Maybe the New York Mets were always serious about adding to the DH spot but only on their terms. The proposed plan of having Mark Vientos, DJ Stewart, and Starling Marte shuffle through the role was probably more of a Plan-B if none of the free agent options lowered their demands. J.D. Martinez finally did and we’ll soon get the treat of seeing him hit in the middle of the order.
One still unsigned free agent, Brandon Belt, was a Martinez alternative the team considered. So much so, in fact, they were reportedly the only team to even make him a guaranteed offer.
Why didn’t Belt take it? The deal was “almost entirely” based on incentives.
Belt is coming off of a productive year with the Toronto Blue Jays. Smacking 19 home runs in only 404 plate appearances, he added a .254/.369/.490 slash line to his history. Limited to mostly DH duties at this point of his career, he would’ve been a huge upgrade for the Mets over Daniel Vogelbach who, ironically enough, ended up replacing Belt on the Blue Jays roster.
The difference is Vogelbach signed a minor league deal in the offseason. Belt, apparently, wanted more of a guarantee. We can see why. Along with those 19 home runs he had 23 doubles. However, it did come with 141 strikeouts. Striking out in over a third of his plate appearances and limitations to facing mostly righties was enough for other clubs to pass on Belt.
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