NY Mets Rumors: Marcus Stroman contract expectations top $100 million

New York Mets rumors are beginning to trickle in. Much of the focus has been on the players from the 2021 roster heading toward free agency. A good chunk of those early Mets rumors involves starting pitcher Marcus Stroman.

Why all of the attention on Stroman? He might just be the best starting pitcher available on the open market. No loss of a draft pick attached to him, every team looking to improve their rotation next year should be in the mix to sign him.

According to sources to Pat Ragazzo of Inside the Mets, Stroman is looking at a deal spanning 5-6 years worth $25 million annually at a “minimum.”

Mets rumors are pointing toward Marcus Stroman pitching somewhere else in 2022

I’ve already accepted Stroman will be with another ball club in 2022. All signs point that way.

Now with these latest Mets rumors putting numbers to it, it’s all but guaranteed he will not call Citi Field home again.

Stroman didn’t have the best year of the free agent starting pitchers but when you add in his age and past performances, it’s tough to make the argument that other guys might be better targets. Robbie Ray has been up and down in his career. Kevin Gausman only recently showed he can be an above-average starter.

Then there are the older guys like Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander. How long can we rely on them?

At $125-150 million, Stroman becomes one of the richest players in Mets history. At still less than half of what Francisco Lindor is making, it’s a gigantic deal and one that might prevent the Mets from making additional moves. It’s not impossible to navigate the payroll with Stroman on the roster at this sum.

However, we can’t expect the Mets to have more than a handful of $100 million players on the roster. Adding one more this offseason to join Lindor and Jacob deGrom is probably realistic. This doesn’t even include Robinson Cano who, thankfully, now has much less than $100 million remaining on his deal.

I would predict it’s far more likely the Mets invest their next $100 million paycheck toward signing a bat. Offense was a bigger concern for them this past season. As much as the team needs Stroman, they already have other starters in place and have less expensive options.

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Mets rumors featuring Stoman as the headliner have, thus far, favored other teams signing him. I don’t suspect this changes anytime soon. Short of some bargain he’s willing to give the team, we’ll need to thank him for the memories in a couple of months.