Jeff Wilpon and Mickey Callaway believe the Mets are built to win next year.
Whether two of their frontline starters are around to help them remains to be seen. And a run at Manny Machado still seems unlikely. Wilpon, the Mets COO, said Friday he intends to have talks with Jacob deGrom about a potential contract extension soon, though that hasn’t happened yet.
But Wilpon didn’t dismiss the idea of trading Noah Syndergaard, whose name continues to surface in potential deals.
DeGrom’s situation has been complicated by the fact Brodie Van Wagenen went from being his agent to his general manager. The right-hander, who just won the NL Cy Young award, is now represented by Van Wagenen’s former partner at CAA, Jeff Berry.
“I assume we’ll have a conversation with [deGrom’s] new agent at some point in the near future,’’ said Wilpon, pointing to the winter meetings, which will be held in mid-December.
Asked if extending deGrom is a “priority,” Wilpon said: “There are a lot of things that are a priority. We didn’t win many games last year. We’ve got a lot of priorities.”
He added that Van Wagenen is focused first on potential trades and free agency is “secondary.”
Syndergaard won’t become a free agent until 2022 and that control makes him especially valuable, which Wilpon understands. According to sources, teams have been asking about Syndergaard – the Padres were among the clubs that pursued the right-hander before last season’s non-waiver trade deadline, and a report Friday indicated San Diego has rekindled that interest.
“A decision has not been made yet,’’ Wilpon said regarding Syndergaard’s status. “It all depends on what Brodie thinks he can get back [in a trade]. If he thinks the return is outsized from what the value of Noah is, then I guess he’ll suggest it and we’ll move on and do that. But it takes two [teams] to make a trade and it would [have to be] pretty lopsided.’’
Wilpon emphasized he wanted his new GM to be “aggressive” this offseason. He and Callaway spent part of it on Friday delivering turkey dinners to families throughout the city as part of the team’s fifth annual Metsgiving.
“We have to win more games,’’ Wilpon said. “We have too good a pitching staff. … We’ve got to score some more runs and let these guys pitch and hold that lead. How we do that, where that comes from, Brodie has multiple different scenarios of how to get those runs and take us from what’s projected right now in the low 80s to a 90-win team.’’
He refused, though, to say he was willing to increase payroll.
“I don’t want to get into whether it’s higher or lower because everyone counts it differently,’’ said Wilpon, using insurance money as an example.
“[Van Wagenen] knows where we are now. Brodie knows what the parameters of what the payroll is and what we’re planning to do and he’s totally comfortable with that,’’ Wilpon said. “His board is full in terms of what he’s looking at.”
Even with high-priced free agents such as Machado and Bryce Harper available, Wilpon didn’t sound like an owner ready to make a big splash.
When the topic of potentially signing a player to a $300 million contract was brought up, Wilpon said: “There’s room to do things and [Van Wagenen] knows what that is. We’ll take a look when he brings it to us.”
– additional reporting by Mike Puma
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