12:43pm: The Post’s Joel Sherman reports that Winker is guaranteed $7.5MM on the deal and can earn an additional $1.5MM via incentives.
12:32pm: Winker agreed to a one-year deal worth “about” $8MM, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports. A $1MM signing bonus is included in that guarantee.
12:21pm: The Mets are in agreement on a deal to bring free agent outfielder Jesse Winker back to the club, reports SNY’s Andy Martino. The Excel Sports Management client’s contract is pending a physical, per Martino.
Winker, 31, began the 2024 season with the Nationals. He’d signed a minor league deal after a pair of injury-ruined seasons that saw him undergo both knee and spinal surgeries in the 2022-23 offseason. The injuries that necessitated those surgeries in 2022 contributed to a bleak .219/.344/.344 showing with the Mariners that season, and the lingering effects likely played a role in his tepid .199/.320/.247 showing with the 2023 Brewers.
The 2024 campaign seemingly saw Winker back to full health. He hit .257/.374/.419 in 379 plate appearances with Washington before going to Queens in a deadline trade that sent minor league righty Tyler Stuart back to the Nats. Winker batted a diminished but respectable .243/.318/.365 in 129 turns at the plate down the stretch before catching fire with a .318/.531/.636 slash in 32 October plate appearances.
Winker figures to see the bulk of time at designated hitter for the Mets, who have Brandon Nimmo and Juan Soto locked into the outfield corners. Jose Siri, Tyrone Taylor and Starling Marte are also in the outfield mix, with Marte also likely to see time at DH if he’s not traded. The Mets have been exploring potential deals for Marte, who’s owed $19.5MM in the final season of a four-year contract, to no avail.
Winker could see some occasional time in the outfield as well, of course, and he’s likely to be platooned regardless of the role he occupies. He’s a career .276/.379/.463 hitter against righties but just a .210/.324/.338 hitter against fellow southpaws. Winker can work a walk against left-handers, but nearly all of his power comes in advantageous platoon matchups.
The broader and more impactful takeaway from Winker’s reunion with the Mets is that it could spell the end of Pete Alonso’s time with the club. Martino reports that the Winker agreement is the beginning of a pivot away from Alonso, whom the Mets feel is likelier to sign elsewhere than in Queens. Their plan moving forward appears to be to spread that would-be Alonso money around to different targets, the first of which is Winker.
With that in mind, it’s possible the Mets could look to external options at first base, but a good portion of that market has been picked over. Sticking in-house, Mark Vientos would likely move from third base to first base, opening the hot corner for a competition between Brett Baty, Ronny Mauricio and Luisangel Acuña. There are more options at third base on the market than at first base — Alex Bregman, a Nolan Arenado trade — but it’s hard to square the idea that the Mets would balk at a long-term deal for Alonso and then make a sizable commitment to older infielders like Bregman (still seeking a long-term deal) or Arenado (34 and owed $64MM over the next three seasons).
The addition of Winker pushes the Mets’ payroll to about $287MM, per RosterResource. Their cash payroll is actually a slight bit higher than their luxury tax ledger, as the Mets’ long-term deals with Edwin Diaz and Kodai Senga are a bit front-loaded and carry 2025 salaries that are higher than the contracts’ respective annual values. New York currently sits about $17MM shy of the top $301MM luxury tier. They’ll pay a 95% tax on any dollars spent up to $301MM and then a 110% tax on any dollars thereafter. Because they’re now exceeding the $241MM threshold by more than $40MM, their top pick in the 2026 draft will drop by ten places (barring additional moves to duck down into and remain in the second penalty tier).
Wink wink
Club house cancer. How many teams has played for since the reds traded him years ago ? Wasn’t well like in brewers clubhouse. Cohen should have donated 8 million to fire victims in California instead.
Was sure he was heading to the Brewers, guess not.
What does this do? Push Marte back in the OF, Nimmo in CF, and Siri in a platoon?
No a DH platoon
Marte as the platoon? Or Siri and Winker platoon with Siri in CF, Marte DH against lefties with Winker as DH, Marte in the field against righties?
Marte and Winker as the do’s
Designed hitters I mean
Winker as DH vs RHP. Marte (or possibly Vientos if/when he needs rest) vs LHP.
Who cares what it does to Marte. If he plays he plays. If he is salary dumped traded. If he is dfa.
Bye Pete
Still room for him. Baty shouldn’t be a lock for playing time. Looking at their lineup, adding Pete right behind Soto, sliding everyone else down a spot would look good.
fangraphs.com/roster-resource/depth-charts/mets
Nope
Sign Soto for $800M then surround him with a bunch of hacks, has-beens & never will be’s. Brilliant! Ahahahahaha!
“surround him with a bunch of hacks, has-beens & never will be’s. Brilliant”
118 OPS+ last season and career 800 OPS but OK
Now the Mets aren’t expected to get Pete back
@ChrisMonte The Mets were never signing Pete. Tip of the hat to Stearns for handling the situation with grace, even to the point of not belly laughing in public at the absurd 3/90m ‘offer’ from Boras with, get this, two opt-outs.
