Aug
3
2011

After Trimming Some Fat Off The Payroll, What’s Left For Alderson To Play With?

When the first pitch was thrown on opening day of the 2011 season, the Mets payroll sat at $142 Million.  Due to that number Alderson was not able to do much this past off season.  That is all going to change with all of the contracts expiring at the end of this season. With the recent trade of Francisico Rodriguez, Sandy Alderson has assured himself the ability to make a substantial offer to Reyes among other things.

Did we all forget that the contracts of Perez and Castillo are still on the books?  Just because they are no longer here, does not mean that there money just disappeared.  We paid those two players $18 million this season to just go away.  Other notable contracts that will expire are Reyes, Beltran and the now traded Frankie Rodriguez. We all know that the payroll with probably drop this off season, but we are just not sure how much. The recent developments of Irving Picard’s lawsuit being scaled back from $1 billion to somewhere around $300 million or so, and the influx of about $200 million from Einhorn, leads me to believe it may not be as much as we once thought.

There is no question that Sandy will have some serious money to play with this off season, even if the payroll has to drop into the $120 million dollar range. Here is a little closer look at exactly how much money is coming off at the seasons end.

1. Carlos Beltran: $20 Million

2. Francisco Rodriguez: $12 Million

3. Oliver Perez: $12 Million

4. Jose Reyes: $11 Million

5. Luis Castillo: $6 Million

Mets Current Budget: 142 Million. Mets budget when these major contracts expire: $80 Million

There are also some other contracts such as Chris Young, Chris Capuano and Scott Hairston that may drop that number closer to the $75 Million dollar range. The point is, the trade of Krod assures the Mets that they will have major money to play with next season.  I also understand that this projection does not factor in potential raises in arbitration to guys like Parnell, Pagan and Pelfrey.

Even if you were to sign Reyes to a contract worth $15-18 Million a year, the total team salary would still be under $100 million before you begin to do anything else. With the way the team is playing, they are starting to bring fans to the stadium, which brings in more revenue. The recent developments of Irving Picard’s lawsuit being scaled back from $1 billion to somewhere around $300 million or so. The influx of the $200 Million for Einhorn also gave some stability to the franchise.  All of these factors will contribute to next years payroll, leads me to believe it may not drop as much as we once thought.

All I know is, once the season ends, and before any players are signed or re-signed, Sandy will have a lot of options open to him. With roughly $60 million coming off the payroll, I can’t wait to see what he does this off season!  Any thoughts?

For more of my insights come visit us at BigAppleMetsTalk, or follow me on Twitter @BgAppleMetsTalk

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About the Author: Dan Valis

I am a staff writer for Mets Merized Online. I am a Mets team analyst with a focus on the minor league system, as well as the major league club. I am a lifelong New Yorker who was born and raised to be a Mets fan. The ups and downs of being a Mets fan is what makes following this team so much fun, but at times so frustrating. You can follow me on Twitter @BgAppleMetsTalk.

22 Comments + Add Comment

  • well, what’s out there first is the question.. before posting this you should’ve at least list the free agents available.. we don’t know what’s out there, but either way imo it won’t matter.. he came here to save money and get draft picks, of course, by trading away krod to the brewers he lost 2 but saved 17.5 million to the wilpon he won’t even use.. prob..

    • well thanks for giving me advice on what I should have written alex lol. But the point of the post was not about who is available in free agency, thats for another post. The point was to demonstrate what flexibility we have with our payroll.

      but thanks for the tip :)

      • dan, not trying to tell you how to write your articles, i hope i didn’t offend you or anything, but i think it would’ve made the article EVEN BETTER knowing exactly what’s out there insteado of going and getting information somewhere else to come back and reply to your article, with that being said, we all know how much money is gone, trust me, but what some of us know is that this man is as small market as they come. good luck signing reyes

        • no not at all Alex, I was just messing with you. I agree it may have helped the post, but I just wanted to focus on the dollars

  • Well, re-signing Reyes is priority 1. After that, there are needs in RF, potentially LF if Bay can be moved (not likely), 2B, C, at least 1 SP, Closer and some BP arms and then bench filler.

    Let’s assume the following:
    - 2B will be filled internally.
    - Probably re-sign Paulino or someone like him to platoon with Thole
    - another OF spot needs to be filled, most likely to back up CF and split time in the corners
    - Bay won’t be moved.
    - Ike will be healthy and back at 1B

    So, that leaves SP, Closer, and BP arms + bench guys. Not knowing what Santana’s situation is, we know Niese, Peflrey (unfortunately), Dickey, Most likely Gee and ___________ will be the starting rotation.

    Closers out there are Capps and Nathan, who both should be available, then maybe . Nathan prob. fits the bill as a reclamation project/cheap option at closer. Capps will cost more, but should be less of an injury concern.

    They have the $ available… They should push for Darvish, as there isn’t much out there otherwise SP wise. E. Jackson is about the only one who is young and has some worth.

    So, spend what money they have on 1 SP of worth, a closer, then BP filler, bench filler and a platoon Catcher.

    • I don’t think we need a Second baseman – I think Turner has earned that spot (sans last night’s error), he’s really done a decent job, and hopefully will just get better and his bat is pretty good, and exceptional with RISP.

