Marc Carig of Newsday says the Mets could offer backloaded contracts to entice free agents with multi-year offers.

“You can borrow some from the future,” a person with knowledge of the situation told Carig.

However, Carig says the Mets won’t splurge on a major deal, but they hope this strategy gives them more options in the free-agent market this winter.

As for addressing their current needs in the outfield or catcher, the source told Carig they could acquire a variety of platoon players and attempt to piecemeal a short-term solution together.

When asked about his willingness to backload new contracts this winter, Sandy Alderson told reporters in October, “I don’t like to pay for today with deferrals until tomorrow.”

Michael Baron, Contributor

This Buy-Now, Pay-Later strategy doesn’t necessarily speak to what Alderson told reporters in October (and what he’s said over the course of his tenure here), which makes me skeptical the Mets will actually do this. I understand the Mets must get creative in order to address their needs, but there’s a very fine line here and the team needs to be very careful how they use this strategy, even if it’s for short-term deals. This is the same strategy that helped them get into the mess they’re in now, which has caused them to have payroll constraints and overvalued contracts.