31
2010
The New York Mets – The State of Disunion
An article by 
I’m like most Mets fans, I’m eternally hopeful almost to the tipping point of naivete. Perhaps it’s just the way most of us have grown up as Mets fans, always believing yet more times than not, having our hearts ripped out and handed to us, Temple of Doom style. Yet our loyalty always remains as constant as the northern star.
Some of us take baseball for what it literally is, a kids game played by men. Some of us find the deeper meanings of the game and see what others can’t, don’t or choose not to. The purity of the game, the chance to sit with a son or daughter and explain to them, albeit with little understanding on their part, the complexities of the infield fly rule and the smile it puts on our face when after our detailed explanation, they simply look up and tell us they need to go potty. The Mets-doctrination begins when they’re young my friends, have patience.
Some of us go to the game itself and instead of immediately hitting the concession stands for our sickingly overpriced adult beverage or the souvenir shop, we walk towards the field and take in the smell of the grass and the sounds of team taking batting practice. Some of us keep a scorecard; yes with actual paper and pencil. Sure it’s a game but it’s more, so much more. Maybe it’s a respect for the game, the silly kids game played by grown men.
Maybe it’s just a much needed escape from our hectic, digital, caffeine fueled, time stressed lives we can resort to without fail. Where each game is a a chance at renewal- a way to express pride about your team, even in the face of a season ending collapse. This is why when I see what’s happening to the Mets right now, while I’m not as distraught as some fans, I am concerned. Concerned that as a loyal, ticket paying, SNY paying, merchandise paying fan, are we getting the truth out of this team, on all levels?
For a while now, I’ve known through a source that the team decided that they were not interested in spending more money than they already have, and that in the teams’ view, the Jason Bay signing signaled the end of the open checkbook, coupled with the revelations of the Bernard Madoff scandal and the effects that it’s had on Sterling Enterprises which operates the New York Mets.
First off, whether you believe that or not, whether you feel somehow I or anyone else, who has quoted a source who agrees with that account, has added to any hysteria regarding the view that the Mets currently have financial difficulties, I’m not here to convince you of anything. I’d rather let the situation speak for itself.
For months the Mets have needed to bolster their pitching staff, even before the recent offensive shutdown took place. A few names were out there; we all know them as well as some of our own family members at this point. The obstacles to acquire some of them were difficult to overcome since most teams today want a kings ransom for even the most mediocre of players.
From what we know, landing Cliff Lee would have cost us a major league bat – Ike Davis, along with minor league prospects and perhaps even Jon Niese. There’s no way giving up Ike Davis or Jon Niese would have helped the Mets, and I was strongly in favor of taking a chance on Lee. Arizona wanted a major league ready arm for Dan Haren; there’s no way you offer Jon Niese in that deal no matter how good Haren has been. The Astros wanted a team to assume the bulk of Roy Oswalts’ contract, perhaps pick up his 2012 option and give up minor league talent to boot. I want a gray 1968 Ford Mustang GT to channel my inner Steve McQueen but that ain’t happening either.
Knowing all of that, left the Mets with few options, but something needed to be done. Unfortunately Omar Minaya was unable to land a starter. The only possible trade, that didn’t pan out either for a few reasons, involved the Kansas City Royals who would’ve taken on the contracts of Ollie Perez, Jeff Francouer and Luis Castillo for Gil Meche, Kyle Farnsworth and Jose Guillen. In the end that deal would have worked financially since the money was close to even.
That unfortunately was the ultimate sticking point. Money. The Mets have the highest payroll in the National League and have had it since 1999, many times second only to the New York Yankees. From 1999 to 2009 the Mets have spent $1,185,097,726 dollars on salaries. That’s a lot of change, over a billion in salary. Just compare that to the Marlins who in the same time period have spent $401,104,357. Almost 3 times as less as the Mets. The Marlins won 875 games for their buck over those ten years and a World Championship. The Mets won 912 over the same span, minus a World Championship. I guess there’s an argument for the northeast cost of living in there?
Now normally, as Mets fans, we’re a bit like the younger brother to that other team in the Bronx insofar as that we never seem to match up to them in our own eyes. The Mets have an organization that is valued according to Forbes magazine in 2009 at $912 million dollars. In 2010 Forbes values the Mets at $858 million. The Yankees are at $1.6 billion.
