“The individual partners lost some money at Madoff. But it doesn’t affect the Mets. It doesn’t affect the Citi Field project. It doesn’t affect SNY or any of our operating businesses.”- Jeff Wilpon, December 16, 2008.
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Jaff Decker is a nice ball player. He’s got some pop, has a high on base percentage, and could be a nice lefty half of a platoon in a corner outfield spot (perhaps paired with the newly-acquired Chris Young).
But excuse me if I’m not thrilled at the prospect of signing him.
The Mets are a franchise in the largest market in the country – New York City – operating like the Milwaukee Brewers. I would say the Kansas City Royals, but the Royals are actually spending money, including signing ex-Met Jason Vargas to a 4-year, $32 million contract.
The St. Louis Cardinals just signed Jhonny Peralta to a 4-year, $53 million deal. Stephen Drew figures to get at least $75 million. The Yankees signed Brian McCann for $85 million over five years. The Angels signed ROOGY and ex-Met Joe Smith to a 3-year, $15 million deal.
The Mets? They’re busy trying to excite the fan base on the idea of signing Jaff Decker, probably for the major league minimum.
Forget Shin-Soo Choo. Forget Granderson. Definitely forget Ellsbury. They’re not getting any of those guys. They’re not getting anyone as long as Fred and Jeff Wilpon own this team.
It is painfully obvious that the quote that begins this article is a classic case of Jeff Wilpon either being stupid or a liar. He was either too dumb to realize that the Bernard Madoff situation was bad enough to severely negatively impact the product on the field as it has, or he simply lied because he thinks we’re stupid.
Now going on five years removed from the breaking of the Madoff scandal the Mets are hopelessly handcuffed by the financial shackles the Wilpons have found themselves in.
Having a payroll in the ballpark of $90 million two years in a row in New York City is not acceptable.
If you can build a championship team on that money I’m all for it, but the fact of the matter is you simply can’t. The average payroll for the last five World Series champions has been a cool $138,537,164.
Using Lewie Pollis’ calculations, a team with an $90 million payroll should be expected to win roughly 71-75 games.[1]
The fact that the Mets were able to win 74 games last year with an effective (on field) payroll of $49.5 million (subtracting $25.5 million for Johan Santana and $18 million for Jason Bay from Cot’s Contracts’ $93 million number) is nothing short of good roster moves by Sandy Alderson, good field management by Terry Collins, and sheer, dumb luck from the Baseball Gods.
That is horrendous.
Teams shouldn’t spend just for the sake of spending, but you cannot build a competitive team on a shoestring budget. Now before you bring up the Oakland A’s, their effective payroll was $60 million, but they had two things that the Mets don’t – a pipeline of young, talented starting pitching and Billy Beane.
As much as I like Alderson, he’s no Billy Beane. Nobody is.
The Beane approach is the hard way of doing things – if he didn’t have the outrageous financial restraints he had under the Schott ownership group, Moneyball wouldn’t exist. You don’t operate like that out of choice, you do so out of necessity.
Large market teams shouldn’t have the financial restraints of the Tampa Bay Rays, or the Oakland A’s, or the Milwaukee Brewers. A New York team should be able to splurge $53 million over four years for a competent shortstop. Or $85 – $100 million for an all-star caliber outfielder.
What they shouldn’t have to do is cross their fingers and sell the idea that Jaff Decker can be a suitable platoon-mate for Chris Young, who is the second-highest paid player on the team, at a reasonable $7.5 million.
When will the madness end? I suspect only when the Wilpon era is a thing of the past.
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Joe Vasile is the voice of the Fayetteville SwampDogs and host of “Ball Four” on WTSR in Trenton. Follow him on Twitter at @JoeVasilePBP.
[1] This assumes that a team of replacement-level players would get 47.7 wins in a season. It also assumes that the team spends exactly $7 million per WAR gained through free agency, equating to roughly 12.14 WAR. I then added those two numbers together and rounded up to 60. This is obviously unrealistic because the team will not be completely made up of free agents signed during this offseason. A better estimate would be roughly 75 wins, when you chalk up approximately $20 million to players who haven’t hit free agency yet.
MLB needs to step in like they did with the Dodgers. Selig needs to forget that he’s buddies with Wilpon, and that this is a business. It’s not only hurting the Mets in a bad way. At this point, even if they had the money, I doubt most desirable free agents want to play for them, unless they are severly overpayed.
The Mets have 25M more this year, and continue to raise prices on tickets and concessions. This nonsense needs to stop now. We need new ownership for this mess to end.
And btw, David Wright must be regretting his decision to stay with the Mets after all the promises made to him, and us fans.
Will have to wait for Selig to be gone for the Wilpons to leave
Isn’t he supposed to leave his position at the end of next season?
He also said he was going to leave at the end of 2008, so I’ll believe it when I see it.
