Per reporting from earlier this week, the Mets have an agreement in place to re-sign Ryne Stanek to a one-year deal. They almost made a very different bullpen addition, however. Both Andy Martino of SNY and Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic report that the Mets were talking to Kenley Jansen before agreeing to terms with Stanek.
The report from The Athletic suggests that the Mets couldn’t get the deal done, in part, because Jansen is looking for a chance to close. He currently has 447 saves, which puts him fourth on the all-time list. The 37-year-old doesn’t have much hope of catching Mariano Rivera (652 saves) or Trevor Hoffman (601), but he is just 53 away from getting to the 500-save plateau. He’s also not far from passing Lee Smith, who is in third place with 478, though Craig Kimbrel is also right behind Jansen at 440 and still active.
The Mets can’t really offer Jansen the closing role he’s looking for, however, as they have Edwin Díaz cemented as their ninth-inning guy. Jansen has also received reported interest from clubs such as the Tigers, Blue Jays and Cubs this winter, though likely has talked to several others without it leaking out. Those three clubs have all made bullpen additions this winter, with the Tigers signing Tommy Kahnle, the Jays signing Jeff Hoffman and Yimi García and the Cubs acquiring Ryan Pressly.
In the latter case, Pressly waived his no-trade clause from the Astros because he was unhappy with that club signing Josh Hader to replace him as the closer. It would therefore be quite stunning if the Cubs did the same thing to him by signing Jansen. The Tigers and Jays are better on-paper fits for bringing in a closer, though there are plenty of others. The Nationals, Angels, Diamondbacks and Brewers are some clubs that have competitive aspirations and don’t have a surefire closer.
Turning back to the Mets, Martino suggests that getting Stanek instead of Jansen keeps the door open a crack for a Pete Alonso return, since Jansen will surely sign for more than the $4.5MM guaranteed that Stanek got. The report from The Athletic suggests that, in addition to the lack of a closing opportunity, the Mets didn’t like Jansen’s price tag. No details were provided on what he’s looking for but late-30s relievers like Kirby Yates, Aroldis Chapman and Blake Treinen each got eight-figure salaries this winter.
The staredown between Alonso and the Mets has been going on for quite some time now. It does appear there is some mutual interest in a reunion, though the club’s behavior suggests they’re not too worried about him leaving. A couple of weeks ago, it was reported that they offered him a three-year deal that was valued in the $68-70MM range. When he and his representatives at the Boras Corporation turned that down, they reportedly decided it was time to leave the table and pivot to other options.
In the past few weeks, the Mets have seemingly pivoted to spreading money around to various other players. They have added A.J. Minter and Stanek to the bullpen in recent weeks, as well as bringing Jesse Winker back into the position player mix. None of those moves have explicitly blocked the path to a reunion with Alonso, but it’s possible they signal a willingness to spend their remaining budget on multiple smaller moves.
Both Martino and Will Sammon of The Athletic report that a depth/utility infielder is a remaining item on the to-do list. Jose Iglesias was a revelation for them in 2024, hitting .337/.381/.448 in 85 games, but became a free agent at season’s end. The Mets have a cluster of young infielders in Mark Vientos, Luisangel Acuña, Ronny Mauricio and Brett Baty but likely want all of those guys getting regular playing time, either in the majors or the minors. Therefore, bringing back the still-unsigned Iglesias or some other veteran for a part-time role is a sensible addition.
RosterResource currently projects the club for a $301MM payroll and a $297MM competitive balance tax number. They had those numbers in the $330-360MM range in each of the past two years, so they could certainly still add a big contract if willing to get up there again. But despite the seemingly endless resources of owner Steve Cohen, president of baseball operations David Stearns has taken a disciplined approach to roster building. Rather than go for the top free agent pitchers like Corbin Burnes or Max Fried, he opted for shorter deals for Sean Manaea, Frankie Montas and Clay Holmes, in addition to playing hardball with fan favorite Alonso.
Alonso’s situation is one of the biggest unresolved storylines of the offseason, with pitchers and catchers set to report to spring training in about two weeks. Despite his huge home run power, he hasn’t found a contract offer to his liking yet. That’s likely due to his limited overall profile, as his defense, baserunning and pure hitting skills aren’t considered as strong as the power. His offense was also a bit lower in the past two years compared to his previous seasons. If he doesn’t return to Queens, clubs like the Blue Jays, Angels and Giants have also been in the mix for his services, but the offers from those clubs presumably haven’t been overwhelming, given that he is still unsigned.