  • Pagan and Pelfrey should be non-tendered especially Pelfrey. As for how much he will spend, guaranteed it will be less than half and next year will be just another year of spinning our wheels and getting no closer to a division title. Expect more selling, and more of just letting what’s left of the previous regime team fades away into nothingness so he could start from scratch which was his plan all along as I said from the very beginning. The number one priority on Alderson’s mind is getting Johan Santana better so he can trade him next trade deadline along with Jason Bay. He will not give Reyes the money he can get from other teams who are willing to pay market value for his talents. I sad this from day one and so far I see nothing to change my mind. Alderson is here to chop payroll and give the Wilpons more money to re-invest and recoup their Madoff losses. Alderson was gift to Fred from Bud Selig. His small market mentality cannot comprehend the logistics of operating a team in the world’s largest sports ,market. It’s too big for him to wrap his 65 year old brain around. His nickname the Sandman is very apropos as his style and moves tend to make fans fall asleep.

    • They have too much value to non-tender. I’m all for getting rid of both of them, but as they still have value and are young, someone will take them.

      • One thing about rushing prospects is that instead of having 6 good years out of them, you only get four before they become FA’s. Pelfrey and Parnell didn’t do anything up here their first two years and it probably inhibited their development.

    • ALEX68 LIKES THIS!!! :-)

    • I agree in Pagan who is an overpaid reserve. I hedge on Pelfrey, who I no longer like. I know that arbitrators are stupid but Pelf’s record should keep his price low, and make him useful in trade.

  • I can’t see Alderson paying market-rate for a closer, honestly. Would an Izzy resigning be out of the question? 1 yr/2m or so with tons of incentives.

    • Sean kenny, have you seen lately how izzy id running out of gas?? really??? him again to close games out???????

    • Izzy came back for one year to beef his pension up to 15 years, instead of the 10-14 he was at.

  • We actually started talking, to put our name in the hat for Carlos Beltran, around July 1. Sandy was great to deal with, which is not surprising, he’s a Hall of Fame executive. We knew the price was going to be steep. … A prospect like Zack Wheeler is tough to part with. In our minds, though, he’s in Single-A, he wasn’t on our horizon any time soon. He needs some development time.”

    GM of the giants

    there you have it folks, that should tell you that if saben is not thinking long term, this should answer your question about WHO IS REALLY THINKING LONG TERM!!
    2014 HERE .. WE……COOOOOOMEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • If you go solely based on Cot’s contracts as far as payroll commitments for 2012. The Mets supposedly have the following committed to 6 players for 2012.

    $24,000,000.00 Santana
    $18,130,000.00 Bay
    $15,250,000.00 Wright
    $4,750,000.00 Dickey
    $3,500,000.00 KRod
    $1,200,000.00 Carrasco

    $66,830,000.00 Total

    For arguments sake say you take the middle of your $15-18Million a year for Reyes and say Reyes is signed and makes $16.5M in 2012. That brings it up to $83,330,000.00 tied up in 7 players.

    If the Mets filled the remaining 18 roster spots with players making the league minimum which I think is $414,000.00 that would mean an additional $7,452,000.00 bringing the total up to $90,782,000.00.

    Of course we know the Mets will not fill all the remaining roster spots with league minimum players plus Pelfrey and Pagan are up for arbitration I believe and some projections are that Pelfrey could make $10M in arb. Which if true would see the payroll reach the $100M just with that alone.

    So I would at this time agree that the 2012 payroll may not drop as much as some may have thought. In my opinion I would guess it would fall somewhere between $100M or $120M.

    Then again who really knows. The main thing is not where the payroll will be but will they be able to resign Reyes and what will they add via trade or free agency to improve the team going forward.

    • as my dear and long time friend maniac said, alderson is looking to trade bay and santana into next season, this team will not get better.. don’t be surprised if wright is gone as well

    • Mr North, don’t forget that guys like Murphy, Parnell, Beato and others are already under contract at league minimum next season. That’s why the payroll is around $75 million once you factor theirs in.

      • You are correct. I was only taking into account players that are guaranteed to get paid next year a certain figure. Players like Beato could find himself in AAA next year and not on the 25 man roster but I took those players into account when I mentioned filling the remaining roster spots.

    • I would be shocked if Pagan isn’t back considering there’s no better option in FA or the farm, and considering he’s projected to make $5-6M that’s a fair price even if he doesn’t perform quite as well as 2010. I saw another arbitration estimate for Pelfrey for which he’ll make 7M next year. If Pelfrey projects to make 10M then they probably will nontender him and replace him with Cap or some other pitcher on 1 year deal which’ll give Harvey enough time in AA and AAA. If they have more money after signing Reyes they should go into the Darvish sweepstakes.

  • Stay the course,spend the money on Captain Nimmo and get him playing in the system. Keep all your picks dont sign any free-agents that youll lose a pick. Spend all money on the draft and Darvish.

  • My gut feeling is Pagan is going to go bye bye in off season.

NL East Standings

TeamWLPct.GB
Braves4228.600 -
Nationals3435.4937.5
Phillies3437.4798.5
Mets2540.38514.5
Marlins2247.31919.5

Last updated: 06/18/2013

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