
1965.
Forever, forget the Matz who lost
his way, his job and his job security
during the brutal, COVID-short-
ened 2020 season.
Instead, look at Matz’s 2016
through 2019 campaigns. Run the
numbers and you get a guy who
averaged a 4.17
ERA over 128 ¹/₃
innings for the
length of a pres-
idential term.
You get a
pitcher worth
about $5 million
for the 2021
New York Mets.
On Wednesday’s tender deadline
for all baseball players not under
contract and not eligible for free
agency, the Mets must make the
call whether to retain Matz, their
homegrown left-hander, for next
season. As per the collectively bar-
gained rules, they must offer him
no less than 80 percent of his most
recent salary, which was $5 million
(he actually earned about $1.85
million over the 60 games), or else
turn him into a free agent.
It appears the Mets will tender
Matz, who can be a service-time
free agent after next season, rather
than set him free. And that will be
the right call.
Yes, yes, Matz did post a hor-
rific 9.68 ERA in nine games (six
starts, three relief appearances)
last season, getting demoted out
of the starting rotation and spend-
ing time on the injured list with
left shoulder discomfort. It was a
disaster, one that will block Matz
from upward financial mobility
and could result in a “pre-tender”
deal being finished on Wednes-
day rather than the two sides
moving toward a potential arbi-
tration hearing to determine the
29-year-old’s salary.
It was a disaster, but it was just a
two-month disaster. Even the
worst celebrity marriages last
longer than two months. It’s not
enough of a sample size to justify
giving up on a guy who had estab-
lished himself as useful and valua-
ble despite not matching the initial
highs of his magical 2015 rookie
season featuring his three-hit,
four-RBI, 7 ²/₃-innings, two-runsbig-league debut (and co-starring
his exuberant grandpa).
Beyond Steve Cohen’s vast
wealth, which creates room for er-
ror where it didn’t previously exist
with this organization, Matz dis-
played enough flashes of hope
amid his dumpster fire of a cam-
paign. Most notably, his average
sinker velocity of 94.5 ranked as his
highest since that 2015 season
(94.9).
That extra velocity might have
been part of the
problem, as the
Mets’ ageless
pitching guru
Phil Regan re-
cently opined to
Newsday. Yet
you’d rather
manage that
problem than the opposite. Fur-
thermore, Matz’s 2020 spin rates,
as per Baseball Savant, were not
dramatically off from prior seasons
and in some cases were higher.
Throw in the Mets’ lack of start-
ing pitching depth, even as they
engage with free agents like Trevor
Bauer and Jake Odorizzi, and you
have another reason to bring back
Matz, whose commitment to com-
munity service makes him a good
citizen as well.
If 2020 proves to be the trend
rather than an aberration for Matz?
Then you just release him or, if
that’ll be too awkward, throw him
on the injured list with an ailment
of his choosing. You dip into that
Cohen stash come the trade dead-
line and find more reinforcements.
If Matz simply rediscovers his
2019 form, though, then the Mets
will have themselves a guy who
will keep his club in games and
who knows the terrain and the ex-
pectations that come with it for a
reasonable price. If the team’s up-
graded analytics help Matz move
closer to that 2015 peak? Then he’ll
become a bargain.
This is far from the most exciting
call the Mets will make this winter.
It’s the next one on the docket,
however, and roster depth will be
essential if they want to climb right
back into relevance. It’s an easy call
for a guy who won’t necessarily
present an easy return on invest-
ment. And thanks to the Mets’ new
status in the baseball world, it’s a
call you can make without worry-
ing about the fiscal consequences
of those odds turning against them.
[email protected]Ken Davidoff
T
hIS will become secondary
once the Mets sign Trevor
Bauer or J.T. Realmuto or Ge-
orge Springer or some combina-
tion of all three.
Because fans care about players
— notably star players — way
more than about who is picking
them. But the early days of the
Steve Cohen/Sandy Alderson ad-
ministration have been marked by
their failure to lure the pickers.
Cohen’s blueprint was to form a
baseball operations department
akin to that of the Dodgers’, over-
flowing with experience and myr-
iad talents. Yet, at present, the
Mets have the most desirable jobs
that no one is taking. Executive
after executive exalts how desira-
ble it would be to run baseball op-
erations with the Wilpons out and
all of Cohen’s money in. And ex-
ecutive after executive has been
outside of the Mets’ grasp, namely
for contractual or personal rea-
sons. It is the beautiful house for
sale that so far has gone unsold.
It underscores that with Cohenreplacing the Wilpons expecta-
tions have soared. There has been
no “Come get us” bravado like
Brodie Van Wagenen’s early days.
But there also has been little
tamping down of the runaway en-
thusiasm. And already we know
the Mets will not meet the biggest
dreams with their front office. At
least not this offseason. Does this
shift a greater burden to landing
one (or more) of the huge free
agents?
As opposed to front-office per-
sonnel, no permission needs to be
asked to speak to a free agent. It
generally comes down to dollars
and cents, and Cohen has the
most of that and is operating in a
field in which just the Blue Jays,White Sox and perhaps one or
two other clubs are revved up to
spend in this market.
For now, the weight of the base-
ball decisions falls to Alderson,
who was hired as team president
to oversee baseball and business.
But as one outside executive said,
“Do you think Steve Cohen really
needs Sandy Alderson to run a
business?”
So Alderson veers toward trying
to upgrade the roster and still try-
ing to find brainpower to help
with that upgrade.
MLB executive Chris Young be-
came the latest to offer a “thanks,
but no thanks” to the Mets. A ris-
ing star in the Commissioners Of-
fice who had pitched for Alderson
in two locales, Young told the
Mets he was fascinated by the po-
sition, but did not want to uproot
his young family from Dallas.
Thus, the search continues. The
Mets will not run out of candi-
dates. This really is viewed as an
attractive opportunity. This is not
the shot-gun wedding to Luis Ro-Joel ShermanJoelSherman
NO TAKERS YET:
Steve Cohen and Sandy
Alderson (inset) are still
searching for a general
manager as Chris Young
is the latest to turn down
the Amazin’s. AP (2)