7
2011
Mets Plan To Tender Pagan, But Could Be Priced Out On Capuano
An article by Hojo's Mojo
In a post to Twitter, Jon Heyman of SI.com said that the Mets plan to tender Angel Pagan a contract before the December 12 deadline. If he is non-tendered, Pagan will become a free agent, opening up a spot in centerfield.
It’s no secret that the Mets have soured on Angel Pagan, but with nobody in the organization ready to step in and take over center field, the Mets are kind of stuck.
Then there’s the strong possibility that Adam Rubin hit the nail on the head when he said this could just be the Mets posturing for some extra leverage as they look to trade Pagan this offseason. One team that could have used him was the San Francisco Giants, but they already traded for Melky Cabrera earlier today.
Pagan is now 30, and is coming off a season that saw him hit .262 with a .322 OBP, seven home runs and 32 stolen bases in 123 games played. He earned $3.5 million this past season, so his salary could be $4.5 to $5 million in 2012 if he returns.
Jon Heyman also reported that the Mets are most likely to poor to bring back starting pitcher Chris Capuano whose desire for a two-year deal may be too rich for the Mets taste as they try to keep it under $100 million this offseason.
* Alderson confirmed that payroll for 2012 will be between $100-$110 million, but it was later learned that that figure included the payroll for next June’s draft class and bonuses. Realistically, the Mets will come in at around $95 million to begin the new season.
Well aware that Capuano would be seeking a multi-year deal, Alderson has already shelved any negotiations him and with other Mets free agents until late in the offseason.
My guess is that Capuano will end up getting a 2-year/$14 million dollar deal from someone this Winter. The left-hander was 11-12 with a 4.55 ERA in 33 appearances for the Mets last season, but more importantly he avoided the DL and got stronger as the season wore on, saving his best starts for the last few weeks of the season.
The only two year deal the Mets doled out on a free agent last offseason went to reliever D.J. Carrasco, and that turned out to be mistake. Don’t expect any multi-year deals this offseason as the payroll crunch will be even tighter than last year with almost $50 million dollars slashed and one third less resources to work with.
About the Author: Rob Johnson
22 Comments + Add Comment
NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 24 | 18 | .571 | - |
| Nationals | 23 | 20 | .535 | 1.5 |
| Phillies | 20 | 23 | .465 | 4.5 |
| Mets | 16 | 24 | .400 | 7.0 |
| Marlins | 11 | 32 | .256 | 13.5 |
Last updated: 05/18/2013
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This is getting depressing. Basically we’re bringing back the same 77 win team but without Jose Reyes? Alderson is off to some start. I thought the idea was to improve on Minaya not get worse.
Oh Jon Heyman said it so it must be true. Next time he’s right about something it will be the first time. I could read the papers to get my information just like he does
Now it’s $95 million. What?!
Boycott the Wilponian Mets. Do not buy tickets to their games. Let them lose even more money—until they have to sell.
I couldn’t care less what we do with either of those two. The priority should be Jose Reyes, if we lose him it doesnt matter what we do with the other Mets free agents, we’re looking at a 100 loss season. Sad, but true.
Not a surprise that Pagen will be back. things are going exactly like the Wilpon’s have planned. I’m still surprised by my fellow Met fan’s hand wriggling. When will the reality set in that the Wilpon’s are not trying to contend. Fellow Met fans sit back realx, focus on the Jets and concentrate on the Met’s minor league player development for the next 3-5yrs until we contend again.
These decisions have little to do with the FO and everything to do with the fact that the Wilpons still own the team. They want the FO to tread water until they can dig themselves out of the hole they put Sterling Mets in because they obviously do not want to sell. Have no idea how you’re supposed to field a competitive team with this kind of blueprint, at least in the short term.
Sure….you can win w/o a 150 MIL payroll. But not right away and not when your payroll WAS around $150 MIL and you’re slashing it some 33% or so, while still paying a handful of current players mega bugs that comprise 2/3s of your payroll.
