What’s the holdup on the NY Mets re-signing Jose Iglesias?

We figured by the time Christmas came the New York Mets would have had Jose Iglesias stocked under the tree. Instead we woke up to a Jared Young plush doll, Donovan Walton sweater, and a box containing Luisangel Acuna and Ronny Mauricio that looks promising on the outside but once opened has an instruction manual with only smudged images.

A return to the Mets for Iglesias isn’t the absolute most necessary addition to make. He had the ultimate overachieving season last year. Because he isn’t a late blooming youngster or anything like that, it appears the Mets might be leaving him on the shelf after all.

The Mets haven’t made Jose Iglesias a priority, otherwise he’d be re-signed by now

Iglesias is one of the more unique free agents this offseason. Juan Soto wore a single horn across the top of his head because of the amount of money he received. Iglesias is special because he had a huge season no one saw coming and did it with a pop music career going on in the background. In what is an incredibly weak market for free agent shortstops and the consensus top one, Willy Adames, already signed, one might come to the conclusion that dominoes would have already fallen in place for Iglesias to get his deal.

The only other free agent shortstop available who looks like an everyday player after Adames is Ha-Seong Kim. Players like Iglesias, Paul DeJong, and Nick Ahmed are more of the versatile type to share infield duties at several positions. Those guys sure are necessary.

Shallower than the list of available shortstops heading into this offseason are the second basemen and third baseman. Gleyber Torres is the best remaining second baseman. New York Yankees fans scoff at that. Over at the hot corner, Alex Bregman is far and away the best choice for anyone trying to bolster that position. Notably, he’s on the decline.

It’s a stagnant market for non-first baseman infielders. In Iglesias’ case, we can wonder if his change to having Scott Boras represent him is a part of the reason why when Little Bobby ran down the stairs on Christmas morning only to see Iglesias was not a surprise late night signing. Chances are, he goes to bed before lighting the menorah without the fan-favorite infielder re-signed by the Mets. Little Bobby O’Brien-Silverman is a lucky kid who gets to celebrate both winter holidays.

Iglesias will play ball in 2025. The lack of offseason rumors involving his name suggests he’s a Plan-B or even C. He’d be a tremendously good option for any ball club to be a stop gap early on or platoon pairing. Break it to the kids when they’re old enough; Jose Iglesias is probably playing somewhere else in 2025.