"Sandy Alderson smirked last week when asked if baseball's days of excessive long-term free-agent contacts might be finished.

"I'd say they continue to be very rare," the Mets' general manager said, "but I'd hesitate to say they're obsolete."

Though Alderson was not talking specifically about the market for shortstop Jose Reyes, he might as well have been. The Mets, it is no secret, want Reyes back in New York next season. Reyes wants to return. And yet the possibility that some team will blow away the Mets' best offer makes this an uncertain -- even doubtful, at this point -- renewal of vows.

The free-agent period is barely a week old, and already the Marlins are reportedly courting Reyes in Miami. Others, including the Brewers, will surely not be far behind. Soon, then, Alderson and the Mets should establish a more defined expectation of Reyes' worth on the open market."