Sigh…..
Sure he could have fielded a competitive team with “this kind of blueprint” by simply doing a better job of finding good players with the payroll he had last year. He did a lousy job and your post sounds like nothing more than a creative excuse for your god Sandy Alderson.
Payroll wasn’t good last year but he STILL did a lousy job evaluating talent. Maybe they should not have used sabermetrics. Maybe if they were smarter baseball people than we would have had a better off season resulting in the Mets being more relevant in September.
So stop with your creative excuses and incessant talk about ‘payroll’. How about the front office try and WIN with this year’s payroll. It’s more than last year’s right? All you’re doing is making excuses.
So far this front office hasn’t shown to be good baseball people to me.
Last year all we heard about was how smart these guys were. Now all of sudden it’s the Wilpon’s fault?
How about trying to get the best talent you can with whatever payroll you have.
They CLEARLY are not doing that.
Well they have to blame someone bayonne…Couldn’t possibly blame Sandy now can they?
You actually believe that Sandy is cutting ML payroll to ~95 million simply to make some kind of point about a philosophy he really had nothing to do with?
even if he was following the “moneyball” blueprint, that was created simply because the owners had NO money to spend, so you had to get creative.
Of course payroll is being driven by how much money the team has (not much). Sandy has a budget, and has to get the team under it now, not gradually, but now.
It’s like an overweight person. The healthy way to get in shape is eating right, exercising, and losing weight gradually. But some people go for Lipo and gastric bypass to lose 20#s in a week.
Any you might be making a good point if what Sandy was doing actually fit with what you said…
he could EASILY let Pagan go and put a kid in there Easily let Pelfrey go and save another 8 Mil.
Problem is his only solution seems to be let reyes go which doesn’t help his money problems it only makes them worse!
We had 4 Players last year who could even remotely be constituted as a STAR DRAW to the stadium.
Beltran, K-Rod, Reyes and Wright!
Two of those players are already gone and a third is on his way.
Who is he cutting after Reyes because he STILL lost 50-70 Mil because all the reyes fans stopped going?
And who after that and we lose even more money because Wright got traded?
How many more cuts can he make before he has to try and get people into the seasts because there is no more fat to cut?
Follow the plan to it’s eventual end and tell me what has he done to SOLVE the financial issue which is all about lack of attendance and tell me what affect losing reyes Beltran K-Rod and soon Wright has had on attendance…More Attendance or Less?
Sandy is not SOLVING the budget problem he is slapping a bandaid on a wound he keeps tearing open more!
And he is going to run out of bandaids by the end of next season!
Wright will be the last one before there is no attendance and no more salary to cut!
And then he will be faced with having to DEAL with the cause and have no money to do it with because he killed Attendance to it’s lowest levels since 1977!
The Mets are having gastric bypass surgery?
Bayonne I don’t see how you can equate the Wilpon’s with Met management??
Met management doesn’t set payroll or dictate financial decisions to the Wilpon family.
I would guess that Alderson was told going in what the Wilpon’s financial investment would be for the next several years.
I alos think there is much regarding the relationship between Met ownership and MLB that has not been ade public. I still feel as though Alderson was “appointed” to the Met GM job as much as he was offered the job. I think that the close relationship between the MLB Commissioner and Fred Wilpon had a lot to do we the “hiring” of Alderson as opposed to MLB treating the Mets like the Dodgers, no consideration given.
The Mets are not a solid MLB team, They are a team in financial distress whose ownership I believe has been given the “OK” from MLB to retain ownership of the team while they rehabilitate their finances. In 10 years we will be reading all about what happened in some Sports Illustrated expose article or some tell-all book.
I have been been resigned since December 2010 to the fact that the Met ownership has chosen to not compete for the next 3-5 yrs. To be honest that was almost 2 years ago now. in reality it looks like we are a non competitive team for the next 4-7 yrs.
