Veteran right-hander Luis Severino talked about the New York Mets’ meager attempts to reunite with him last winter when he was a free agent. Severino is due to start for the Athletics on Sunday when the Mets and A’s play in Sacramento.
What Was Mets’ Offer to Luis Severino?
Last winter, Severino expressed interest in re-signing with the Mets. In a video posted by SNY on X, he said, “I told my agent that I’d stay for two years and $40 million.”
The righty was amenable to the lower salary, even if it is far less than the three years and $67 million that Severino received from the Athletics. In the same interview he disclosed that he liked the atmosphere on the Mets even though he knew there would be less money.
Severino added that conditions were excellent on the team and that the trainers were amazing. By remaining in a position where he knew he could improve, Severino was attempting to make a financial sacrifice. However, he ultimately was not part of the team’s plans.
According to the Mets, the team showed some interest, albeit reportedly only at a lower cost. “The only offer they were going to give me was the same deal that they gave [Frankie] Montas,” Severino claimed to have heard from his agent. Thus, in his opinion, that was unfair.
Montas agreed to a two-year, $34 million contract with New York, with the option to opt out at the end of the season. There is also an opt-out clause in Severino’s contract with the A’s after the 2026 campaign.
In addition to being significantly less than the $22.3 million annual average value of Severino’s contract with the Athletics, the $17 million average annual value of that contract is also less than the $21.05 million one-year qualifying offer from the Mets that Severino rejected last autumn.
The 31-year-old found the $17 million decrease to be too much, especially considering the interest other teams were showing in him. Before Severino shocked many by joining the low-payroll A’s, the Cubs and Blue Jays were publicly linked to his market.
The lengthy staring contest of a negotiation with Pete Alonso prior to the slugger’s return to the team shows that, aside from the exceptional circumstances of the Mets’ record-setting expenditure to add Juan Soto, president of baseball operations David Stearns was generally fairly measured in his offseason transactions.
The Mets may have given more priority to Alonso and Sean Manaea (who both earned qualifying offers) than to Severino, or Stearns may have just not valued Severino above a certain price range.
