The Mets And Francisco Lindor Agreed To A 10-Year, $341 Million Deal Just Before Opening Day

The New York Mets and new owner Steve Cohen were determined to make a splash this offseason and did so by trading for Cleveland shortstop Francisco Lindor, who is among baseball’s absolute best players.

A four-time All-Star, two-time Silver Slugger, and two-time Gold Glove award winner in just six seasons in the bigs, the 27-year-old Puerto Rican star was set to cash in on a new contract next year and so Cleveland moved off of him to gather up more prospects. The Mets landed one of the league’s top stars, but it came with the expectation that they would pay him. With Opening Day mere hours away, the two sides appeared at a stalemate on Wednesday evening, with reports neither would budge from their respective offers — the Mets offering 10 years, $325 million and Lindor wanting 12 years for closer to $380 million.

However, with under an hour until Opening Day arrived on the East Coast, the two sides struck a compromise and got the deal done, with Lindor inking a deal with New York for 10 years at $341 million, as was reported by, well, every major baseball reporter.

It’s a huge deal for Lindor, who leaps $1 million over Fernando Tatis Jr.’s full contract amount (14 years, $340 million) and falls just behind Mike Trout’s 10 year, $360 million deal in terms of average annual value over the lifetime of the deal, which begins in 2022. The Mets make sure to lock down their star shortstop of the present and future, and make good on their promise to make a major move this offseason to vault themselves closer to contender status.