Yankees and Mets Facing Age And Salary Conundrum
Like all major league teams, both the New York Mets and Yankees face a conundrum of challenges regarding age and salary that thwart and defy easy solutions
Virtually every major league franchise battles with the conundrum of aging stars with exorbitant salaries. The disease does not escape the New York Yankees and Mets. Often, the puzzle defies logic and solutions are elusive or unreachable because teams dig the well too deep. Nevertheless, both the Mets and Yankees have an opportunity to learn from past mistakes by forging a new path to avoid the same errors in the near future.
Most baseball followers would probably agree that a ballplayer’s prime years are from 26-32 years old. There are exceptions, and generally speaking, position players have a longer life expectancy.
As a barometer, when a ballplayer reaches 33 years old, his skill set declines. Even though players like Hank Aaron were just getting warmed up at that age, we’ve witnessed the more common decay set in with players like David Wright, C C Sabathia, Curtis Granderson Mark Teixeria, and countless more who just “aren’t what they used to be.”
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From the outside looking in, what appears to happen with teams like the Mets and Yankees is they get caught up in this spiral and can’t get out because it’s too late. To illustrate this, let’s look at an analogy, linking a child’s growth cycle to the lifespan of a ballplayer.
In the beginning, between infancy and five or six (20-23 for most ballplayers), a child is totally dependent on his parents (minor league coaches) for survival. The child gets the parents’ undivided attention and they (coaches) teach, teach, teach. And like some kids who don’t listen and learn, some ballplayers will fall by the wayside.
Travis dArnaud, for example, has been told 1,000 times, once for each at-bat as a Met, that he holds his bat too high causing his swing to get long. Does he listen? Heck no, so you move on and tell him good luck.
At the next stage of development, children tend to become more independent and their personality takes on its own identity. This is also true among ballplayers, who by now should know what they can do best, and even more important what they can’t do. This is the time when they usually advance to the majors at around 24 or so. It’s also around this time when both parents and teams make the big mistake. They stop doing what they’ve done and begin to coddle instead of nurturing.
Teams allow players to make the bare minimum salary until they reach arbitration or free agency. By then, it’s too late. The window to securing both the player’s and your future has closed. Like the maturing teenager, he’s now full grown and older.
Your budding shortstop is now 28. If he’s commanding a seven or eight-year deal and you sign him, he’s going to be 35 or 36 by the end of the contract. You’ve succeeded only in digging a hole that you can’t crawl out of.
Both the Mets and Yankees are guilty of this and it’s hurt them, not only a little, but a lot.
In previous articles, we’ve talked about the specifics and if you’ve been following, there’s no reason to repeat them. But, just to drive the point home, take a look at the contract given (I said given) to David Wright, per Spotrac. At 30 years old, the Mets signed him to a deal in 2013 that doesn’t expire until 2020. The Mets should’ve offered him the deal at 25. They knew then he was David Wright, the franchise player on their team. Didn’t they?
Here’s the point. If the Mets or Yankees have a stud or two on their team now, who fits in with the overall team makeup, and most importantly has his head on straight, lock him in. Don’t wait. That way, the player has peace of mind knowing his financial future is secure. Also, you can breathe easier by avoiding those nasty arbitration hearings that draw blood on both sides.
Take, for example, someone like Noah Syndergaard who has yet to turn 24. The Mets have to know this guy is a keeper. They have to know the sky’s the limit for him. So why not sign him to a lucrative deal for as many as eight years, expiring when he’s only 32?
The Miami Marlins did this with Giancarlo Stanton and most would agree they went far beyond what was necessary. Surely, the Marlins will soon regret what they did as Stanton is guaranteed through age 39. But, they had the right idea.
The Mets could conceivably do the same with Jacob deGrom for fewer years since he’s already 28. As the Yankees get a closer look at their talent, maybe Gary Sanchez or Luis Severino warrants that kind of treatment in the near future. Perhaps, Aaron Judge. We’ll have to wait a year or two from now to see how the players develop and how the Yankees respond if they too become keepers.
To put it another way, how much more risk is there to sign a young player with an upside to a long-term deal as opposed to a veteran with declining skills? None.
Both the Mets and Yankees have made their share of contract “goofs”. Bobby Bonilla, for example, gets a check for a cool $1.2 million every July from the Mets until 2035! But we can all learn from our mistakes.
I tell my students all the time, “Those who refuse to remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Seems like that’s a good lesson for baseball too. Specifically, for the Mets and Yankees as the teams move forward.