The Deal that Never Ends

The widely reported deal between the Mets and the Mariners has not happened, yet it may be the most discussed non-deal of all time. To me, a deal is not a deal until it is done, so I’m willing to hold off judgement until it is completed.

I am, however, impressed with Brodie Van Wagenen and his publicity machine. The New York press has been all over this deal for over a week, despite nothing actually happening. My dad called me on Thursday to say he heard the Mets made the deal. I assumed I missed the announcement during work, only to find that it was not done yet. Last night as I went to bed I saw a notification from MLB that made it appear that the deal was done, only to find this morning nothing new. When I looked at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer page for the Mariners, there is nothing about the deal at all.

Van Wagennen took a page out of George Steinbrenner’s book and generated interest in the team when little is going on. He has the Mets in the news, he has fans talking about the Mets, he even has Joel Sherman complaining that Mets fans are upset about the wrong things in this deal.

Lots pointed to the fact he is 36 and signed through his age-40 season. There was outrage over taking on a significant portion of the five years at $120 million left on his contract. Many were concerned about the quality of prospects going to the Mariners. There was fretting about blocking Jeff McNeil at second base and even worries expressed about the lack of a DH in the NL for Cano to fall into should he become a fielding detriment.

You know what I hardly encountered? Indignation the Mets were obtaining a player who missed half of the 2018 season due to a failed test for a banned substance.

So Mets fans think the deal is so bad they don’t even need to get the PED issue. Kudos to Van Wagennen to getting everyone in New York talking about the Mets. If the Boss was still running things in the Bronx, he would have signed one of the big free agents to a $500 million contract just to get the back page from the Mets.

The deal is supposed to be completed on Monday. We’ll see.

from baseballmusings.com https://ift.tt/2rfYr52