It’s amazing when you think about it in those terms especially when we argue why it is that the Yankees can absorb bad contracts and the Mets, well, you know what I’m talking about. Not to mention each time you hear someone say the Mets haven’t spent money over the years, allow me to explain it this way.
The Mets have a team payroll of around $136 million plus another $16 million in player bonuses totaling $152 million. The revenue the Mets amassed last year was $268 million. Not withstanding the teams’ operating costs, the Wilpons put 56.7% of last year’s revenue into the team payroll. The New York Yankees have a payroll of $206 million. With the payroll you have to include player bonuses it brings it to $240 million. The Yankees revenue last year was an incredible $441 million. Taking the same approach to operating costs the Yankees put 54.4 % of their revenue into their 2010 Yankee team. Yes the Mets actually spent MORE on team payroll than the Yankees have in terms of revenue generated. Bet you didn’t know that. The real question isn’t why don’t the Wilpons spend money, it should be how they’ve spent their money. That’s not a way to absolve the Mets of any fault- I’ll get to that soon- but it does put quite a bit into perspective.
So that leaves us back to where we are now, post trade deadline. The Mets had valid reasons to turn down a trade for Cliff Lee, or Roy Oswalt, or Dan Haren. All three teams involved demanded Jon Niese and or Ike Davis and a few top tiered minor leaguers. What those teams acquired for their star pitchers can be questioned but in the end unless you’re ok with dealing Jon Niese and Ike Davis, those teams apparently were unwilling to deal. That leaves us with Ted Lilly. Lilly has $4.3 million remaining on his contract. If the Mets ate the remainder of his deal, then they may have had leverage so that they wouldn’t have to give up a bevy of minor league talent. Can you hear the crickets? It’s the sound of nothing being done. When you couple not having a deep minor league system with financial issues – I don’t think I need to draw a picture, I respect your intellect too much.
Obviously the Mets leadership from Omar on up are saying one thing when it comes to finances and the truth is somewhere in the middle of the Hudson. Whether or not there’s more going on that the Wilpons don’t wish and quite frankly don’t have to tell, at least not to us, we don’t fully know but when it walks like a duck..it’s a duck. At the very least this team should know you can’t be ambiguous in this market and escape criticism.
Remember the Mets are a privately run corporation. This isn’t General Motors who answers to the stockholders, but the Mets do owe it to the fans to be honest. Imagine Fred Wilpon holding a presser, getting up to the podium and saying essentially,
“My family has spent and continues to spend on the New York Mets. This is a team I care about more than you know, but the time has come where the coaches need to coach, the players need to play and we do have incredible players. Teams with a third of our payroll have turned out championships. So can we. I challenge my men. I challenge them to be more than what they could even imagine they could be.”
How refreshing would that be? He wouldn’t even have to break it down and explain in detail why he’s chosen to curb spending. It would be THE story in New York. Owner calls out his players and publicly challenges them to play beyond their individual capabilities.
You have to admit it’s not something you see everyday at least not with the Mets. The key is making it public but not doing so in a demeaning fashion to the players. Fred Wilpon doesn’t like to rock the boat. Perhaps this is the key time in this franchise when it’s owner can challenge himself to rock this ship in a Titanic, New York style. I challenge you Mr. Wilpon. I challenge the New York Mets.
About the Author: Joe Spector
I'm just your regular Joe. Staff writer @ Metsmerizedonline.com. Happily married and a father to a baby girl. I attended my first Met game at the ripe old age of 3 where my father scored a foul ball and had it signed by Lee Mazzilli, Joe Torre and Joe Pignataro. It was my Holy Grail - 'till I buried it in the backyard.
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This hits the nail right on the head!!!!!!!!
Message to Wilpon, Are you commit to win or are you commit to turn your team to go in the dark ages like the late 70s.
I wish the Wilpons would just come right out and say they have given up. I am trying to keep positive, but the lack of anything at the trade deadline again is frustrating.
Ted Lilly and Dotel now on the Dodgers, Kerry Wood on Yanks. I’m about as disgusted with this ownership as I’ve ever been and it sours my feelings even if they win tonight
I’m disgusted they didn’t do something a month ago, but I’m glad they didn’t sell the farm for an above average rent a player and and OLD reliever.
