Poll: What AAV will David Stearns give in a three-year deal

Pretend you’re David Stearns, which is different than pretending that you have David Stearns’ job. After witnessing how Stearns works for over a year now, how do you think he views the roster? From Stearns’ point of view, do you think he views the club as needing a starting pitcher, two relievers, a corner infielder, a DH and two reserves? My opinion is that Stearns views the current roster as much closer to complete than that.

Still, as PoBO, he has to continually look for efficient ways to upgrade the roster, to take advantage of any opportunity that might be out there. Which is why the club met with Roki Sasaki and had some contact with Tanner Scott. It would be wonderful if the Mets added either of those two players. It still seems unlikely to happen, in either case.

The Mets wanted Yoshinobu Yamamoto and went after him hard. They proposed the deal that Yamamoto ultimately signed with the Dodgers. This year the Mets went after Juan Soto hard and were able to make the deal. It just feels like the Mets’ pursuit of Sasaki and Scott is at a much-different level than Yamamoto and Soto.

And even if you feel Yamamoto and Soto are not good comps, Stearns and the Mets prioritized Luis Severino last year and signed him on December 1. My take is that this offseason, Sean Manaea was a priority target, too. He didn’t sign as early as Severino, as he inked his deal on December 27. But there was likely more competition for Manaea this offseason than there was for Severino the previous year.

It seems clear to me that there are two main ways that Stearns operates. The first is to go aggressively after priority targets. And the second is to gauge the market, looking for value in potential additions/upgrades.

The elephant in the room is Pete Alonso. Clearly, he wasn’t a priority target, as it’s mid-January and he hasn’t signed and from published reports, he hasn’t received a ton of interest elsewhere at his current asking price.

But he’s not someone who’s going to be available at a value deal, either. The last two seasons, Alonso has produced a combined Dollar Value of $39.5 million, according to FanGraphs. There’s no way Alonso is agreeing to a deal with an AAV of fewer than $20 million.

Stearns doesn’t have the history with Alonso that others in the organization - to say nothing of the fans - do. Still, he’s bent over backwards to say all of the right things publicly. While we have no idea what’s been said behind closed doors, a neutral observer would say that publicly, the Mets haven’t burned any bridges with Alonso.

And now the Alonso camp has allegedly made an offer of a short-term deal with opt-outs, one that is reportedly available only to the Mets. Of course, we haven’t heard what the AAV of this short-term deal would be. One would assume that it would be a higher number than the AAV on a six or seven-year deal.

The Athletic speculated terms at 3/$93.3 million, because the AAV of $31.1 million would set the record for highest AAV, eclipsing the $31 million of Miguel Cabrera, back in 2016.

So, while you’re pretending to be Stearns, what do you think his reaction to this type of deal would be? Clearly, there’s pressure on him to re-sign a very popular player. But there’s pressure from his own core values not to overpay anyone.

The following poll question is to be answered thru the lens of Stearns, not your personal view of what the Mets should do. Again, this is not about your personal view. One more time, for those in the back - this is a question about Stearns’ value of Alonso, not yours.