MAJOR Mets Free Agency Update... This Is HUGE...

The Mets just sat down with the agents of a guy who spent the last seven years in a Phillies uniform. At the GM meetings, the Mets were one of the clubs that met with Alec Boehm's representatives, and according to Will Salmon of The Athletic, they'd play him at first base. If you only look at his season line, you can see why the Mets would be interested in talking to Boehm Mets first baseman put up a .667 OPS last season, which unsurprisingly was one of the worst marks in the entire major leagues. Boehm finished the year at .698, which looks like an upgrade at the one spot this lineup needed the most. That 698 is hiding a second number, though, and also .698's not that good within itself. Against right-handed pitching last season, Boehm's OPS was 644, lower than the hole the Mets would be signing him to fill. So why would the Mets pay starter money for that? Well, part of the answer is that they're far from the only team talking to Boehm. The day before the Mets meeting got out, Ken Rosenthal reported that the Yankees are also looking closely at him. Calling him a nice righty bat who finished very strongly and rakes against the lefties. Back in October, MLB.com's Mark Feinsand had already named the Mets as a fit, along with the Angels, the Reds, the Twins, and the Cardinals. This week alone, the Mets have also been tied to Tarik Skubal, Teruaki Sato, and a pair of left-handed relievers in Alex Vesier and Tim Hill. Boehm is the one name on that list who plays first base and hits right-handed. He also comes with nothing attached because the Phillies chose not to make him the $23.15 million qualifying offer. That means whoever signs him gives up no draft pick. And that's a big reason a down year still has six teams linked to him. He's played both corners in the big leagues, 708 games at third base and 182 at first. In Queens, though, third base is taken because Bo Bichette is signed there for $42 million in 2027. So, for the Mets, this is a first base conversation. And first base was a hole on the team that went 74-88 and finished last in the NL East. The question is whether Boehm is the kind of hitter who actually... closes that hole. To be fair to Alec Boehm, there is a legitimate argument to sign him, and that starts with his contact rate. He struck out in just 14% of his plate appearances last season, which put him in the 88th percentile in all of baseball. His expected numbers were even better than his real ones, with his expected WOBA up in the 56th percentile. He also drove in 88 runs, and a lineup that finished 20th in runs scored would take every Every one of those. That's the pitches agents are going to make this week. The trouble is what the whole season looked like once you add it up in totality. And that is, is that his wRC+ was 90, where 100 is exactly league average. Out of 135 qualified hitters, that ranked just 117th. It was the worst year Boehm's had since 2021. And you don't usually see six teams linked to a year like that. Unless you think that the season line is hiding a better hitter. And there's a case it is, depending on who's on the mound. Now, against left-handed pitching, Boehm hit .292 with an .816 OPS. Against right-handers, he hit .229 and slugged just .337. So when Heyman says he rakes against lefties, he is kind of right about that. The problem is, is that the version of Boehm that teams are excited about... ...is the version that the Mets would see the least amount of the time. Last season, he had 389 at-bats against right-handers, and only 178 against lefties. That's more than two out of every three at-bats coming against the pitchers he struggled with. There's a second split as well, and this one is about where he'd be playing. At home in Philadelphia last season, Boehm slugged 435. Away from Citizens Bank Park, his slugging fell to just 334. About 100 whole points lower. His average barely moved between the two, so on the road, the hits were still there, but the extra bases weren't. A move to Queens means that half of his games would be in somebody else's ballpark, and as many people are aware, Citi Field is a far more pitcher-friendly ballpark than Citizens Bank. And if you look at the version that Alec Boehm was as a hitter on the road, It's not nearly as good. Even the good version of Boehm from last year only showed up for half the year. Before the All-Star break, Boehm hit .215. In April alone, his OPS was .395, about as low as a regular gets to go and keep his job. After the break, he hit .298, and that's the strong finish Heyman was talking about. That good stretch was .255 plate appearances against .374 in the first half that went the other way. Free agents do get paid off the last thing you saw from them, so it kind of makes sense here that his, you know, market is ascending. But for Boehm, the last thing anybody saw last year was, you know, indeed the best stretch of his season. Over seven seasons in Philadelphia, his OPS was 735. He made the All-Star team once in 2024, and he's been a useful everyday player on a team that kept making the playoffs. So the real Alec Boehm is probably somewhere between the April hitter we saw, which was amongst the worst in the league, and the September one. That is a solid player, don't get me wrong, but it's not a bat that fixes the Mets' first base problem on its own. It's just not. The team that watched every one of those months up close has already made their own call on him. The Phillies have been trying to move on from Boehm for a while. Two winters ago, they