Despite the frustrating winter, it doesn’t appear an agency change is upcoming. Per Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet, agents are being told they can’t contact Alonso, seemingly because the first baseman has no interest in switching representation at this time. The first baseman had switched before, going from Apex Baseball to Boras at the end of the 2023 season. Though his free agency is playing out in frustrating fashion, it’s understandable that he doesn’t view now as a good time to make such a significant change, with the new season so close.
It’s theoretically possible that he decides to switch representation later, as Jordan Montgomery did last spring. After his disappointing trip to free agency led to a two-year deal with the Diamondbacks, the lefty switched to Joel Wolfe and Nick Chanock of Wasserman in April and later said that Boras “kind of butchered” his free agency. On the other hand, Blake Snell defended Boras after he also had to settle for a two-year deal. Snell ended up opting out and securing a five-year, $182MM deal with the Dodgers this winter. Matt Chapman and Cody Bellinger also had disappointing free agencies with Boras last winter and have stuck with him. Chapman ended up getting a six-year, $151MM extension from the Giants. Bellinger didn’t use the first opt-out on his three-year deal but will have another chance after the upcoming season.
Both Jansen and Kimbrel have pitched for the Dodgers, Boston, and Atlanta
Seems they’ve saved quite a few games for those ball clubs
Jansen’s best chance to close would be a team like the Diamondbacks, Angels or Tigers
I can already see it, Jansen to Detroit.
If he signed with the Angels it would likely be in setup roll to support Joyce.
Interesting, I feel like Kenley would close there. Arbitration prices go up with saves for relievers, so it would be beneficial from a financial standpoint for Angels to limit his early career saves before he hits arbitration. Also, Kenley generally would have greater trade value at the deadline if he’s posting same numbers as closer vs setup. Maybe not a strong argument there as he has quite a track record as a closer, but that’s generally the case when relievers are traded.
That feels like a convoluted reason to bring Jansen in as a closer with no real purpose other than to try to manipulate future cost.
If the Angels are bad and trade Jansen at the deadline, Joyce is back in the closer role with no change to his future cost. For a player who would likely be placed into a set up roll on a contending team and a rental will probably net a prospect rated at 45+
If they are good and Jansen is closing Joyce will still be getting holds which will still increase his cost.
Jansen could be good in Philly , they are short on a bullpen arm
people sleeping on how good Martinez was last year for the dbacks.
tigers make the most sense.
Rumor has it he’s going WSH
As a potential dark horse tean that would make sense. Jansen could help them be at least a fringe wild card team, if not a solid trade piece at the deadline
Jansen can close to his heart’s content with the Nationals. Come to Papa, Kenley!
Its very unlikely the Jays are willing to beat what the Mets offered Alonso. They might have had interest before they signed Santander. Now they are just being leaked by Boras to try and generate leverage.
I can see Giants stepping in now.
Unless he can hit 40 home runs and bat at least 250. The Giants don’t need him. His defense and being slow afoot don’t help his overall play.
@talking baseball
He has hit .250 and 40 hrs……his defense is NOT what’s being reported, it’s just when he makes a gaff it’s a classic faceplant in the dirt that makes him seem worse. He’s fine at 1B. Just one more thing….how many 1B are not slow afoot???
I agree. He also ranges too far for grounders that the second baseman could easily get, leaving first empty
I’ve heard of the Jays have the top offer but Boras is trying to get the Jays to up their offer. The Jays are not budging and it will be up to the Mets to beat the number or Alonso will have to go back to the Mets and their lesser offer.
The Toronto offer would have to be quite large to overcome the Canadian tax rate (53%) and Pete’s preference for staying in Queens.
Signing bonus is only 15% and anything deferred is 25%. Right up the Jays alley after following the Dodgers.
Also New York is 47.5% when factoring in state, federal and jock taxes.
Sorry I should have been more clear. It is not his contract deferral. He can choose to defer a portion of his salary for income tax purposes for retirement where he would only be taxed 25%. This was something that was introduced a few years ago to help Canadian teams in all sports to sign players.
Mets trying to let their fans down easy, but THEY JUST DO NOT WANT PETE. They made that offer knowing he’d turn it down, pretty obviously.
Yes. Not Stearns type of signing.
They’ve been negotiating for months. I’m sure they want him only at a specific price point.