It’s been unfortunate, to watch the graceless way that Pete’s side has approached this offseason. It’s like watching a gf who won’t leave her ex alone, won’t stop pleading with him to take her back, who refuses to get the message. Boras’s 3/90m was designed to use the Mets to get other teams to consider requesting a comparable offer, but it doesn’t appear to be working. It’s like the gf who thinks she’s dressing provocatively but only looks foolish. Why would you not only pay Mr. 2.1 fWAR in 2024 a near-record AAV for a 1Bman, but in the unlikely event you strike gold and he rebounds to his 2022 performance, he walks away?
You’re stuck with the downside, and lose the upside.
—-As for adding Winker, it’s couch cushion money but it strongly suggests the Mets aren’t interested in designating Baty their DH, even against RHP. So since they haven’t dealt him before this, when the return would have been as good as it gets among teams looking to fill roster slots, it seems like Baty may well be their 3Bman with Mauricio and their backup MIer behind him in the Depth Chart.
Makes sense. He only needs to repeat his 2024 numbers over 500 PA to give the Mets 1.5 fWAR in 2025. Anything more is gravy.
Platoon with Soto in RF?
Two lefties platooning… never mind that one just received $765M. C’mon brah.
Jack how bout a couple more girlfriend references to try to get your point across, what a maroon. Ahahahahahaha!
It probably means shopping Marte. Since the Outfield will be Nimmo/Siri/Soto with Taylor as the primary 4th platooning Marte and Winker at DH is likely if they can’t move Marte.
From a pure roster standpoint this is one more nail in Alonso’s Mets coffin…
@Bob Sacamano 310 Injuries have left Marte one of the worst OFers in baseball. The lowest 7th percentile by Fielding Runs and lowest 4th by OAA. He’s DJ Stewart-bad out there.
Nimmo’s not even running well yet. He’s not going back to CF except rarely. As for Winker, he’s actually worse than Marte in the OF. He’s a DH, only, taking the OF in ‘break glass…’ situations.
It’s very unlikely the Mets will go with a platoon at DH when neither Marte nor Winker can play anywhere else. That’s two roster spots for what rates to be very modest production. They’ll probably eat 17m of Marte’s final year and send him along to the White Sox for a project like a 29 year old reliever who K’s 12 and BB’s 7 per 9, primarily to have another roster spot to play with.
Did any MLB teams have a strict platoon at DH in 2024? Can’t think of any.
Basically, Cohen is telling Boras that the Mets don’t need Alonso. So take our offer or hit the highway.
Idk looking at that lineup, they still kind of do.
Winker is a bat-only guy with a .764 OPS last year. Alonso is a bat-only guy with a .788 OPS last year. Cohen just told Boras that he can find an Alonso clone real cheap.
@CaseyAbell Winner. The Mets can also cycle their everyday players in a fairly old lineup through the DH slot when they face RHP. That rates to do as least as well as Marte without chewing up a roster spot just to get a 36 yo at bats from the short side of a DH platoon.
They replaced Alonso with Soto. Help me understand if that’s not an improvement on its own? Offense wasn’t the issue last year.
True, though they’re missing a half season of .337/.381/.448 hitting, an .830 OPS and 137 OPS+:, totaling 2.7 bWAR on offense. Even if they bring Iglesias back he’s not coming close to that again.
Without Alonso and / or a big bat to replace him the 2025 Mets at this point are not better offense than the 2024 Mets.
For a team that just spent huge on Juan Soto the Mets haven’t really added any major other pieces around him to make the team be a factor. With the Mets lack of pitching additions to date there is even a debate as to if the Mets are the best team in the division let alone the league.
I thought when the Mets made the Soto signing they would go get a top tier starting pitcher: and another big bat. Yet as of this morning that hasn’t happened.
As if on cue there’s now a report that the Mets expect Alonso to sign elsewhere. Okay, it’s only the sports media, though SNY is pretty well-connected to the Mets. But it sure looks like a message is being sent to Boras.
Winker is not even close to Alonso offensively. So if you think a message is being sent don’t think it’s a smart message and the Mets still need a big bat.
You’re right. Winter finished a massive 24 OPS points behind Alonso last year. MASSIVE.
Okay, Winker is a strong-side platoon guy while Alonso plays all the time. But Cohen is announcing that even he doesn’t feel like spending gazillions for a seven hundred something OPS with little or no defensive or baserunning value.
Vs RHP he gets pretty close. Obviously not in hrs.
