1
2011
The Waiting Is The Hardest Part
An article by 
Mets fans agree and disgaree all the time about a myriad of Mets topics and issues, especially here on MMO where all views are welcome, encouraged and shared – much to the dismay of some who still keep coming back for more. 
In the last few days we learned a few things about how this offseason might progress. We now have confirmation that the Mets payroll budget will be between $100M and $110M. We also learned that the Mets will make re-signing Jose Reyes the number one priority of the offseason, but of course that comes with no guarantees.
Let’s assume we do sign Jose Reyes… Somehow, some way, both sides get together over a two-inch steak and few cold ones and finally hammer a deal out. Great – Right On – Fantastic – Now what?
Does it mean C.J. Wildon and Yu Darvish are now off the table?
Does it mean we’ll see Pelfrey, Dickey, Niese, Gee and hopefully a somewhat serviceable Johan Santana as the main cogs of our rotation next season?
What about the outfield? Are Bay, Pagan and Duda expected to be the featured attractions once again in the great expanses of Citi Field?
Seems to me that in 2012 we might be same exact team we are now only with a few new faces on the bench and in the bullpen, none of who will be notable or cost more than $500K to maybe a million dollars.
I’m really digging this new philosophy (I think), but when do we ever get to the winning part? Three years? Five years? Ten years?
It sounds like the choicest cuts of our 2011 Draft Class are years and years away. Are we waiting for them, is that when the winning starts? What if they fall into the dark side of 50/50 and are among the top prospects that never even make it to the major leagues, then what?
Lets assume we re-sign Jose Reyes to a five year deal (fingers crossed), will he still be a Met by the time all those 17 and 18 year olds break into the majors? Will Wright still be here? In three years Niese will have accrued six years service time, and just four more for Ike Davis (yes, time on the DL counts as service time). You see where I’m going with this?
Imagine waiting these 4-5 years for paradise to rain down upon us from Buffalo, but we still find ourselves no closer to a championship than we are now? Do we just go through this great philosophical cycle again and keep doing it until all the stars align and we hit paydirt? I think that’s exactly what’s been happening in Oakland lately. They waited for all their best prospects to finally come up, but still found themselves short of cash at the checkout line. I only mention Oakland because a day doesn’t go by on this site without them getting mentioned in a good or bad way – you could easily substitute any other franchise who is waiting for the farm to deliver them to glory if you prefer.
Why can’t we do both? Why can’t we contend now AND build for the future at the same time? Couldn’t we find an architect who could pull that off?
Look at the job Kevin Towers did in Arizona… He takes over a dead last, dead from the neck up franchise and in 10 months he’s got them into the playoffs. He had the same goals during his first press conference as Alderson did, promising a renewed focus on the minor leagues and building a team with sustainable success, but he also decided he’d try and win this year in the meantime. He signed JJ Putz (45 saves, 2.17 ERA) to be his closer, his Rule 5 Pick Joe Patterson (2.91 ERA, 62 G) was one of the best relievers in the NL this season, signed Henry Blanco (8 HR, .870 OPS) to back up their young star catcher Montero, and you want to talk about a great trade – how about Kelly Johnson for Aaron Hill and John McDonald? And by the way, Towers did the same exact thing for the San Diego Padres, taking over a 70 win team in 1995 and winning 91 games the next season. Anyhow, I digress…
Alderson is right… Signing Reyes will limit any other options if we stick to a $110 M payroll, on that we all agree. But why must a New York team have a budget that is nearly half what the Phillies and Yankees have to spend? We could work toward a $110 dollar payroll in 2014 when Wright, Bay and Johan come off the books, but why do we have to do it right this second?
Re-signing Reyes isn’t what hurts our flexibility, it’s players like Jason Bay and an injured Johan Santana that kills our flexibility. Jose Reyes was why the team was even worth watching this season. All teams have bad contracts - it’s the nature of the beast. But this is New York – the sports mecca of the world – are we just gonna sit down and say we’re screwed and can’t do anything because our budget is $110 million and that’s that? In this town? All while charging a family of four $500 for a day at the park? Wow…
What I don’t get is all those who now count Fred’s pennies for him as if they have something to gain by it. What’s that all about?
