OK, so the Mets lost Jose Reyes, blah, blah, blah, he was one of my favorite players, blah, blah, blah, whatever. It’s over now, it’s time to accept it and move on.
Unfortunately, a lot of Mets fans out there can’t accept it, and don’t understand what just happened. It’s mainly because a lot of them have tiny pea sized brains and get confused by things like toasters and voting booths. So let me shine some light on some actual quotes by these fans that I’ve been reading around the internet. Again, these are actual quotes, do not adjust your screen:
“Pathetic how the Mets just allowed Reyes to be signed by another team,”
“Alderson was on the FAN lying to the fans saying he made an effort they did nothing.”
Yup, that’s what pretty much happened. The Mets just let Jose walk away and didn’t even try to make an offer for him. Never mind all the reports we’ve been reading about Sandy Alderson’s meetings with Peter Greenberg and how it was basically going to come down to the Mets or Marlins. Doesn’t even sound like they wanted him at all.
“The Mets didn’t even make an offer for Jose, Alderson is a terrible GM!”
Well, this is true, the Mets never did make an offer to Jose. You want to know why? It’s because the highest they were willing to go, didn’t even match the Marlins first offer, let alone their final $106M offer. It would be like your friend saying, “Hey, see that very hot person, they have no interest in you and think you’re gross looking,” and then you still go over there to hit on them. There’s no point to make an offer for a player that you know is going to be turned down. If the Mets did make an offer after Greenberg said no to it, it makes the Mets look like idiots.
“Reyes is a sell out and a trader!”
OK, let’s put yourself in Jose’s very fast shoes; the Marlins are giving you a six year contract for $106M, to play for a team that is looking to win now, with great young talent, in a brand new stadium, playing in one of the funniest cities in America, and you get to play next to your best friend and godfather of your child. Oh yeah, and you’re old team didn’t even bother with an offer because their finances are so bad that they can’t even match the first offer from the Marlins. This isn’t Jose’s fault. I’m sure he would have loved to come back and play for the Mets, but he went to a team where he has more of a chance to win and will make more money doing it.
I’d also like to go back and focus on the “Alderson is a terrible GM” quote and anyone else questioning this front office. Alderson is much smarter than you, me, or anyone else out there writing about the Mets. He’s one of the best GM’s in baseball and he has a plan. He didn’t come into this offseason thinking, “well, if we don’t sign Jose there’s going to be no way to put a competitive team on the field.” He knew there was a chance that we’d be losing Jose and the odds of that happening were rather high. He also has the likes of Paul DePodesta, Jon Ricco and J.P. Ricciardi. Do you honestly think these extremely intelligent baseball business minded people don’t have a plan? The Mets have one of, if not the best, front office in baseball. Mets fans who just watch the games, read a couple articles, and listen to Mike Francesa have no right questioning the work of these guys.
If Jose wanted to come here for less money, they would have had a business plan detailing where they would go from there and how it would affect the next season and every season he is under contract. However, and what is more likely, they’ve planned for Jose to leave and have plan on what they are going to do next. I can only speculate on the plan, because they are much smarter than me, but here is what I think will go down:
They will lower the fences in order to improve David Wright’s and Jason Bay’s offensive numbers. Depending on how well they are doing and if they stay healthy, they will either trade them at the deadline or wait until the offseason to deal them, while eating a large portion of Bay’s contract. The Mets will keep Johan Santana on the roster so he can lead and teach the young arms like Matt Harvey, Zach Wheeler, and Jenrry Mejia, who are coming up soon. The Mets will have home grown position players, and offer small contracts to veterans coming off injuries and/or down years, who want to prove themselves and get a bigger offer in the next offseason. In three or four years when the prospects start to pan out and get major league experience the Mets finances should be in better order. Paul DePodesta, who will most likely be the GM by then, will analyze the team and see where the weakness are, and then will start spending money wisely, in order to bring in new talent to make the Mets are World Series caliber team.
This doesn’t mean that the Mets will be crap for the next three years. They will be able to compete and might even make a couple of playoff pushes. The Mets are rebuilding in a very smart way by overlapping the high priced talent with the young players from the farm system. By the time all the high priced talent is gone, this front office will be able to put together a team that they want to see on the field.
Right now Jose is gone and it sucks, but you have to trust the judgment of this front office. Jose will be worth the money next season, and probably for two years after that, but once he gets into his fourth, fifth, and sixth year of that deal there’s going to be a major decline in his level of play. And this front office was right not to go out and overspend for him.