The “big bat” is Soto. Lindor, Alvarez, Vientos and a Marte/Winker platoon isn’t terrible and they could still plug First Base with a lower cost option (Anthony Rizzo, Justin Turner) and let’s not forget Joey Meneses is in camp, maybe playing on a contender will wake his bat back up
The Mets offense is significantly better than in 2024. Obviously. They added Soto (and Siri replaces Bader) and elsewhere the projections at fangraphs by fWAR are
Alonso 2.4
Mauricio / Baty 1.8
Winker 1..6
They also get a full season from Vientos, Alvarez is closer to his prime years, and they get the full season of Winker rather than two months, where it’s fair to note he hit in bad luck.
They’ve already improved on Alonso and at 3B they found a slot where they’re most likely to get useful numbers from prospects / young players making about $1m each.
Third rate team as it sits now,
@CaseyAbell The Mets aren’t offering Alonso anything.
Why would they? He only blocks a young player, and the money can be better spent elsewhere.
Would you rather have (A) or (B), given they cost about the same amount in AAV:
(A) Alonso at 1B, Vientos at 3B
…or…
(B) Vientos at 1B, Baty / Mauricio at 3B, Flaherty SP, Tanner Scott RP ?
Jesse Winker is definitely a 1 year at a time guy. Hopefully the Mets didn’t commit to multiple years.
The prodigal sun returns
If the Mets don’t protect Soto he will bat 250 with 35 hrs and it won’t be enough. He will get pitched around. Better get Pete
@Taker
If Soto didn’t have protection, he’s likely to take more walks than to see his basing average plummet.
100% Mets need more moves; either offense or pitching. As the middle to back end of rotation doesn’t look as strong as other teams. Also the Mets to date don’t have the offense to win in a slug feast
it’s not like Soto had protection with Washington. he still dominated baseball.
Yeah but in 22 he batted like 240 and 23 he batted 275. I agree he may get walks more but for him to be the player they need it’s not to be walked.
He was so good for them in the postseason last year that he probably bought himself a new contract
This guy is a bad role model for kids.
What, you don’t approve of the guy humping the dugout rail, humping his teammates, and teaching children the LFGM chant?
Prude
/s
Ladies and gentlemen, we got him!
We like Jesse.
He is now the guy Seattle thought they were getting
Bounce back from playing at T-Mobile doesnt always happen but seems it does with a lot of formerly good hitters. Mariners need to all fix that batters eye. wondering if Polanco ends up the next rebound and is a steal by someone this year.
true dat big dawg
Here I thought he was going back to Milwaukee
Just the kind of protection the coddled Soto needs…whoop-te-do!
Winker could’ve easily gotten paid more if he had listened to Roger Beshens…. sad really
Great move. Winker was a solid addition at the break last year and fit so well with the team. Became a fan favorite. Just a one year deal, good stuff from the Mets here.
I approve of this move. Now bring back Iglesias.
Winkler is nice but I’d rather them overpay for Flaherty with that $8M and let one of the kids play the role.
They’re already doing that at 3B, and they don’t really have two young players not including Vientos who they’re confident can fill two of 1B, 3B, and DH in 2025.
I like it.
Love the Winkman! I smell a major bounce-back year with more playing time. Either that or he’s injured in ST and out for the season.
It’s funny how a player changing teams changes the opinions of people about them. I remember when Winker played for the Reds, the Mets fans despised Winker but now he is a beloved favorite among Mets fans.
There is nothing wrong with this either because we have all pretty much done this with an athlete at one point or another.
For my fellow Reds fans it happened with Yasiel Puig. A lot of people bemoaned the Reds for getting him because of the way they perceived him in L.A. (their perception was completely wrong) but after coming here he could have defeated Sean Casey in an election for Mayor of Cincinnati.
Winker is a spark plug. Emotionally good for the team, very high energy. Bat is ok, defense is ok, so he’s a good addition to spell an everyday player, or a situational bat off the bench. Alonso is an everyday player however, also a great clubhouse guy though. The Mets aren’t replacing Alonso with Winker, just fortifying the bench. Signing Alonso should still be a priority as Vientos doesn’t seem like a proven defensive replacement (not that Pete is top of the line either) and there’s no assurance he will repeat 4 exceptional months of offense once teams can adjust to him. Strong bats in the minors won’t be ready for another year or two so signing Winker on a one year deal makes good sense until they’re ready.
@af1257 Christ. Winker is easily one of the worst OFers in baseball. He might get a dozen emergency games there in 2025.
Worst ONE percentile by OAA. 10th worst percentile by Fielding Runs.
Statcast is your buddy.
He did well for them so 7.5 is a pretty good deal. I know he likes fan engagement more than most 🙂
Great move, we needed a better DH option than Marte, and having a platoon with them will be nice. Still not enough though. If we are not signing Alonso, at least sign Bregman. We cannot compete with teams like the Dodgers with Baty at 3rd
I like Winker and his attitude lol, how about a big trade with Cleveland ( Baez, Mauricio, Jett, McNeil and Tidwell for Jose Ramirez) move Vientos to 1b. Sign Tanner Scott.
With this roster I’d expect the Mets to win 80 games and miss the playoffs by a mile.