New York is the home office for intrigue as free agency officially begins, with Aaron Judge and Jacob deGrom keeping Mets and Yankees fans looking desperately for even the smallest clues that might indicate their guy is staying put.
But beyond the two superstars, this free agent class is loaded with big names and the likelihood that many will be changing uniforms.
So let’s take a crack at predicting where the Top 10 free agents will land…
Don’t read too much into Brian Cashman’s inability to get some face time with Judge’s agent, Page Odle, during the GM Meetings in Las Vegas. No one knows for sure what Judge’s priorities are for his free agency decision, but it makes sense that he’ll at least want to hear what other teams have to offer as a way of creating maximum leverage with the Yankees.
Perhaps more significantly, if Judge wants to go back to northern California, where he and his wife grew up, it seems clear the San Francisco Giants will make him a huge offer. At the GM Meetings their president of baseball operations, Farhan Zaidi, said, “From a financial standpoint nobody is out of our capability.”
The Yankees can only hope the idea of becoming a captain and a legend for baseball’s most famous franchise matters to Judge, which would be in keeping with his public persona. If so, I’m convinced Hal Steinbrenner understands how bad it would look to lose a player who just produced one of the best seasons in the sport’s history, and he goes over the $300 million mark to keep his superstar.
I believe, as both Mark Canha and Zack Wheeler have said in recent days, based on conversations with deGrom, that the two-time Cy Young Award winner would be happy to return to the Mets. But I also believe he’s going to the highest bidder, wherever that may be.
Such is his motivation to make up for the five-year, $137.5 million contract he signed in 2019 that he seems to believe undervalued his worth, in part because it included a sizeable amount of deferred money — though it’s a lot harder to make that case after he missed half of each of the last two seasons.
In any case, it was worth noting that Edwin Diaz’s new deal included deferred money as a way of helping the Mets stay under the competitive balance tax, which seems to be a sign that Steve Cohen isn’t ready to blow past any and all payroll barriers to win a championship.
As such, I think the…