Here we have a Mets team that was one of the best in the league in batting average, on-base and runs scored, and instead of complimenting that offense with enough pitching to build a contender, we’re just gonna sit on our laurels because re-signing Jose Reyes will have us in a stranglehold according to Alderson.
I actually didn’t care for how those comments came off by the way… It felt like “if we re-sign Reyes and don’t win more than 77 games, don’t blame us, blame Reyes.” Did anyone else feel that way?
So I guess the plan is to keep waiting… It’s been five years since the last time we were in the playoffs, but we’ll just keep on waiting… No rush… In a few years all the kids will come up and lead us to glory… Just hang in there and keep waiting… It’s gonna happen, trust me, hang in there and be patient… We really wanted to try and win in 2012, but selfish Jose Reyes wouldn’t let us… Just keep waiting…
http://youtu.be/WvZU79DGECA
About the Author: Joe DeCaro
I'm a lifelong Mets fan who loves writing and talking about the Amazins' 24/7. From the Miracle in 1969 to the magic of 1986, and even the near misses in '73 and '00, I've experienced it all - the highs and the lows. I started Mets Merized Online in 2005 to feed my addiction. Follow me on Twitter @metsmerized.
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The waiting is definitely the hardest part. 2006 seems so far away.
If the Mets were drawing as many fans as the Phils, they could easily outspend them.
and extra million tickets sold (and associated beers, etc.) would easily make up the difference in payrolls.
and first come the young guys forming the core, then you add the filler parts, and the bloated payrolls come after that.
Wright, Reyes, Duda, Davis are not the young guys forming the core? How many cores do we need?
I thought that 1 one this site was too many!
“Why can’t we do both? Why can’t we contend now AND build for the future at the same time? Couldn’t we find an architect who could pull that off?”
Amen!!!!
There is NO REASON whatsoever to assume that spending means you can not build from the Minors nor does it mean you have messed up your payroll long term!
You could easily buy short term deals by spending more per year on a three year deal as opposed to less per year on a long term 5 or 7 year contract.
Everyone expects Reyes to get 5 year 100 Mil+. Thats what you HAVE to give him! (BULL!)
Risky? Maybe…Same thing could happen to him that happened to Beltran and Delgado!
But is that really the best offer you can make to him?
What if you paid him 75M for a three year deal with an option for a 4th year at another 25Mil?
Sure you lost a year of service for the same money but then again your not stuck with two years you may not want either!
MONEY is not a limiting parameter in team building…ROSTERS and DRAFT DEVELOPMENT is.
You can’t draft a team in a year. You can’t add more than 25 players so it stands to reason the way to build best is to not worry about what is NOT the limiting factor and work to make those limited 25 the best players you can find.
As you develop new talent you can then shed the money it replaced either via trade or simply cutting them.
The key is to not worry so much about the Mils per year but the years and no trades that limit you and force you to be stuck with a player who no longer makes the best use of those limited 25 spots!
If your worried about Reyes’ durability then offer him more per year for less years than anyone would be paying him for 5!
If you offer more per year in lieu of length then the player is way more likely to stay fit, keep the performance up and inspire you to pay him again when the contract runs out.
And if not all you lost was money, no worse off than you would be if you gave the 5 year deal but none of the risk of that long term deal!
“Why can’t we do both? Why can’t we contend now AND build for the future at the same time? Couldn’t we find an architect who could pull that off?”
The problem there is the Mets were doing neither. And to suddenly turn the big club into a “contender”, you sacrifice the future for the next few months.
“Look at the job Kevin Towers did in Arizona… He takes over a dead last, dead from the neck up franchise and in 10 months he’s got them into the playoffs. ”
The West is nowhere near what the East is. Towers is a fine GM, but the two situations are not the same. If SF’s offense doesn’t completely flat line, where does that leave the Diamondbacks?
“But this is New York – the sports mecca of the world – are we just gonna sit down and say we’re screwed and can’t do anything because our budget is $110 million and that’s that? In this town?”
So, the low payroll bothers you more than the low win total?
“All while charging a family of four $500 for a day at the park? Wow…”
Again, you were OK paying this prices the last 3 years so long as they were a top 5 payroll?
“What I don’t get is all those who now count Fred’s pennies for him as if they have something to gain by it. What’s that all about?”
