Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports that pitcher Jacob deGrom’s camp is “disappointed” due to the lack of substantive talks about a contract extension. deGrom, the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner and a free agent after the 2020 season, avoided arbitration with the Mets last month, agreeing to an $11 million salary for the upcoming campaign.

This situation is particularly intriguing because the Mets’ new GM, Brodie Van Wagenen, used to represent deGrom as part of Creative Artists Agency. Van Wagenen has been one of few active GM’s this offseason, having acquired Robinson Canó and Edwin Díaz while signing Jeurys Familia, Jed Lowrie, Wilson Ramos, and Justin Wilson. According to ESPN, the $79 million the Mets have committed to players this offseason is fourth-most in baseball behind the Nationals ($188 million), Yankees ($140.055 million), and Dodgers ($107.4 million) and just ahead of the Red Sox ($74 million) and Phillies ($73 million).

PHOENIX- The Arizona Diamondbacks have given manager Torey Lovullo a two-year contract extension through the 2021 season.

Lovullo, 53, was a coach for manager John Farrell in Toronto and Boston, then was hired as Arizona’s manager in October 2016.

He was voted NL Manager of the Year in his first season after the Diamondbacks went 93-69. Arizona beat Colorado in the NL wild card game, then was swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the Division Series.

The Cubs made an attempt to lock up Kris Bryant to a multiyear deal in the neighborhood of $200 million, but the superstar third baseman turned down the deal in recent months, a source confirmed to MLB.com on Wednesday. ESPN’s Dave Kaplan was the first to report the offer and its rejection. The club has not confirmed such an offer.

Bryant and agent Scott Boras are inclined to proceed on a year-by-year salary increase through arbitration before Bryant becomes a free agent after the 2021 season. Bryant earned a record $10.85 million in 2018, the highest salary a player has earned in his first year of arbitration.

Should Bryant plan to wait out his final four years of club control and hit the free-agent market available to all suitors, the Cubs could face a quandary of losing Bryant for nothing. In that context, Bryant might be a valuable trade commodity as former National League MVP Award winner who is under club control for three more seasons. Bryant, when healthy, is revered as one of the game’s best hitters, but he was limited to 102 games last year with nagging left shoulder and left wrist injuries, and he hit .272/.374/.460—all below his career average marks—with 13 homers.