There was a time in the last 24 hours of the negotiation when the Mets believed they had reached an agreement with Trevor Bauer, three sources told The Post. They considered that the terms had been approved by both parties and that they were working with one of their agents, Jon Fetterolf, to finalize the details.
But no deadline sheet was signed (a key element to memorizing a contract was more formally agreed upon) and there were the Dodgers.
And on Thursday night, the Dodgers had gone from hiding to jumping, starting one last push that would lead them to get the best free agency headline on Friday. Los Angeles intuited if he was about to make a uniform offer between the Dodgers and Mets that Bauer would prefer his Southern California roots and the Dodgers with almost certain championship contests and a modern pitching program.
The Mets had offered a three-year, $ 105 million pact that could be worth $ 80 million if Bauer opted for it after two years. But they worried that even if they were the first in general money, they were the second where Bauer wanted to be, in addition to the Mets they were worried that he would not particularly prefer New York. The Dodgers deal that Bauer eventually agreed to was for three years at $ 102 million, with $ 85 million available for the first two years, albeit possibly with deferrals that would reduce the current value.
A source said Mets president Sandy Alderson, who has been involved with three organizations for the past four decades, considered that he had never proceeded to this degree of negotiations and had not finalized the deal.
Both Fetterolf and Alderson said they would not comment on the details of the negotiations.