Well Lifelong thats where your wrong!
Met Management has only ONE order from the Wilpons…Stop us from LOSING money!
That can be done in two ways:
1 – Cut the fat out of the Payroll
2 – Get more people to show up so the Bills get paid!
Sandy chose #1!
Unfortunatly the payroll he cut is all the payroll of players people actually went to see or made a significant contribution to WINNING that inspired people to go see!
Bay is still here, Santana is still here (and we will see if he is fat or fixed soon)
If Reyes goes and Wright gets traded (either one or both doesn’t matter)
Even FEWER people are going to go see them, Less Payroll but also Less Attendance!
You STILL lose money!
The Wilpons did not set the Budget to 95 Mil (which is Sandy’s target plus FAD Signing Bonus’ totalling 110 Mil), Sandy did!
And the reduction of 45 Mil from last year’s budget is not going to to make all that big of a dent in the 70 Mil of losses they had this year! Especially when you factor in the 30-35 Mil STILL being lost and throw the loss of Ticket sales due to No reyes and Beltran on top of that!
So say Reyes goes, 100 Mil Payroll and we still lose 70 Mil next year, Whats your next move?
Who do you cut then? Wright? ok lets say you save 18 Mil, 52 Mil to go!
How do you fix it then? Whats the next move after that?
See the folly of trying to fix a problem of attendance by reducing overhead?
See how money you think your saving by not signing Jose Reyes actually loses more money?
You want to blame the Wilpons for the Budget thats fine, it’s easy to do because they don’t release transcripts of what they have said to Sandy!
But the truth is ANY OWNER of ANY COMPANY tells their GM the same thing!
MAKE MONEY! STOP the LOSSES!
How he does that is the GM’s choice!
Sandy chose the Payroll Cut option.
But that will only work if the Attendance stays the same without Jose Reyes on the team.
And if it doesn’t there will be no budget low enough to fix the main financial issue, Attendance!
I don’t agree with you. Your assuming that the Wilpon’s view the Mets as a money makem that is bleeding money. Consider for a moment that the Wilpon’s do not see the “Mets” as a money stream but rather as an investment.
Why should I make a jump like that when they have shown to spend money before when the attendance allowed them to do so without putting their own money in?
All they care about is that the team doesn’t LOSE money!
Even if what you want to believe is true, it’s just an investment.
Who wants to invest in a stock every year and how much VALUE does that investment gain by LOSING MONEY every year because no one goes to see your product?
They don’t care HOW MUCH we spend provided that what we spend is paid for by the attendance!
You think they are setting the budget.
But the budget NUMBER isn’t being set by them the Attendance is setting the number and even THAT is not bringing it down as low as it SHOULD be if we want to get back into the Black!
We lost 70 Mil on a 140 Mil Payroll!
Thats 2 dollars spent for every dollar coming in!
The Wilpons are prepared to eat 30 Mil in losses so that Sandy can fix the issue of Attendance not covering the bills.
His Job is to at least get the team into position to make a dollar for every dollar spent (BREAK EVEN) and all he is doing is reducing the overhead and at the same time reducing the attendance!
It’s going to fail!
So no matter WHAT you think the Wilpon’s stance is on building a winner or investment property the bottomline is in BOTH cases the job of Sandy Alderson is to FIX the finances and the ONLY way to do that is get MORE fans in the seats not fewer!
Now from the comments it is apparent that the Sandy supporters won’t go anytime soon and the Wilpon Haters have stopped going for longer than that!
The rest of us who do go to games go to see guys like Reyes, Wright and Beltran and soon they will lose us as well!
They are not solving their problems they are just making things worse and once reyes and Wright are gone there will be no way to fix the problems because YOU BELIEVE Wilpon is not interested in spending his own money tomprotect his investment and the Attendance won’t pay for the stars we will need to fix it!
Vicious cycle that can only end with Spending money we aren’t making via attendance and hoping people go!