How about boycotting opening day at Citifield? Wouldn’t that be one helluva message to send to the Wilpons? It’s the only message the Wilpons will understand. If that isn’t enough stay away from Citifield in 2014. How else is the average fan going to have his voice heard in New York? Can always listen to games on the radio. I wouldn’t even support SNY(Wilpon’s have a stake in it). If enough fans stay away then maybe ownership and the commissioners office will get the message loud and clear.
As much as i am for a boycott, I don’t know how much good it would do. Attendance (and SNY’s ratings) are already in the gutter, and the message doesn’t seem to be getting through.
amen
“It is painfully obvious that the quote that begins this article is a classic case of Jeff Wilpon either being stupid or a liar. He was either too dumb to realize that the Bernard Madoff situation was bad enough to severely negatively impact the product on the field as it has, or he simply lied because he thinks we’re stupid.”
I think there’s a third option here: Denial. Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz came from a middle class background and earned their money in real estate. Jeff Wilpon was born into it. He doesn’t know what it’s like to not have the money so he’s probably not accepting it can ever happen to him.
While the denial aspect is certainly a path as well, I don’t think that’s the case because Jeff was acting as the mouthpiece of the entire operation (those comments were made at an official news conference announcing the K-Rod signing), so his comments were likely well thought out and approved by Fred and Saul Katz.
The one thing you did not address in the article is the Mets still feeling the burn of the Jason Bay deal, and to some degree, even the Luis Castillo and Oliver Perez deals. And Frank Francisco if you count him. This is a classic case of “living in the past” or “fearing past mistakes”. As much as we love to blame the Wilpons (who do deserve it) or Alderson (who has been restrained by the Wilpons even if he won’t admit it), some of this onus falls on us Mets fans too.
Think about it, if the Mets signed Stephen Drew, Curtis Granderson or Nelson Cruz to either a 4 yr/64 million or 5 year/75 million contract, how many of us would be saying or thinking “Another Jason Bay is coming!”. Some of us would genuinely believe it is because of bad luck. But in reality, look at Bay’s numbers in ’09. Even though the Mets overpaid and he had no more than a 2 year offer elsewhere, with those stats at his age, he would’ve gotten more now than he would have back than. How was anyone supposed to know he would crap out like that?
Ever since Alderson came aboard, he has made many good moves, including trading Dickey for d’Arnaud and Syndegaard, trading Byrd for Black and Herrera and Beltran for Wheeler (who we would’ve probably lost as a FA and for that matter probably should’ve traded Reyes too) and lots of other small moves like signing Byrd, Hawkins, Capuano, extending Niese, signing Montero and going through with committing to Murphy at 2B. In this respect, Alderson has followed the “A’s approach” of building a streamline of pitching prospects. We just haven’t felt much of the benefits of it yet because most of these prospects either haven’t hit the pros yet or have only gotten their first licks. And with Harvey now being hurt, bad luck.
There are so many pieces that can come together so quick right now if they develop properly and if they stay healthy. Think d’Arnaud, Wheeler, Mejia, Familia, Edgin, Parnell, maybe Flores, eventually Harvey getting back in ’15 and hopefully Syndegaard and Montero being positioned where Wheeler is now.
The problem is we don’t have any position player prospects emerging. To say you only have Wright, Murphy, d’Arnaud, Lagares and a platoon of EY and Chris Young (who hit .200 last year and didn’t hit well above that before) and perhaps a platoon of Davis or Duda and Satin or Flores sucks! Even if the Mets signed Drew and Cruz, this would barely only be a mediocre line-up. The whole way the offensive structure is built on this current roster and in the minor league system has mediocrity as it’s peak written all over it. This doesn’t negate that SA doesn’t have the greatest FA options and that they are being overpaid, but a GOOD general manager finds ways. We aren’t even asking for great like Beane. SA’s done 1/2 of it by building up a pitching farm. Now he has to do the other 1/2 or he should be fired by next off-season.
I’m sorry, but sometimes a GM has to bite his lip and make the deal. Overpay, get the guy you need.
By every vantage point, there have been two players in two years that qualify for that move: Bourn and Peralta. In one you had a leadoff hitter and a GG, center of the game player, and the other was a middle of the order SS that could field.
The Mets simply got lucky last year with Lagares.
A GM has to do three things: manage the draft, manage trades, and manage free agency. SA is A++ in the trade market. He’s now showing me a D or worse in the draft and free agency. He needed to come home with Peralta, and if that meant 4/60, then he had to do it.
Tom, I appreciate your comment, clearly well thought out. If the Mets signed Drew/Granderson/Cruz to one of the contracts you mentioned, I have no doubts that there would be fans who would be displeased. Honestly though, with the market being what it is this year, I think those are all reasonable contracts for the guys you mentioned.
If you look back at a lot of the things I’ve written here or tweeted, I’ve been a big fan of SA and one of his biggest defenders. I think the trades he’s made have been excellent (for the most part) and even the bad ones could be defended at the time they were made (Angel Pagan).
