When Steve Cohen gave his introductory press conference as owner of the Mets on November 10, he mentioned the Dodgers as the team he wants his franchise to emulate.
On Friday, Cohen and the Mets saw the difference between the franchises manifest when Trevor Bauer chose the Dodgers.
The gap is physical that the Mets could do nothing about – the 2,805 miles that separate Citi Field from Dodger Stadium. Bauer, from the Los Angeles area, returns home.
But Bauer accepted a few million dollars less in general value to be a Dodger instead of a Met for more specific reasons than the Pacific. Dodgers are everything that Mets (and almost all teams) aspire to be.
They are the safest contenders in the MLB, having won eight consecutive NL West titles and last year’s World Series. The Mets reached the playoffs twice in 14 seasons. The Dodgers are at the forefront of modernity; vital for Bauer, who may have done more than any active player to popularize cutting-edge tools to maximize performance. The Mets are trying to catch up in this arena. Dodgers are blessed with the kind of mature club that can absorb a polarizing player. Mets is still trying to prove that all the malfunctions in his workshop were not caused by Wipon.
The Dodgers also provide a stage for megacities for Bauer, who has ambitions to have a powerful personal brand. New York City could offer that too. Furthermore, with Cohen, the Mets can be financially competitive compared to Fred Wilpon’s version, who was always trying to win back the Dodgers – the Brooklyn Dodgers.
The Mets offered three years at $ 105 million with what was believed to be $ 40 million in each of the first two years and the chance to cancel after each – the annual value would have reached $ 35 million, just below Gerrit’s record Paste of $ 36 million. Dodger’s business is $ 102 million for three years. This pays Bauer $ 40 million in Year 1 and $ 45 million in Year 2 and he can choose to leave after either.
The power of today’s Dodgers is that they have created a monster or financial flexibility, productive agricultural system and attractive location that they push into almost every market to see if they can make a difference. Their advantage is knowing that they will still be great without the player. They, for example, struggled last year at Cole, offered less than the other team in New York and failed. They lost Kenta Maeda and Hyun-jin Ryu, who finished second and third, respectively, in the AL Cy Young race. And David Price chose to leave the season. Still, they won everything, partially, because they still had a lot to start.
In the off season, they didn’t offer as much as a New York team and still managed to win the 2020 NL Cy Young award. They tried that kind of short-term high-value annual pitch a few years ago with Bryce Harper and it didn’t work. This has happened now, as the Dodgers exceeded the $ 210 million luxury tax limit, capitalizing when other big-market clubs like the Yankees treated it as a demilitarized zone to never approach.
Bauer will likely be there for at least two years before he jumps (healthy) into the $ 17 million owed in the final season of 2023. The Dodgers have about $ 87 million owed on their books after this year, notably with Clayton Kershaw, Kenley Jansen and Corey Seager free agents. They will have to retain or replace Kershaw and Seager. But by the time they have to decide on Cody Bellinger and Walker Buehler, Bauer and his big paydays will probably be gone from the books.
In addition, this move neutralizes the strongest pursuers of the Dodgers’ NL West, the Fathers, who solidified their rotation this offseason with Yu Darvish, Blake Snell and Joe Musgrove. Bauer joins Buehler, Kershaw, Price, Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May and Julio Urias. This quality / quantity strikes a season in which teams are concerned with covering 162 games of turns after the pitchers played only 60 games of work last year (and none in the smaller ones).
In addition, the Dodgers kept Bauer away from the Mets, who with an ideal version of the law would have become a stronger obstacle for the NL. It is a loss in that sense. But I still believe that he was the wrong guy at the wrong time for Mets, who try to promote a culture and a base that can absorb any type of player.
The Mets still have ways to shoot hard in 2021 without disturbing the future, improving in the center with a Jackie Bradley or Lorenzo Cain, making a positive move on James Paxton or imagining – of all things – the Dodgers are tired to spend and Sandy Alderson tries to reunite with Justin Turner.
But that is around 2021. Upon failing at Bauer, the Mets retains its choice of second round in June and $ 500,000 in cash from the international pool (which would have been compensation for Bauer’s signature). They must use it wisely. There are many miles to go to meet Cohen’s ambition to be the East Coast Dodgers. On Friday, they found firsthand what they want to be.