I think we are all frustrated that we didn’t get anyone, but, I think Omar actually did alot of good by not giving up some of the bright future we might have.
Bayonne, why do you or certain Mets fans expect water to be turned into wine?
What would Ted Lilly have done for this 2010 team? Would they catch Philly, Atlanta? Would they catch Cincy or St. Louis, or SD, LA, SF, Colorado?
I was a fan of Lilly’s before July but it’s clear this team is not a playoff team. I’m not giving up on them, but it’s just unrealistic to think management could’ve done anything to make this team a lock for the playoffs.
If you want to deal Ike, Thole, Niese, Tejada then fine… I personally don’t.
Nobody is talking about turning water into wine. It’s just a matter of opinion that’s all. I happen to think that getting another starter and moving Takahashi to the pen would at least help a BIT! And I think that turning this into my opinion vs. your opinion will only bore the readers and not only that but I’m not breaking any new ground here but it’s basically the feeling most fans, sportswriters and journalists that I’m reading on Twitter and watching on TV. I’m just echoing the same feelings.
Personally I think our lineup is almost as good as any in the league and we haven’t seen it at it’s best yet. It needs a few tweaks but it has another run and with another arm i think it would have helped us. Also making a move, ANY TYPE OF MOVE would help enthuse a fan base that is about as irate as I’ve ever seen it. It’s public relations too. But if Omar’s hands are tied by ownership than what can you do.
So who did you want? Yeah getting a starting pitcher sounds good… who did you want? Lilly? Did you want to give up Thole? Westbrook? The only reason that deal happened is because STL gave up Ludwick… would you have given up Pagan? What starting pitcher got traded away that you feel the Mets could’ve acquired?
Look it sucks that they didn’t but you can’t have it both ways. You can’t keep guys like Ike, Thole, Niese (the 3 every team seemed to want) and expect to get guys like Lilly.
Great post Joe, an excellent read after a disappointing trade deadline. We may not have much a front office but are there better team blogs around the league????? I think not!
Thanks Jason I appreciate that.
Thanks for the heavy lifting to put it all together. It’s solid.
The never ending saga of the lying met front office. All teams twist the truth a bit. The mets always lie. If they tell their fans something, it is invariably untrue. So we as fans have to deal with dishonesty as well as incompetence. I happen to agree that a trade at this point would have just been just for show, but tell me how the Dodgers make trades when they have no money, or the Rangers make a trade for the best pitcher in the game when they are bankrupt?! If a trade (or trades) was to be made it should have been done a month ago. That would have been the sound strategic (therefore non-met) move to make. There are ways to make moves without adding any or too much payroll. The Wontpons poor-mouthing at the trade deadline is becoming tedious.
Very thoughtful approach. Thanks Joe.
The question I have is – “Did any other team give up the equivalent of Ike Davis or Niese when they landed Cliff Lee, or Roy Oswalt, or Dan Haren or Lilly or Dotel or Wood?”
In most cases, these guys were available because of money dumps not because their home teams wanted to better themselves. The Mets were not going to take on any more money despite Wilpon saying differently a month ago.
I guess that is was cheeses off Mets fans most – being lied to.
We have needed another starter since the end of last year. We lucked out with Dickey. We needed bullpen help since the end of last year – we lead the league in losses in last at bats. I wrote on this site last August that my fear was the only person the Mets would sign would be Bay – I turned out to be right but even I couldn’t predict how lame that signing turned out to be.
Is it Wilpon? Is it Omar? Is ti a combination of both?
If the Mets fall out of the race (and they are on the edge right now) the fans should stop going to games in protest. That loss of income is the only thing that Wilpon understands.
Jessup I get your frustration but Omar couldn’t even get Dotel for Carson because suddenly Carson is the second coming. I would have been fine with making Thole available but he wasn’t wanted by teams offering those starters.
Would Dotel make the difference…he wouldnt have hurt.
Sorry I can’t get all up in arms over the fact the Mets didn’t trade for a 36 yr old reliever who now becomes a free agent after this season. If you want Dotel you can sign him next year and not give up Carson.
Yeah we can pick up Dotel and everyone else during the winter – just like we did last winter – oh wait…
Besides – we need help in the bullpen now – so maybe we should just kiss this season goodbye because we get to keep Carson?
