With Opening Day roughly a month away, the Mets have not yet started conversations on possible extensions for Francisco Lindor or Michael Conforto. But team president Sandy Alderson expects that to change soon.
"We've had Conforto for many years. He's not only become an excellent player but also part of, I think, the leadership group within the clubhouse," Alderson told reporters via Zoom on Monday. "He's represented the Mets for a long period of time and represented us well. And I think if it's possible that we will make the effort to try and keep Michael with us.
"With respect to Lindor, we made the trade. It doesn't mean necessarily that we are guaranteed to have him long-term. But I think we're committed to talking about it. And I expect that those conversations will start relatively soon in both cases."
Since arriving at spring training, both Lindor and Conforto have maintained what they said earlier this offseason -- that they are open to signing long-term before hitting free agency.
Lindor has set a loose deadline of Opening Day to get a deal done since he doesn't want any negotiation to become a distraction. Conforto, at least on the record to reporters, has not set any kind of deadline.
On the question of whether the Mets should be comfortable extending Lindor before he's played a game for the team, Alderson said the Mets are not "concerned" but are "mindful" of it.
"We're gonna see him today and hopefully we'll see him often over the course of the next two, three, four weeks. I think that comfort factor will gradually take effect and we'll see where we are as we get through spring training."
Of course, the Mets signing any external free agent to a large deal is similar to extending a player like Lindor. Only in Lindor's case, the player has already been on the team for roughly two months.
In that vein, Lindor has already turned himself into a presence at Mets camp -- something that is not lost on Alderson.
"I think what we had been told -- that he brings more to the ballpark than just his glove and his bat. There's a lot more to the overall Lindor package, and I think we're seeing that demonstrated even before the games start.
"So from that standpoint, we've been very happy with what he's done. It's been all that we anticipated based on conversations of those that knew Francisco from his days in Cleveland. And is that a component of value? Probably, yeah. But I think that first and foremost it's about performance on the field.
As far as Lindor's desire to not have negotiations drag beyond Opening Day, Alderson said that they've taken that request at "face value" and will make "every effort" to see what can be done between now and Opening Day. However, Alderson doesn't necessarily view it as a hard deadline.
"On the other hand, if things don't work out between now and the end pf spring training, we'll figure out a way to hopefully continue to communicate," Alderson said.