Mets ‘monitoring’ Mike Moustakas as the free agent’s price keeps dropping

The 2017-2018 offseason has been great for relievers but pretty bad for position players, most of whom remain unsigned.

And as annoying as it is to say, that’s a good thing for the Mets. The organization that has rightfully been beaten up in the press over the last few months for their inability to improve the team may be playing the long game.

According to a report by John Harper of the New York Daily News, the Mets are going to be making more moves this offseason, but much like other teams around the league, they’re waiting free agents out.

One of the guys the front office is reportedly talking about is third baseman, Mike Moustakas. The former Royal and Noah Syndergaard super-fan, hasn’t received much interest from teams around the league this offseason. This has come as somewhat of a surprise seeing as how he had a pretty solid offensive season in 2017.

Moustakas hit the 5th most home runs in the league as a member of the Kansas City Royals with 38. While his on-base percentage wasn’t anything to be excited about at .314, when he made contact with the ball, it went pretty far as evidenced by his .525 slugging percentage.

The 2017 Comeback Player of the Year in the American League took advantage of every opportunity before hitting free agency this offseason. He had a career season and many, including the Mets, thought his price would be too high for a budget like the one in Queens.

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Unfortunately for Moustakas, it’s an offensively saturated market where home runs don’t nearly stand out as much as they could have in past years. Guys like Jay Bruce, Lucas Duda, for example, are similar to Moustakas in this sense and will be much cheaper. Neither of those three has yet to be signed to a deal.

Moustakas would definitely be an upgrade for the Mets at the hot corner, should they indeed pursue him. While it may not be the greatest thing for the team to have Asdrubal Cabrera play second, he did look okay out there when given the chance last season.

It’s true, he wasn’t happy about the move originally – and even asked for a trade – but that was mainly because he wanted his option picked up. Now that it’s 2018 and his team option was taken, Cabrera should be willing to do it all in the name of helping this team win.

A signing like this would automatically cast a shadow over the captain, David Wright and his attempt at coming back in 2018. While the Mets’ great didn’t see the field at all in 2017, and had to undergo more surgeries this offseason, he’s been expecting to get back out there at some point in the future. Planting Moustakas at third base would all but end that possibility without needing to move other pieces around.

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Wright has gone on the record stating that he knows the organization can’t wait for him to show he’s healthy and fully expects them to go out and get a third baseman to help the team win. The captain has always known it’s not personal, but honestly, there’s a part of me that would feel terrible if he got shut out of third base this season.

It’s a business though, and the Mets are in a position to win now. Maybe Sandy’s strategy of being patient will pay off. Signing Moustakas would definitely go a long way to prove that.