3 for 90 or
3 for 70 with options is saying they don’t want him? Or they don’t need to offer more since nobody else is offering that much.
How about 3@90 with deferrals?
Stop peddling this 1AM wfan sports radio narrative.
If they’re lowballing him as you’re clearly implying, why haven’t any other teams meaningfully jumped in?
I like how Boras keeps losing. The biggest FA will obviously be fine no matter the agent, but the mid-tier seem to routinely be screwed by Boras.
Yes it is Boras you somehow blame with no knowledge whatsoever of what his clients have told him to do or if they rejected his advice. But you do you, just keep believing what you want without facts. Also plenty of midlevel Boras clients have signed and other than whiney Montgomery his clients seem to stick with him and get paid.
But there are facts, it’s easy to get data around his marquee players who end up signing 1 year deals in spring training cause he misread the market entirely. If you don’t see that you’re not paying attention. Gathering those facts is almost meaningless, just look at the players left at the end of the offseason and the deals they’d previously passed on and what they had to settle for. Sometimes Boras nails it for his guys but no agent misses more than him too, and he’s been missing more lately than ever before.
The only one was Monty. Snell and Chapman did pretty OK. Bellinger is TBD. There is still time for Alonso and Bregman to play out. He made close to $40M in commissions on the Soto deal alone. I know plenty of fans here root against Boras but he is not losing and keeps gaining clients.
Alonso will end up in Anaheim to circle the drain of irrelevance w Trout. And Rendon. And Adell. And Soler.
Irrelevant? Mike Trout?
I see him as contextually irrelevant, not personally. The team-building, and resultant team around him has been pretty inept.
Were Ernie Banks and Ted Williams contextually irrelevant?
In terms of team results on the field? In terms of maximizing Banks’ & Williams’ talents to the end goal? Yes.
@El Kabong: The Red Sox were really good during Williams’s tenure with them. It’s just that only two teams made the playoffs in those days. Red Sox were over .500 most years and some even over .600. But they were going up against the Yankees so they didn’t make the playoffs.
That’s ridiculous. Trout, Banks, and Williams are among the greatest players ever. What does that say about ordinary people in the workplace if these guys are contextually irrelevant?
“What does that say about ordinary people in the workplace if these guys are contextually irrelevant?”
The key word was “contextually”
El Kabong:
It says that if the goal or work is collective in nature, having one outstanding individual doesn’t matter if the rest of the team can’t do their jobs to a high enough standard to achieve the goal, and is an unfortunate waste of that individual’s talent.
What playoffs?
But you’re right that they couldn’t get past the Yankees (and a couple years the Indians) … except for 1946, when they couldn’t get past the Cards in the WS.
Trout hasn’t been relevant in years. He’s a good player albeit injured on a bad team that hasn’t made the playoffs in years. He didn’t want to be the face of MLB when he was good and now he’s just another overpaid player on the Angels.
No, the Angels as a team ding dong. Trout is playing for an irrelevant team.
Trout signed with that irrelevant team in 2019 you’d think he should have learned his lesson after missing the playoffs the previous 5 years.
A la Tony Gwynn, he apparently likes playing and living there. That’s not a negative; it’s admirable.
He’s an East Coast guy, loves his Philediphia teams. I’m betting he would have been happier in Philly.
Irrelevant meaning never being in contention to win anything except a random Tuesday night game vs A’s.
I’m not ignoring anyone, but it’s 1:00, and I have a work afternoon scheduled. I will check in later, although every viewpoint that needs to be expressed has probably been expressed. Later all. Thanks for the chat. Here’s hoping the Alonso saga ends sooner than later.
Although not mentioned as a possible destination in this article, Jansen would clearly be the closer if the Rangers signed him. I suppose the thinking is that another 10m+ contract just isn’t in the Rangers budget, so it’s not going to happen.
Stearns has constructed a good pen. Butto may be a trade chip now. Not suggesting dealing him would be a good thing, just that club seems to have a bit of a roster crunch with 7, 8 deep SP.
Its a possibility, but I don’t think so. There is a roster crunch, yes. but Butto is useful in the pen as well. Take him out of that equation and the Mets are left relying on too many unreliable arms too often.
Butto actually still has less than a year of service time under his belt. I don’t think Stearns is giving away someone this useful, this inexpensive, and with this much club control remaining.
