With A Lockout A Looming Likelihood, How Will The New York Mets Negotiate The Offseason?

The New York Mets probably didn't enter the 2026 season with a main goal of authoring a self-help book titled "What Not To Do With A $357-Million Payroll," but, you know, the best laid plans of mice and men, and all that....

Now, owner Steve Cohen and general manager David Stearns are left to sift through the wreckage of a 74-88 record and last-place finish in the NL East as they look forward to a better 2027.

But blocking the way as they try to move forward is an 800-pound gorilla called an owners' lockout of the players.

Though it has lurked in the background like an evil specter all season, there is every indication that at midnight on Dec. 1, a mere 54 days away from Oct. 8, a lockout of the players by MLB owners will finally transform from scary nightmare into reality.

The most obvious indication that this will be the case emerged on Oct. 7 when Evan Drellich, a writer for The Athletic, reported that the MLB central office had begun internally communicating the parameters for what a lockout will look like.

Drellich reported that a confidential memo that was sent to team executives on Oct. 1 stated that the basic facts of a lockout will be these: "Virtually all business between MLB players on 40-man rosters and their teams will halt until there’s a new deal. No trades, no signings."

All indications are that, after both sides took part in periodic negotiating sessions during the season, the main roadblock to an agreement is the owners' insistence that a hard salary cap - to which the players' union has always been staunchly opposed - be put into place prior to the 2027 season.

Some cynics among us at this point might say that if a salary cap is to be deployed its No. 1 task might be to protect Cohen from himself. <sarc>

While it's patently obvious that if any type of cap is approved, it will be nowhere near $357 million, what will that actual magic cap number be?

In a report on Oct. 8 at nolo.com, Aaron Hotfelder writes that the owners have proposed a salary cap of $245.3 million per team with a salary floor of $171.2 million that would be required to be spent by all 30 organizations.

"MLB argues that the proposed system would reduce the spending gap between clubs and improve competitive balance," Hotfelder writes. "The MLBPA strongly opposes the proposal, arguing that a cap would restrict competition for players' services and suppress compensation."

With the Mets not the only team that already has a total payroll above the proposed new cap, that leads to questions regarding if those teams will need to move players in order to get below the salary-cap threshold, or if existing salary totals will be grandfathered in for a number of years.

What it probably means for sure is that Cohen will need to tread carefully as he looks to remake his underperforming team - which is something that does not typically come easy for him.

Already, rumors have surfaced that he wouldn't mind adding impending superstar free-agent pitcher Tarik Skubal to the Mets' rotation when his contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers expires at the end of the postseason.

That wish, and any other big-splash moves Cohen and Stearns may be contemplating, may need to be tempered as the reality of a lockout becomes more and more likely.

But, if you believe the doomsayers, that may be a situation that can wait to be confronted until 2028, with some saying the actual playing of a 2027 season may be in serious jeopardy.