The New York Mets are heading toward a pivotal offseason.
They already took care of business in a big way last year when they signed Juan Soto, but two other star contracts are now in the picture: Pete Alonso and Edwin Diaz.
Both technically could stay under contract for next season, but both have opt-out clauses.
According to ESPN's Jeff Passan, both will likely choose to opt out and become free agents.
Alonso's decision is "a no-brainer. Alonso got $30 million to play this year and will forgo $24 million next year after his fourth career 30-homer, 100-RBI season," Passan writes.
For Diaz, he actually has two years remaining if he doesn't opt out, but probably not at the value he can get as a free agent.
"Díaz has two years and $37 million left on his deal, but with a 1.87 ERA and 4.5-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio, he's headed for free agency, barring the Mets doing what they did three years ago when they re-signed him before he hit the open market," Passan writes.
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Nothing Passan reports suggests that these players will be in a hurry to leave the Mets.
They're both beloved in Queens, the Polar Bear and the electric closer.
Steve Cohen has all the money needed to pay them both their market value and even more if that's what it takes to keep them around.
It'll tell us a lot about the Mets' team-building plans one way or the other with what they do here.
Is it worth overpaying for an aging first baseman? Is it worth overpaying for a one-inning reliever?
Those are baseball questions without the sentimentality that Alonso and Diaz evoke for Mets fans.
And the way those questions are answered by the New York front office will determine what happens next for these two stars.
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