Probably so. But if there is any kernel of reality to serious interest in a Cease, King or any top shelf talent, a package of quality would have to go back
Thats certainly fair. And that pushes a Blackburn or Canning back to the bullpen as a long man. That said, the Mets seem to touch base on everyone. I just never know how serious their interest is until something either does or does not come together. Everyone wants to add a guy like Cease or king. b
If Mets don’t sign Alonso they should try and sign Rizzo to a minor league contract at 3.5 million if he makes the club
Ew!
New Mets offer to Alonso: Three years, $60 mil with $10 mill in incentives for top three MVP vote, All Star appearance and Gold Glove (grin).
When camp starts, new offer: 2 years, $40 mill with $10 mill incentives, but only for MVP award and Gold Glove.
The Mets have all the leverage.
Let’s not overstate that leverage thing. The Mets have leverage because few, if any, teams want to pay Alonso what the Mets have thus far offered. . As (or if) the Mets offer goes down, it gets closer to the range that other teams might consider and the Mets’ leverage starts to lessen.
What the Mets offered was reasonable, what Alonso’s camp has requested is ridiculous. Its up to Alonso to see that and give a little. There’s no need, and no value in playing nasty for the Mets.
A smarter suggestion would be to offer Alonso the same 3/$70 they’ve already offered, and add incentives to that to bridge the gap between their offer and Boras’ demands.
As teams near spring training, many have already exhausted their budgets and/or filled their open roster spots. For that reason too, the Mets leverage increases. They have three viable young players to test in spring training if not beyond, and they gain a draft pick if Pete signs elsewhere. Even if all three internal options fail, the trade market is likely to offer a solution, especially with the flexibility of being able to move Vientos back to 3rd if need be.
If the Mets REALLY wanted Alonso, they’d have signed him by now, so it’s clear they view him as an option and nothing more. Given the luxury tax hit (and lost draft pick), I don’t think Stearns cares if Pete moves on, and from Cohen’s comments, neither does he.
Play hardball Mets, and if Pete moves on, no big loss.
SF will sign Alonso now that they have some more cap room by trading Rogers to Reds. Alonso has a great OPS at Oracle.
Why not 3/$95M(ish) for Alonso with big deferrals that bring the NPV down to ~$70M? He saves face, the Mets get to the level they want.
Maybe Pete would say no, but it seems like a reasonable approach to resolving this.
Because Alonso is not worth 3/$95ish, even with deferrals. And the deferrals that would bring the value down that much would have to be significant – probably more significant that Alonso/Boras would want.
If Alonso and his camp think he is worth $31M plus per year, why doesn’t that side offer to take the $23M per year that the Mets offered, plus incentives. If Alonso is right about his value, he’ll make the money back anyway.
But this is about ego. Alonso believes his HR bat makes him one of the games superstars and the premiere 1B and he wants to be paid as such. Asking him to earn his money through incentives, rather than straight up, still suggests that he did not earn the right to make $31/year. .
If this is true “ Martino suggests that getting Stanek instead of Jansen keeps the door open a crack for a Pete Alonso return, since Jansen will surely sign for more than the $4.5MM guaranteed that Stanek got”. and the Mets are pinching pennies maybe the Wilpons still own the Team. If signing a $5 M RP instead of a $10 M RP saves $5 M and they can now sign Alonzo then Cohen isn’t serious. I applaud the Soto and Minter signings and Manaea resigning but not overly excited about the other moves. The Dodgers have really shown how to manage an Offseason and Cohen has $18 B more than Dodger ownership. I’m also a Met fan.
Andy Martino has turned into a useless hack since joining SNY. Unless he specifically says he has sources he is quoting, anything he suggests is absolutely meaningless.
The Mets/Dodgers analogy is also wrong. The pre-existing depth on the LA roster and the quality of their farm system is light years ahead of the Mets. The Mets are still forced to spend money on the depth, as well as a starting roster. The Dodgers have enormous economic benefits from cornering the Japanese media market, as well as all of the merch sales. The least you can do is get your numbers straight. Stanek cost $4 mil and Jansen is projected to sign for $15, if not a multi-year deal. And Cohen’s personal wealth is only $9B more than LA’ s ownership.
As a Met fan who once liked Alonso, I will now tell him not to let the door hit him in the ass.
Don’t leave any baseball bats or dugout railings near that door.
If the Angels have “competitive aspirations” they’re smoking from the same bong as Dick Monfort.
That’s not weed. Gotta be something really bad.
Good to see the Mutts not budging on Alonso. He shouldn’t be brought back.