And that means going and getting another reyes, beltran and K-Rod which will cost you 60 Mil and a doubling of your money losing budget!
Is that what you want to see?
Or are you hoping this disaster happens because you think it is going to make Wilpon Sell?
Cause if thats the case your not going to get what you want there either!
Not until his contractual obligation to not sell SNY is over and that means about 10 years from now!
You ready to watch Soccer for the next 10 years in the summer while you wait?
NO owner wants to (or can or will for very long) lose money. Not sure why that seems to be a surprise.
and the idea of spending more to make more is wonderful, except the making follows the spending, and if you can’t make the payroll, you can’t jack it up.
that, and their is no guarantee that attendance will follow, depending on what happens on the field.
Are more people coming out if they spend all the available cash on Reyes, and fill out the roster with a bunch of Harris types? They weren’t coming to see Reyes the last couple of years, so I doubt it.
What brings in the money Any?
Attendance! right?
Does letting Beltran Reyes and K-Rod go improve attendance?
Does Trading Wright?
Is letting those guys go helping or hurting the issue of the finances?
Reyes draws enough to pay his salary, Wright probably does too!
We talk about spending wisely instead…
Do the following names constitute WISE spending?
Boyer
Buchholz
Capuanao (Maybe!)
Carrasco
Hairston
Harris
Paulino
Young
Which one solves the problem of lack of attendance and will put the budget in order?
Isn’t wasting 7 mil on 8 players just as wasted as 7 Mil for one?
At least you still have 7 Roster spots to play cheap kids in and maybe find a gem if you just pay the ONE player!
So this SPEND WISELY is sure not apparent yet!
When do we start spending WISELY as opposed to just NOT SPENDING period?
If we want to get the budget in order and we think 2014 or 2015 is the target date for the fix, Doesn’t it make more sense to have a potential HOF Batting champ SS on the roster for when that day comes?
4 Year deal, Fix is two or three years away!
That player keeps fans coming to see him so that you might still have the money to go an SPEND WISELY when your ready?
You said in another post that you should do trim the Fat Gradually!
Are we doing that?
Or are we taking Liposuction to the Payroll and shedding the GOOD FAT while keeping the BAD FAT?
K-Rod and Beltran are gone, Spilt milk lets live in the NOW!
Reyes could still be here!
Why not keep him, Hope Santana shows enough to trade him this year and get rid of the BIGGEST contract on the books!
Hope the fences help Bay enough to dump him on someone too!
Wright and Reyes are the vets in your new core, we play kids in place of the peripheral players who get paid medium salary but are not all that much better than a replacement and save the money that way!
Thats more in line with what you THINK we should be doing as stated in your FAT reduction analogy and it doesn’t hurt the ATTENDANCE in the meantime!
So maybe there will actually be SOME Attendance that will pay for the WISE SPENDING you all think is going to happen at some point but to date has not been seen at all!
The only thing that puts fans in the seats is WINS. Maybe a slight lag but almost a direct correlation. Blame, excuses, payroll and rhetoric have nothing to do with attendance.
i wonder what terry collins must be thinking while all the news about the mets and the players sandy will go and not go after to improve the team, while the phillies are looking to add a premier closer, the mets will go and wait to see what’s left on the FA pool to offer minor deals with incentives to crappy players and pray to see at least one make it, you know, kinda the same sh** he pulled last years, where everyone is gun ho on capuano’s season but forgotten are all the garbage he brought hu, eamus, chris young, carrasco, tankerley, bucholtz, boof, thayer, boyer.. this is just amazing..
that’s are new philosophy,throw a bunch of sh** at the wall and hope something sticks.
Figure on Pagan being non-tendered. There will be some youngster get hot in ST and he’ll be put on a pedestal as the next CF. If he falls on his face, oh well so what, we’ll just move on by picking up some retread on the cheap. This is not about being competitive, it is all about not spending money.