You’ve been corrected on this before, yet you and others insist on going to it. No one is actively trying to save the Wilpons money. And we couldn’t if we wanted to anyway.
What certain of us are actually doing is accepting certain realities that the top 5 payroll has neither worked nor will it most likely be a resource for the immediate future.
Does that mean we all want to be a $50 million dollar team and never chase big free agents again? No, of course not. We just want the money spent more wisely. Because, when a free agent with a big contract busts, you not only waste all that money, you also handcuff the team to a dead roster spot and bad player in your everyday line up blocking a potentially better player.
“Here we have a Mets team that was one of the best in the league in batting average, on-base and runs scored,”
Low slugging percentage though, but you are right to point out the offense’s proficiency.
” and instead of complimenting that offense with enough pitching to build a contender, we’re just gonna sit on our laurels because re-signing Jose Reyes will have us in a stranglehold according to Alderson.”
And because the #1 pitcher out there is CJ Wilson and he’s really not all that, assuming he even wants to come here. He was one of the guys criticizing Reyes, after all.
“I actually didn’t care for how those comments came off by the way… It felt like “if we re-sign Reyes and don’t win more than 77 games, don’t blame us, blame Reyes.” Did anyone else feel that way?”
People will read into it whatever they want.
“The problem there is the Mets were doing neither”
Yeah they were not developing youth at all…
Davis, Murphy, Tejada, Harvey, Mejia, Familia, Havens, Turner, were all just figments of our imagination they really don’t exist. They are bought for Veterans who we pasted cardboard cut outs of kids onto so it just looked like we were developing youth!
the problem is you act like it’s a gurantee these kids are going to succeed.you would be stupid not to explore as many ways possible to try and improve the team,instead of putting all your eggs in one basket.
Did I guarantee anything? No.
Are big time free agents a guarantee? I must have missed all that Jason Bay MVP talk.
“you would be stupid not to explore as many ways possible to try and improve the team,instead of putting all your eggs in one basket.”
So, I guess you didn’t actually read my post. Free agency should be an option, but not THE option. your first move should always be to look internally for a solution.
If you promote one of the 300+ kids from your farm and he busts out you can
a) promote the next kid
b) trade for a replacement
c) sing a free agent
A big money free agent busts out and you can
a) pray
Yes,, “putting all of your eggs in one basket” is stupid. Which is exactly why I don’t like using free agency as the go to move.
If the Mets were a legit contender looking for more solid pitching to put them over the top, I’d say full steam ahead for Sabbathia or Wilson. But, that isn’t the case here.
IMHO, Sandy Alderson is going to conclude that he cannot have both Jose Reyes and David Wright long term. And this means that, this winter, he will either (1) not sign Reyes, or (2) trade Wright.
The problem that the Mets have had, and that they would like to avoid in the future, is having too much of the team’s payroll tied up in too few players. If I understand Alderson’s philosophy correctly, at some point you have to rotate at least one or two of the high-salary players out of the system, even if they are still very good players, in favor of developing younger and cheaper options at their positions.
Signing Reyes and keeping Wright just exacerbates the problem of too much money tied up in too few players. And if you don’t plan eventually on extending Wright or re-signing him long term, the longer you wait to trade him the less trade value he has.
If we assume that Wright could net the Mets more value, in the way of filling current holes or high-level prospects, than the two draft choices that failure to sign Reyes would bring, then the answer is to trade Wright this winter.
We have so many holes. Our catching situation is not acceptable. We need more quality in the starting rotation. The bullpen is largely going to be made over from scratch. It sounds like Pagan will not be back and we have no real CF options in-house. I think Alderson has to consider trading a valuable asset like Wright. I know that his trade value is reduced somewhat by the fact that a trade eliminates the team option for 2013.
If the Wilpons cared anything about the Mets and their fans they would sell the team to a person or consortium that can afford the contracts and players befitting a major league franchise. The team lost 70 mil and attendance down and they still could be on the hook for another 265 mil from the Madoff scam. The only way out is an outright sale of the Mets. The Mets are a great and storied franchise (after all we did not get the name “Amazin” for being chopped liver if you get my meaning) and can be again but not with this ownership!
Joe, as usual – a great read. Congrats!