December 11, 2013

Kendrys Morales Is A Mets Fit, At A Price

That is Buster Olney from ESPN, and obviously it is open and pure speculation, but he is correct. As the Mets weigh their options to make improvements at first base, Kendrys Morales would provide a competent bat in their lineup. A career .280 hitter coming off of a 23 home run season, Morales is still fairly young at 30. Of course, he is a Scott Boras client, which significantly cuts the odds that he lands in a Met uniform. Also working against the union is going to be his price tag: Morales turned down the one year, qualifying offer from the Mariners of $14.1 million. The per-year cost of Morales will be probably be there or a little bit lower, but it is going to take a multi-year deal to land Morales/

As always, Scott Boras is asking the moon for his client. From Jon Heyman of CBS Sports, in November:

Morales is one of 13 players given the qualifying offer by his incumbent team but figures to get a multiyear deal after hitting .277 with 23 home runs and 80 RBI.
Agent Scott Boras declined comment on the qualifying offer, but said regarding Morales and his numbers, 'Twenty three [home runs] and 80 [RBI] is the new 30 [home runs] and 100 [RBI]." That's a reference to declining power around the game, and how much interest Morales should generate.
Boras said they've calculated that only 27 players had 23 home runs and 80 RBI, less than one per team. Boras also alluded to him doing it in less than a hitters' park, "And he did it in Seattle."
It's time like this that having an inflexible budget hurts the most. Morales, as Olney points out, is not receiving the heavy interest in the market that he probably expected. Teams have found alternatives for filling their first base holes, and he is going to have to sign somewhere soon. This would be an opportunity for the Mets to extend a little past where they had planned to be, but make a big on-field impact.

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