The Mets are in a position where the high priced talent isn’t producing wins on the field and they don’t have the money to go out and fix that problem, like big market teams can do. Right now all they can do is wait until the financial situation is taken care of. In the past, this front office has dealt with a small payroll and putting a competitive team on the field with one. The Mets are moving away from huge, long term contracts that cripple to team’s ability to spend in the future and are moving towards smart and calculated spending. It’s a new era for Mets baseball, and I’m very excited to see what this team will look like in the coming years.
Sandy is definitely NOT to blame for the Reyes departure. The Wilpons squandered the money it would’ve taken to keep him and I will always believe Jose was gone once the New Yorker article hit the press. I think he made a nice move in getting Ramon Ramirez and we’ll see how the Francisco and Rauch signings pan out.
That being said, as long as the Wilpons and Katz own the Mets, there is always the potential for something to go wrong. Which is why, while I will root for the Mets in 2012, that could change if Fred, Jeff, and Saul are still in charge a year from now. Brandon, not every Mets fan is as stupid as the ones you quoted. But there are a ton of Met fans like me who are fed up with ownership. If Sandy fails, we know who this will be on, and that’s the reason I’m making this not-so-empty threat about leaving.
I don’t agree with you at all and you should be a bit more skeptical.
No, it doesn’t make sense to just hand out huge free agent contracts to everyone under the sun. It doesn’t make sense to hand them out to everyone on your team. But it does make sense to give a larger contract (possibly even larger than you’d normally be comfortable with) for the centerpiece of your team who is in his prime and wows the crowd single-handily. Most of us understand we’re not competing in 2012, but why get rid of such a talent at a premium position who could help the team once the new crop of rookie stars arrives?
Considering why I’m hearing since the Reyes decision, I’m also beginning to wonder about Alderson. Trading Pagan was one thing, especially if he gave up during the season. But why in the name of all things holy would you ever trade budding stars like Ike Davis and Jon Niese? Is he planning to constantly dump all young talent for prospects and lower payrolls?
This is New York, Sandy, not Oakland. You can’t nickle and dime fans, nor can you afford to be penny-wise and dollar-foolish with such a devoted fan base.
I wouldn’t have kept Reyes because by the the time all the prospects are coming up and performing in 2 or 3 years he’ll be out of his prime.
I wanted Reyes back, no doubt, but they didn’t have the money to bring him back and what they were planning on offering him wasn’t going to get him.
Davis isn’t going anywhere, but it doesn’t hurt to listen to offers. And trading Niese in this market might make sense if they get blown away by an offer. Starting pitching is in very high demand right now, especially a young left-hander. I wouldn’t want to trade him, but if their getting back some good young position players I think the Mets would have to think about taking it.
Devoted fanbases don’t threaten to leave at the first whiff of misfortune, and even so, why are Mets fans more important than A’s fans? And, if I might ask, why do you think he wants to be cheap with the team? It isn’t his money that he’s spending, in Oakland he did sign big free agents.
As a GM if you have the money to spend to make the team better, you spend it. No GM in baseball would turn down money and want to rebuild. The Wilpons simply don’t have money to spend. Alderson and Co. also aren’t fans of stolen bases, so Reyes value to them wasn’t as high. But if the Mets had an unlimited budget like the had a few seasons ago, Reyes would be a Met right now.
The problem is the Wilpons and Selig. Fred and family should not own a team in a big market like NYC. Alderson and company are doing fine, but the payroll keeps going down (as will the attendance). The one big problem I have is that Sandy keeps saying the starting rotation is “decent” and should “grow.” To go with Pelfrey in the rotation is not being “competitive”—it’s “punting” in 2012. I know they’re smarter than me about baseball and the Mets, but “Big Pelf” must go. And maybe he will (traded like Pagan or non-tendered and replaced by someone a lot better).
Yeah, right now the Wilpons are in no position to run this team, but they really love owning the Mets and they don’t want to give up. The problem is I don’t know how long it will take for the finances to recover, or if they ever will. If the Mets are going to be a team with a $80M payroll every year under the Wilpons that’s not going to work. This is a HUGE market team, top 5 in baseball. Should easily be around the $120M-$140M payroll mark. I’m not saying that will make us a good team, but that’s where a team like the Mets should be without bankrupting the owners.
Pelfrey hasn’t turned into the starter that we thought he could be, but he is a decent #4. He was really good in 2010 and really bad in 2011, so we’ll see what 2012 brings. If he can put up an ERA in the high 3’s or low 4’s, I’d be fine with that.