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Long hours, cheap food and an assist from a Mets great.
On Wednesday, the Mets' brass and Jacob deGrom described the marathon negotiations in Sarasota, Florida, that led to the ace pitcher's five-year, $137.5 million contract.
"I don't think that deals like this come together when things need to be done. There has to be a want to get it done," general manager Brodie Van Wagenen said at a news conference in Washington, where the Mets will open the season Thursday with deGrom on the mound. "And I think that was expressed on both sides of the table from the start of the offseason is that there was a mutual interest in having Jacob be a part of the Mets' history, and there was mutual interest that Jacob expressed to us of his desire to be a part of this. So when two sides want the same thing, then the challenge is on us from a deal-making standpoint to make that a reality."
USA TODAY Images "I've said it before that I've loved my time here and wanted to be a part of this team's future, and you guys made that come true, and I can't thank you guys enough for that," deGrom told the Mets on Wednesday's. "The fans have been great to me. I look forward to being here for a long time, hopefully a lifelong Met and bringing a championship to New York."
On Saturday, the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner said he wasn't optimistic about receiving a deal. But the situation turned in his favor soon after.
"Like any fair deal, there's points of contention," said Van Wagenen, who was deGrom's agent before being hired by the Mets in October. "There's points of doubt where you start to wonder whether or not a deal can be accomplished. ... I think that we knew there was a desire to create this long-term partnership, but we had to figure out what that looked like.
"And in that room, there were certainly some fun times, at one point we hadn't eaten for about six or seven hours, so I had to make a 7-Eleven run and brought some taquitos and mini tacos in for Jake. But we got through it."
Added Wilpon: "It was a long day. ... I wasn't going to let the plane take off until we were done with this deal."
Van Wagenen and Wilpon also said David Wright, the former Mets star player who now serves as a special adviser to the GM, was a "secret weapon" in the contract talks. Wright helped come up with a "creative deal structure" and also lobbied for deGrom, giving the front office more confidence in striking a deal, Van Wagenen said.
DeGrom's deal includes $52.5 million in deferred payments without interest. The 30-year-old right-hander said he was willing to take that deal "because I wanted to be here. I think that was the bottom line."
Said Wilpon: "We had a price point and an ability to go to a certain level of commitment to Jacob, and how we made that fit, it just happened to be with some deferrals. I don't think it's any big secret about how it all came about."
When Van Wagenen was hired, the Mets said he would recuse himself from negotiations involving his past clients. But talking to WFAN's "Carlin, Maggie and Bart" after Wednesday's news conference, the general manager said that was only partially true. He said he sat out negotiations about deGrom's and Noah Syndergaard's 2019 salary arbitration cases because he had been part of early discussions regarding those while still an agent.
"When it comes to long-term negotiations that are going to impact our plan, impact our franchise at this level, then I was in it from the beginning," Van Wagenen said.
Van Wagenen also said he wasn't really bothered by Syndergaard's "pay the man already" comments about deGrom last weekend.
"In some ways I was glad to hear players voice their opinions of how important Jacob was to this team," the GM said. "And Noah's a guy who has tremendous talent. He's sat at the top of the New York sports world when he was healthy and dominating baseball. ... To hear him voice his respect for one of his teammates was, in some ways, music to my ears because it realizes this team is coming together in the way that I hoped it would."