Mets Considering Trading deGrom?

Mets ace Jacob deGrom has been at the center of trade talk that he's going to be the next to go from the Mets, despite all efforts for the past few seasons to put together a long-term deal to keep him in the Big Apple. Now, his agent has come out and seemed to indicate that a trade may be coming in the next few days.

deGrom's agent, Brodie Van Wagenen of CAA Baseball, said this statement to The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal about the state of the relationship between deGrom and the Mets:

“We have discussed Jacob’s future with the Mets at length,” said Van Wagenen. “Jacob has expressed interest in exploring a long-term partnership that would keep him in a Mets uniform for years to come. If the Mets don’t share same interest, we believe their best course of action is to seriously consider trade opportunities now. The inertia of [the] current situation could complicate Jacob’s relationship with the club and creates an atmosphere of indecision.”

Van Wagenen later added in a follow-up that he is not demanding a trade for his client, but it looks like he is trying to push the Mets into either getting a deal done soon or thinking about other options for the ace pitcher looking to find a winning team somewhere else. Trust me, there's plenty of teams out there that can use him.

If deGrom is not traded by the deadline, he'll become a prominent trade target for teams when the 2018-19 offseason opens up. This could add another level of complexity to this offseason that is set to feature the most impressive free-agent class in recent memory.

During All-Star festivities today, deGrom had a chance to respond to his agent's comments, saying this:

“We’ve been open to discussing long-term deals with the Mets. There’s been no numbers discussed, and I’ve enjoyed my time here. … I would love it to be here with the Mets. We’ll just have to see what happens. … I would love to play here for my whole career. I think it’s just kind of deciding what we see as the future. It’s something that’s in the Mets’ control, and kind of out of mine.”

Despite all that has been said about deGrom and his agent, it's become very unlikely that the two sides will be able to reach a deal before the trade deadline. If that were the case, the rest of the front office would be thinking about trading other players. That would have to happen if they expect to sign him long-term.

These types of comments from agents don't always serve as a catalyst for a trade, but there was one notable one recently: Christian Yelich. Yelich was moved from Miami to Milwaukee not long after his agent Joe Longo made comments that were similar in tone to those of Van Wagenen. J.T. Realmuto was a rare exception, when his agent Jeff Berry said back in February that Realmuto would prefer to be moved.

deGrom is still under control by the Mets til 2020, and he's already earning $7.4 million. At the end of his arbitration years, he could find his salary bumped up to as much as $20 million. Any extension talks would have to be at least five years. It's very likely, however, that deGrom and his camp would like to push that extension to an either six or seven-year deal.

Assuming deGrom gets an extension, it could possibly be a franchise-record contract for this organization. Currently, David Wright holds that distinction on an eight-year contract with $138 million. Maybe deGrom is looking to break that record.