00:00Joel Sherman back for three things. Why don't we talk about three things, Matt's, even though
00:05I'm in Arizona, it's my last day, full day here before I head home for a few and then back
00:12to
00:12Florida. Why don't I start with number one because I wrote about this the other day and it's been in
00:17the news a little bit, is a Freddy Peralta extension or no extension. Look, Peralta signed
00:23an extension early in his time with the Brewers. And I think you could argue that in his time from
00:312015 through 2022 that David Stearns ran baseball operations in Milwaukee. His best trade was one
00:39of his first ones. He took over in September 2015. A few months later, he made a trade with Seattle.
00:46He used Adam Lind. He got three prospects back. One of them was Freddy Peralta, who went on to be
00:50one of the best pitchers in the history of the Brewers. You could argue the best contract that
00:57David Stearns signed with any player while he was in Milwaukee was with Freddy Peralta. It was a
01:04four-year, $15.5 million contract that had two option years. By the way, the last option year
01:10is this year. It's $8 million. He obviously, on the calculation that Fangraphs did, he was worth
01:16about $125 million for that period for the Brewers. And the Brewers, it was the gift that kept giving
01:23because they got Jet Williams and Brandon Sprout for him in a trade in January. And the Mets got
01:30that last year of the contract, that last of the two option years, $8 million. There were a lot of
01:36teams who were in for Peralta, were trying hard for him. The Yankees even tried a little. I think the
01:44team that tried the second hardest was the Braves were trying to find a way to him. So he was
01:49probably going to go to the NLEs. The Mets got him. We're going to see, does history repeat? Does
01:54this turn out to be one of the finest trades that David Stearns makes with the Mets? And we're going
02:00to find out, does he get an extension and how good the extension is? I think when the trade was
02:06made,
02:06it felt like a foregone conclusion that going into his walk year, a team that lavishes money the way
02:13the Steve Cohn Mets do, would find a way to an extension with Peralta. I am less sure about
02:20that today. I do not believe there have been real serious talks yet. I think that there is a real
02:26gulf between the two sides. And if I was trying to figure out the gulf, I would essentially call it
02:33the Ranger Suarez to Dylan Cease gulf. It's hard for a team to pretend a player is a free agent
02:40who isn't.
02:41You usually should get some kind of discount, right? Instead of having to make 20, 25, 30 starts
02:46this year, if the Mets were able to come to an agreement with Peralta, they'd be taking away
02:51that risk before he went out in the open market. On the other hand, by going early, Peralta could say,
02:58treat me like a free agent right now because I'm allowing you when you have exclusivity to do
03:04something. Why don't we just generally pretend that he'd have to be paid somewhat like a free agent?
03:09Ranger Suarez and Dylan Cease both got their free agent contract after their age 29 season going into
03:1730. That's exactly where Peralta is. You can make a case, you can go to a place like Baseball Reference,
03:23Fan Graphs, etc., and see that there is statistical similarity someplace in the Venn diagram where you
03:30can see hints of Peralta and Suarez, and you could see hints of him in Cease, and the question would
03:36be
03:36where on the bucket do they fall? Suarez got five at 130 from the Red Sox. Cease got seven at
03:43210 with
03:44a good deal of deferrals, over 60 million in deferrals, so the real value drops to about 180-ish
03:51for that in current-day dollars. I think Peralta can make a case I'm better than, the results are
03:58better than Cease. Cease is what the industry loves because the underlying numbers and the piece of clay
04:03that could still be formed is there. The stuff is so high level. Suarez hasn't been as durable
04:09as Peralta, but has this great track record in the postseason that Peralta doesn't. So there is
04:18areas there where you can say he's a little like this guy, he's a little like this guy. Is it
04:23somewhere in the middle? Are these two sides able at some point to come to some agreement in the middle,
04:30or are the Mets adamant, hey, we're going early, it should be more in this Suarez bucket,
04:36and are the Peralta side, no, he's better than Cease, he just has to get through the season, and then
04:44with all the teams bidding on him, he'll get Cease or more. You know, we've got about, what, three weeks
04:50until opening day. We'll see if it gets done by then or shortly after. Remember, most teams may be
04:55carried over into the beginning of the season like the Mets did with Lindor, so that the $8 million is
05:01for luxury tax this year that he's making, and then the rest of it is pushed forward for further
05:05whatever our system's going to be after a new CBA. Number two, let's talk about Nolan McLean,
05:12who seems to be trending health-wise after a fair with vertigo-like symptoms. He is expected to join
05:21Team USA in Houston for pool play, and the way it's set up, I think we were the first to
05:27have this
05:27story yesterday. I talked to Mark DeRosa, the manager of Team USA. McLean is lined up to pitch
05:36the final on March 17th in Miami. He's lined up to pitch the 10th against Italy, which would be the
05:42final of the four of the games in pool play, and then he would pitch the final, again, if the
05:49U.S.
