At the end of the regular season, both the Mets and Javier Baez saw a chance for a quick deal, perhaps even before the beginning of free agency. Baez bought into Steve Cohen’s vision for the Mets, and Cohen liked Baez personally.
Even Sandy Alderson, who values on-base percentage above just about any other metric, was intrigued by Baez’s improvements last summer in that regard, though cautious about how much to trust them. Alderson also understood the entertainment value that Baez brought.
The Mets ended up spending October open to signing Baez but focused on their search for a general manager -- and a brief but intense effort to lure manager Bob Melvin from Oakland (Melvin ended up taking the job in San Diego a day before he was supposed to fly east to have lunch with Cohen).
Ultimately, the Mets determined that they wanted to find a leader of baseball operations before making major acquisitions. Baez’s camp knew there would be interest in him around the league.
On Thursday, Nov. 11, Baez’s agent at Wasserman, Nick Chanock, met with the Mets contingent at the general managers’ meetings in Carlsbad, Calif., and the team signalled that it was still interested.
In the weekend that followed, Cohen and Alderson interviewed Billy Eppler and offered him the GM job.
As Eppler got to work, he worked on the pursuit of free agents Starling Marte, Mark Canha, Eduardo Escobar, Jon Gray and others. For the sake of continuity, Alderson ran point talking to Baez’s camp because he had begun the discussions.
On parallel tracks, Cohen negotiated with Max Scherzer and pitcher Kevin Gausman -- both the agents and the players themselves -- with assistance from Eppler and Alderson.
Early in talks with Baez, Alderson floated a proposal for $125 million. The Mets were prepared to move quickly on a deal at that number, but Baez’s camp knew that other teams had interest. (This proved a wise move, as Baez later found an additional $15 million on the open market. Have you ever walked away from $15 million? I have not).
