- May 29, 2010
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I'm not really sure that not having a deal by the deadline is such a strong indicator of what Chevy (or Ehlers) will do.Yeah the team is on the way to the playoffs. Everyone is dialed in and focused on that. It doesn't serve either party to rock the boat right now.
Fly will want to finish strong and have a good post season to maximize his value. Him having that serves the org as a better fly would hopefully lead to a deeper run.
As I've said before if the two sides were serious about a deal it would have been done by the deadline.
Now they could still come to one in the summer but I'd expect it's more likely that Nik is looking to test the market.
The Jets also haven't extended Pionk, Appleton or Iafallo, and those are three players that very likely want to stay. I would guess that Chevy would have an interest in extending at least two of those players.
He extended Namestnikov earlier this season, but maybe that was an easy determination based on the cost and term.
One possibility that I've considered is that Chevy didn't want to rock the boat with his team by extending one or two of his more expensive pending UFAs, while leaving others to wait. As an example, if he thinks that it's unlikely he can meet demands of Appleton and/or Iafallo, he doesn't want sign one of them and not the other. Pionk and Ehlers are also going to be high-profile and consequential new contracts, and he might not want to conclude one and let the other drag out through the season.
Instead, Chevy might have decided that until he had the future cap situation clarified he couldn't really negotiate with pending UFAs like Ehlers, Pionk, Iafallo and Appleton. He also might have wanted to sign one or two without the others while the team was in the thick of a playoff race, but instead plans to zone in on negotiations as soon as the season is over.
TLDR: Ehlers is in the same boat as Pionk, Iafallo and Appleton, and maybe there's not much more to see at this point.