05:49gets there. There are a lot of plays from here to there. The way to think of this is there's
05:53seven
05:54games, and Mark DeRosa couldn't put the guys in order the way he wanted to. He has to put them
06:01in
06:01order of the way their teams are dictating to him, line up for those guys to start opening day,
06:08stay on their normal pitching progression, stay in their normal pitching preparation patterns.
06:13So, for example, Logan Webb is starting Game 1, and he will pitch twice in this tournament if, again,
06:20let's just assume for everything I say going forward, the Americans keep advancing. The Giants
06:26host the Yankees in the first game of the season. It's the Netflix game on March 25th, so he's starting
06:31Game 1. Tarek Skubal is giving them just one start in this tournament, and the way it lines up for
06:39him
06:39to stay in time to start the Tiger opener is Game 2. Paul Skeens is giving them two starts,
06:46but the way for him to line up and stay in the right preparation mode for the Pirates opener is
06:52Game
06:523 of pool play. That puts McClain in Game 4. It also puts him into the finals, also in part
07:00because
07:00Joe Ryan came down with a back injury. He was the other consideration, but when I talked to
07:07Mark DeRosa about this, look, I think McClain, with health, is going to be an ace, and I think
07:15Mark DeRosa thinks the same thing, and he also thinks that in March, if you could throw the ball
07:1990 miles, 95 miles per hour plus, you have a real advantage over hitters. Look, you have it all the
07:24time, but hitters aren't fully attuned to that, and he likes what McClain could bring. He thinks McClain
07:30can handle the big spot. There's always the downside worry you have to have about, especially
07:37pitchers in this tournament, but the upside is McClain is going to get a great experience if this
07:42goes all the way, and maybe show right away he's the kind of guy the Mets could give the ball
07:48to in
07:48any spot. Lastly, for number three, I want to talk about, this is the 10th anniversary of the passing
07:56of Shannon Ford, who was the senior director of media relations for the New York Mets. I'm sorry,
08:05I'm going to get a little emotional. Shannon was the best. I can't believe it's 10 years. I was in
08:12Met Camp on March 4th of that year, 2016. We had all known. She had stage four breast cancer.
08:23She fought a battle that I would not have been capable of fighting. She was so tough,
08:32but in the months leading up to eventually her passing, the word had gone out to her group of
08:38friends, which I counted myself among because she was the best, that the cancer had spread among other
08:45places to her brain, and we were talking about, you know, that there wasn't much time left. I will tell
08:52you
08:53that there's the title media relations, which literally means relations with the media if you choose to
09:00follow that path. And unfortunately, a good deal of people who do those jobs today think that that job is
09:08not
09:08about relations with the media. It's about protecting their relationship with players and their potential
09:14postseason bonus money. That was never the case with Shannon. The Mets were mainly a dumpster fire in her
09:2220 years working there, and she never did anything but behave professionally no matter what you wrote about
09:29her team. And she helped you do your job. And she did it with positivity and a smile and care.
09:38And she did that
09:39loving the Mets and taking care of the Mets also. There is a way to have, be in media relations
09:44and have
09:45relations with the media with not betraying your ball club. And she walked that line. I dare say, I wrote
09:53in the
09:54column the day she passed, that you'd find a unicorn before you found someone who disliked Shannon. I
10:01continue to believe that. On Tuesday night, St. John's honored her. They gave her parents, they made a
10:09jersey for her and gave it to her mom. Her family was there. John Franco of the Mets, who obviously
10:16loves
10:17Shannon as well and is a St. John's alum, was there. It's been 10 years. I'll tell you the anecdote
10:24I put
10:24in my column that night. I hope I get through it. And then I'll leave you for today. In October
10:31of that
10:31year, the Mets made a surprising and great run all the way to the World Series. Shannon was very sick.
10:39There was a part of her that looked a mess. Who cared? She found the strength to be able to
10:46work.
10:48During that. And in game three of the World Series, she was at the ballpark. And in the middle innings
10:57of that game, I decided it was more important to talk to Shannon in the back of the press box
11:00than
11:00to watch a World Series game. And the first thing Shannon did was ask how my children were doing.
11:05When she looked the way she looked and felt the way she felt. And I'll always remember it.
11:12And I'll always remember Shannon, who, quite frankly, was the best and whose memory should live on.
11:19And I said, she's got a wonderful book. And now that she was interested in my rights.
11:19Now, she said, she's going to be able to talk about it.
11:23She was having an diagrams and has been able to talk about it, and she said, she said, I'm not
11:24going to be able to talk about it.
11:24You
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