Well here’s to hoping Carson can one day part the Hudson.
I would bring Wally Backman back. Not to manage to play SECOND BASE !!! He’s got to be better than what we’ve got. This stinks so bad. Watching Castillo’s gaffes cost run after run, game after game. Please, do something, please. PLEASE. OHHHHH GOOODDDD!!!!!
Great piece but, one question. The Yankees have their own television network and basically once it was created the add revenue it makes supposedly supports the team. The Mets have their own Television network as well. Um, why is it not working out the same way for them?
Lets face it, there is a lot of mismanagement going on and, someone needs to take responsibility for this. If you look at their bad spending habits it become self explanatory. Also they really need to negotiate a one time pay out for all this Money they Owe Bobby Bonilla. I would also like to see the man responsible for this gross financial error (Steve Phillips) publicly whipped! This excuse for humanity and all his issues have left a lingering bad taste all over this organization.
The Wilpons need to really get their acts together top to bottom. I was very excited when Omar got the job of GM with the Mets but, all he has proven he is very good at scrapping the barnacles of other major leagues clubs ships and finding the occasional player that can help the team out for two weeks out of the season. Fire him, he had his shot, he failed. Fire Jerry he is annoying maybe he should get a job as Morgan Freemans stand in, while they adjust the lighting on a movie set. I say give Backman a shot to manage this team, he will whip them into shape and teach them to play with some purpose!
Markcomic & all: Technically the NY Yankees baseball team does NOT own the YES Network. Yankee Global Enterprises does, which also owns the Yankees under a separate operation plan. The group was first owned by the Yankees AND the New Jersey Nets (Nets portion sold) which gave the ownership group double revenue which they used to help fund Yankee Stadium.
However SNY is a combined ownership between the Mets, Time Warner Cable and Comcast which is why Cox Cable in Connecticut will not carry SNY because TW/Comcast won’t allow them to put it on their basic cable package.
So I get what you’re saying or trying to say but it’s not as clear cut as you may have made it seem. $ from YES doesn’t go directly to Cashman’s budget let’s say… and $ from SNY certainly doesn’t go directly to the Wilpon’s/Omar.
Thanks for the Info jessep. I also remember, I could be wrong but, that the Wilpons also spent more out of pocket for CitiField than Yankee ownership did. In other words they spent more of their own money than the Steinbrenners did out of their own resources. Which could also be a reason for their tighter financial situation.
It could be the Wilpons are like all these people who got mortgages they couldn’t really afford…
Mark: I’d have to dig on that but don’t forget the NYMets got sponsorship from Citi in terms of naming rights to underwrite cost whereas the NYY did not. That’s $20m every year for 20 yrs. I do believe Yankee stadium got tax $… not sure on Citi to tell you the truth
Well I know they both got money and subsidies but, the Mets took less and made a big deal out of it for a min. Also it was reported the Wilpons were part of a small group of people that actually made money on the Madoff investment scam. They were reported to actually have pulled out all if not most of their funds from the bogus fund and ponzie scheme. So, all that Madoff stuff is not true.. Possibly it seems they have just bitten off more than they can chew. Also this is NYC, people will not come out and spend money for an inferior product, when you have the Yankees winning right up in the bronx. Sad but, true fact.
I don’t really care if the Wilpon’s made $ on Madoff. The only way Madoff’s scam worked is if some people made $ and got out before the bottom dropped… otherwise he would’ve been found out long ago. Doesn’t meant the Wilpon’s were anything other than lucky
Very true
When asked about what he wants for the rest of this season, Jeff Wilpon said “a shiny red fire truck!”
I’ve seen Wally Backman fluff pieces in the Times and the Post this week.
My gut tells me that this is mgmt’s way of hinting that the Wally era is already upon us.
I hope the Backman era is upon us..At least he played the game with heart and fought…
I will say this, the 86 Mets had chemistry..They weren’t perfect pieces but, they seemd to work well..If you look at that line up, there was only one legit 300 hitter on it and it was Hernandez. Everyone else fell between 255 and 290 in a good year. They just had a good dynamic, too bad they did not repeat. Backman has heart, and he teaches the game the right way. Herry is too busy being PC and cool. He annoys the hell out of fans if you ask me. Some call it media savy, I would call it passive aggressive.