Mets and Lindor Two Years And $60 Million Apart

The clock is ticking for the New York Mets and superstar Shortstop Francisco Lindor to get a deal done before the season starts this Thursday. That's the deadline set by Lindor to stop focusing on contracts and start focusing on playing baseball. So here we are on Tuesday morning and both sides seem eager to get a contract signed but still sit a reported two years and $60 million apart.

Even though Mets Billionaire owner Steve Cohen and Lindor sat down to dinner together, which seemed to signal the two sides were close Lindor has turned down the Mets "Final and Best offer" of 10 years for $325 million. Newsday's Tim Healey is reporting that Lindor counter offered 12 years for $385 Million.

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IT's interesting because technically the Mets offer would give Lindor the 9th highest annual salary in the MLB at $32.5 Million a year according to Spotrac.com. His offer would keep him in that range but drop the annual to $32.o8. OBviously at 27 years-old Lindor would love to lock up the additional two year and $60 million but is there wiggle room. The overall scope of the Mets offer puts Lindor ahead of names like Gerrit Cole and Manny Machado but not where fellow shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr is. Tatis signed a 14 year $330 million dollar deal with the Padres. So if Lindor wants to sign the biggest deal for a shortstop $335 million is a key number BUT if Lindor is looking to sign the largest total deal by an MLB player not named Mike Trout he might hold tight on his number of $385 million.

Mets owner Steve Cohen is no stranger to massive financial deals but I wonder if he was ready for these kinds of demands this early in his regime? For Mets fans sake I hope this gets settled fast because The 2021 season starts at 7:09 pm this Thursday in Washington.