Using last year as a model, it was expected that some high level free agents would still be on the market as spring training starts thanks to the CBA. This year there are a good amount of free agents in the group, such as Stephen Drew and Nelson Cruz. They’re interesting because their opposite counter parts have signed. Outside of the Drew, the best shortstop on the market was Jhonny Peralta, held back PED’s. He signed a four year deal with a 53 million dollar deal. Cruz is similar to Granderson. Possibly a bit better (injury concerns, not playing in Yankee Stadium for a while) but Granderson didn’t have a PED scandal.
So one player with PED signs a major deal, blocks the clean player. A similar clean player makes it more difficult for the PED player to sign.
There are the baseball reasons why the Mets should sign Drew. They need a shortstop, someone to hit leadoff, etc. There are also reasons the Mets should sign Cruz. Cruz pushes the power through the lineup, allows the Mets to toy with the idea of Granderson second in the lineup, possibly lead off with Murphy.
Initially at the start of the off-season, both Drew and Cruz were 15 million a year players (well, what they were asking for). Drew is much less than that, Cruz is near that, but would require a longer term deal. Cruz would make the lineup better, Drew fills more holes.
Why does Drew make more financial sense?
Well the Mets weren’t originally looking for two big free agent Outfielders (or more generally two major acquisitions) so they also got Chris Young. If the Mets sign Nelson Cruz, then money wise, if they want to use their recent acquisitions, they run Granderson/Cruz/Chris Young with Eric Young Jr / Lagares / Duda rotating in for Chris Young and off days. It spells huge depth, but it makes it really makes Chris Young redundant.
If the Mets could spend more money, they might be able to get both Cruz and Drew at below inflated market price. In that case sign both. But if they can only sign one, Drew would cost less, and free up more for next off season or something mid-season. If the Mets want to go with depth in the outfield and fix lead off, then sign both.