shopped him to Seattle and asked for George Kirby or Logan Gilbert in return, according to Adam Jude of the Seattle Times. Seattle balked at that price, justifiably so, and Boehm stayed in Philadelphia. This month, when they could have kept him for one more season, they passed on that too. Jim Bowden listed Boehm among the Phillies candidates to be re-signed in October. So a reunion isn't impossible, but they just weren't willing to pay the $23.15 million price tag for one year, and Bleacher Report projects $30 million for two from whoever signs him. That's more total money and an extra year for a player his own team wouldn't pay one season at that price. The Mets have a very recent... There's reason to be extra careful with this exact kind of signing, and I think you can guess who that is stemming from. Last December, the Mets gave Jorge Polanco two years and $40 million to replace Pete Alonso at first base. Before that, he'd barely played first base in a 12-year career. He was coming off a .132 WRC Plus in Seattle, so on paper, it made sense. Then he hurt his Achilles and his ankle, went on the 60-day injured list, and when he did play, Metsmerized called him one of the worst hitters in the league. And you didn't need to read Metsmerized for that, you just needed to have eyeballs. By late August, he was done for the year and headed for ankle surgery, and he still owed $20 million for 2027. Boehm is healthy, and he's a different hitter. But the bet would look familiar, paying for a corner infield bat's best stretch and hoping it travels to first base in Queens. Unlike Polanco, Boehm wouldn't even be the everyday guy. Jared Young, who hits left-handed, had 47% of the Mets' first base starts last season. Mark Vientos took most of the rest, and he finished the year with a suboptimal 652 OPS. Brett Beatty, another lefty, was at 681. Put them side by side, and Boehm's full season is no huge upgrade from what's already on the roster. And Young's .759 OPS beat it by a wide margin. Against right-handers, his .644 would sit below all three for their full seasons. So if the Mets sign Alec Boehm, the honest role is Young's platoon partner, the guy who starts when a lefty is on the mound. Paying for a platoon bat by itself is fine, but paying starter money for one is where the logic of this just does not make sense. There's another right-handed bat, first baseman, on the market who doesn't need to be hidden from anybody. Ty France hit .295 for the Padres last season with a .141 WRC+. MLB Trade Rumors predicts he gets two years and $32 million. Bleacher Report projects Boehm at two years and $30 million, with an opt-out after the first year, which is close to the same bill. For about $1 million to $3 million a year more, depending on whose projection you use, France's WRC Plus was 51 points higher. And for the Mets right now, money is the tightest thing they have. Spotrac has the Mets at $234.9 million, already committed to their 2024 payroll. It's a projected luxury tax line that's currently at $247 million, so that leaves them about $12 million under that, but the rest of the roster, the arbitration and pre-arbitration players, projects to be about $47 million more, and that puts them over that threshold. Every dollar that the Mets would hand Boehm comes with a tax on top of it. So Polanco's deal is already inside that number and he's coming back from ankle surgery. Boehm at $15 million a year would put $35 million into first base and DH alone for two players who are both coming off down years. Meanwhile, the Mets have a meeting scheduled with Tarik Skubal next week per Ken Rosenthal. After the season, David Stearns said it was necessary to add to the rotation. If they mean that, the big money this winter is going exactly there, and a first base platoon is fighting for what's left of the remaining dollars. All of it runs on a clock because the labor deal, as we know, runs out on December 1st, 19 days from now. If the owners lock the players out and Major League signings stop until there's a new deal, then this could be very, very interesting. So the Mets simply cannot wait and see on Boehm because whatever they spend in the next three weeks all comes out of one budget. This is a bad move, okay? A platoon bat at starter money is just not what the Mets need right now, especially with the uncertainty, given that this was a tale of two halves for Boehm. And he was only really good against left-handed pitching, which came in about a third of his at-bats. He's going to be paid largely off of the hot finish to his season. And admittedly, he was a lot better, but there's another free agent who is also a right-hander, who can also play first base, that costs about the same and had a much better season. But let me know in the comments, what do you guys think of signing Alec Boehm at about $15 million a year? Would you do that, or would you save more of that money for the Tarik Skubal contract? Only, if it's a one-year cheap deal, then he could be Young's partner against left-handed pitching. I just don't really see that being a viable path for Alec Boehm. I do believe he's going to get a more lucrative deal than that. And I don't really believe that he will be a correct move for the Mets. But I guess we're going to have to watch. Does anyone give Boehm that two-year contract before December 1st? I believe so. And if you want the full story on that Tarik Skubal meeting, I broke down the latest updates right here. So go watch that one next. And as always, guys, comment below, let me know. And as always, go Mets.