As far as feeling the burn from bad deals in the past, those deals were made under a different GM with largely different financial circumstances. I don’t think the lack of a big free agent is because of the burns from the big contracts as much as it is the lack of money to spend by the owners.
If as you say Tom the Mets will suck even if they sign the free agents you mentioned then why would SA look to sign them? He’s trying to build a winning team on a shoestring budget. A player like Choo who has been fairly consistent will always have some risk. The point is that signing him is not a gamble but an attempt to show the fan base the owners commitment to putting a winning ball club on the field. There’s no point in signing Drew now. Peralta was the cheaper option. Don’t worry about SA. His contract runs until 2014 so if he feels he’s had enough of this insanity he’ll move on. maybe Fred can then bring in Jeff to run the team? Wouldn’t that be hilarious!
Joe:
My fear has nothing to do with the likes of Choo or Els, as has been clear from my earlier posts. Those signings reek of “greater fool” and minefields. In fact, signings at the top of the dollar chain nearly always are.
Missing on Peralta is dangerous. Nearly deadly so – he was the guy the Mets simply needed to wow and sign immediately. I’m sure I’m not alone on that feeling.
There is a critical mass we need to reach, and failing to address SS means that the player they get for LF or RF now needs to be incrementally better. I haven’t even the faintest clue who that guy will be, and I don’t think he exists.
Jerry:
You are 100% correct.
If they couldn’t afford $13 million/year for a good SS, there are MAJOR problems with the Wilpon’s finances.
That being said, Howard Megdal was calling this months ago, and I think most of us didn’t want to believe it. Well, as always, Megdal has the best info on the Wilpon’s money problems.
From what I’ve read, 4/52 was the discounted rate for St. Louis since he really wanted to go there. Everyone else had to pay at least 5/75. So it’s kind of a moot point, because regardless of what the Mets did, he was going to St. Louis.
That being said, I don’t think the Mets were gonna offer 13M anyway…
Now that Peralta signed that mega deal, I don’t think SA will over pay for Cruz or any free agent of that caliber. So bargain basement shoppers here we go again. I’m with you Jerry Grote . I think Alderson is in sticker shock and has quietly made inquiries with the local used car salesman. Wake me up when it’s over.
the word is that Drew will get even more (!) than Peralta, meaning if we had sticker shock on the PED-user … we have zero chance to be in the game for Drew.
I suppose if we swap Davis for Escobar and he matches his Steamer number of 3.1 WAR for his current salary of $5.1MM, I’m good. It would likewise clear Sandy to overspend on the other “bat”.
Problem is, there is no whisper of that TBay trade coming. And the likely “bat” would be Nelson Cruz or Granderson. Oh well.
We’re on the island of MisFit Toys.
I don’t think it’s sticker shock. I think it’s the Wilpon’s money. They said the FO only has $25 – $30 million to spend this offseason. How are you supposed to greatly improve a team on that limited of a budget with the market being what it is? You can’t without a whole lot of creativity and lottery tickets.
NOT to worry about Jaff Decker.—The Padres announced they have traded Jaff Decker and Miles Mikolas to the PIrates for first baseman/outfielder Alex Dickerson. Both Decker and Mikolas were designated for assignment last week.
It would have been fun having J. Decker platoon with Den Decker in right field.
Excellent! Like a vaudeville act. Maybe the Wilpons can get there own reality television show. It would have everything you are looking for. Mystery, suspense, horror, financial betrayals all wrapped up in 22 minutes every week.
Decker is gone. The Mets were probably never interested. The news on him came from a source with another organization saying the Mets were probably interested. This was probably intended as a joke by them. No Mets source ever said anything about this guy. Metsblog puts anything up that anyone tweets, which is how this came out. It is somehow being atributed to the Mets now, though there is no evidence anyone with the team even mentioned his name.
Metsblog linked to an article Adam Rubin posted on ESPN on Saturday night.
http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/mets/post/_/id/79742/jaff-decker-may-be-fit-for-mets
Article is written perfectly. Tired of hearing about platoon players or past guys who never met potencial. Time to get some solid major league players on the field.
At this point, I would rather the Wilpons simply say that they are still in financial hot water- rather than them dangling the idea of having money to spend. Alderson said that he would step down as GM if the Wilpons didn’t let him spend, and I wouldn’t blame him. In reality, Alderson has done a nice job building an solid internal farm system and he’s ready to spend- so he has done his part.
The Wilpons have to do the right thing & sell the team. David Wright deserves to be with a contender & the fans deserve a better team.
People blow everything out of proportion when it appears on Metsblog. The source is Adam Rubin, and if you read the article that he wrote: “[Decker] could be a fit as the Mets look to reconstruct their outfield for 2014, a baseball official UNAFFILIATED with the New York ballclub predicted to ESPNNewYork.com”