9
2011
Who To Blame For Losses Of Reyes/Pujols
An article by 
Pockets of fans in St. Louis and New York are understandably upset after Albert Pujols and Jose Reyes sold their legacies and moved them out of town as mercenaries.
Pujols thought $220 million over ten years, his developmental years in St. Louis along with his businesses and foundation weren’t enough, so he took $30 million more and shuffled off to Los Angeles.
Reyes could have had close to $100 million from the Mets – which included incentives – but in the end took roughly $6 million more to move to Miami.
In the end, reports from Pujols supporters and Reyes himself, were that they weren’t “loved” enough by their former teams so they went with the money.
I never expected Reyes to stay. I always believed he’d go to who flashed the most bling. However, I thought Pujols might have been one of the rare few to spend his entire career with one team.
Stan Musial did it and so did Mickey Mantle. So did Cal Ripken and Don Mattingly. They were thinking of a statute for Pujols in St. Louis. Not any more.
Who is to blame?
Actually, nobody.
As much as it would have been nice to think about Pujols staying home, in the end I was naive. It was something I wanted to believe in.
Pujols and Reyes; the Cardinals and Mets; the Angels and Marlins all made business decisions this week.
For Pujols and Reyes it was for the money. Pujols might also have the additional incentive of setting the career home run record with the aid of the designated hitter. Reyes sought the comfort of a guaranteed contract because of his house-of-card hamstrings.
The Angels are competing with the reeling Dodgers for the lion’s marketing share of Los Angeles and now have star power for their television network. As an American League team, the Angels can offer Pujols the DH during the back end of his contract. Pujols is worth all that money to them.
As for the Marlins, they significantly upgraded not only with Reyes, but Mark Buehrle and Heath Bell, and should have a good product in their new stadium. They might not be good enough to catch the Phillies, but with the extra wild card, they have a chance at October.
For the Cardinals and Mets, they have $220 million and $100 million, respectively, to build with. The Cardinals always have been a smart organization and based in the average NL Central, they should be able to rebound and retool quickly.
For the financially strapped Mets, they couldn’t afford to risk that kind of money on Reyes’ brittle hamstrings. The Mets have holes and ownership is drowning in red ink. The last thing the Mets needed was to be on the hook for another brutal contract.
So, nobody is to blame. And, the winners? It seems as if all the players got something they wanted. That is, of course, except fans of Pujols and Reyes, but who is surprised by that?
About the Author: John Delcos
I am an active member of the BBWAA and have covered Major League Baseball in several capacities for over 20 years, including ten in New York working the Mets' and Yankees' beat. I covered the Baltimore Orioles for eight years and the Cleveland Indians before that. I currently serve as an editor and senior staff writer for Mets Merized Online. Follow me on Twitter @jdelcos.
61 Comments + Add Comment
Recent Comments
- Hotstreak: on Mets Have Opportunity To Soar To New Heights: Mets looking for a quick fix to...
- Alex68: on Team Source On Wheeler: “He’s Ready”: I can live with that too... I...
- Major Mofongo: on Team Source On Wheeler: “He’s Ready”: Zach will be our future closer.
- Major Mofongo: on MMO Exclusive: A Look Inside The Mets Dominican Complex: Thank God for Omar building this complex... IMO...
- Social Network [x-MoBiLe] Nulled: on Sandy Disappointed With Some Of His Moves And The Team’s Performance: Sandy Disappointed With Some Of His Moves...
Need Tickets To The Mets Game?
Check Out These Great MLB Links!
Photographs From Gordon Donovan
5393 Fans Follow Us On Twitter!
1269 Fans Like Us On Facebook!
2341 Fans Read Our Feed!
1702 Fans Subscribe via Daily Email!
In retrospect when thinking about last year at this time compared to now what I didn’t expect this off season was more and more the reality of how bad the financial situation seems to be. You can’t really know the gravity or lack thereof it is without seeing the books but when Howard Megdal asked his question during the recent conference call and you hear the GM publicly say that ownership pushed back on what he expected to have available that was disconcerting to hear.
Cardinals Chairman and CEO Bill DeWitt, Jr.
“We are disappointed that we were unable to reach an agreement to keep Albert Pujols in St. Louis. Albert is a great champion and we will always be thankful for his many achievements in a Cardinals uniform, as well as his contributions to the St. Louis community. I have the highest regard for Albert both personally and professionally, and appreciate his direct involvement in this process. I would like our fans to know that we tried our best to make Albert a lifetime Cardinal but unfortunately we were unable to make it happen.”
Cardinals Sr. Vice President & General Manager John Mozeliak
“Albert has been a special player in this organization since the moment he was drafted over 12 years ago. His accomplishments on and off the field have been spectacular. I wish him well in the next phase of his career.”
Meanwhile Mets GM:
I should have sent him a box of chocolates.
That is all you need to know about a franchise led by winners and good owner and the mets..
Alex, Alderson didn’t say that comment immedietaly after Reyes left. DeWitt’s comments were right after Pujols left. Alderson had an entire press gathering before Reyes was officially gone and at no point made comments like the chocolates one.
He said that AFTER the fact, and after the war of words began.
I still think the comment is funny and I like how people are leaving off the end of the quote
“But on the other hand, the box of chocolates would have cost $106 million.”
He’s clearly saying no matter what he did in terms of “showing love”, he wasn’t gonna afford Reyes.
ecellent post alex68. The Cards lost the best player in the game and the leadership was still gracious. The Mets……. its just pathetic what a bunch of slime runs this club.
Actually, the chocolates remark was aimd at all the sissies whining Alderson didn’t take Reyes on a romantic date.
By the way, Omar Fanboy, I heard Rickey Henderson is available. Want to give him a 6 year deal at $17 million per with a vesting option?
When is this officially going to be called “Chocolate-gate”? I’m just blown away by the contempt and fury that is coming from one little comment that was actually funny. If half this energy was put into the Mets coat drive, 2/3rd’s of the “uncoated” NY population would be warm and snug.
Yes, If you listen to that whole interview, some reporter asked Alderson if he should have sent him a box of chocolates. Anderson did not volunteer the comment.
Good post Alex and thanks for sharing,
Just goes to show what a defensive, arrogant jerk Sandy is and showed in San Diego as well and his followers are indicative of this and it makes the Mets less likeable franchise and bad for business. The Cardinals showed great class in their handling of the Albert Pujols situation.
And welcome back Omar good to see you again
What’s arrogant is having a selective memory and only posting what fits an agenda.
Omar and bayonne, hi guys, notice how jesseP is the one defending alderson at all cost. alderson had a press conference DEFENDIGN the reason why he didn’t sign reyes, and all he did was blame the mets financial issues to defend his poor action in terms of reyes, instead of saying i’m sorry we lost reyes, wish him the best etc, he went and took the snarky way to sh** on reyes… he’s pathetic and an arrogant jerk.. but i guess jesseP is the only one not seeing that.. takes one to know one i guess..
I get it Alex. You dislike the GM but do you believe if the GM took the high road and never uttered the chocolates comment (which I’m on record as saying it’s not that big a deal to begin with) and said the exact same thing the Cardinals CEO just said you would think any differently or even that it would matter to you that he said it?
I get it you don’t like what your seeing and nothing short of World Series appearance will probably change that.
MNJ, at least the cardinals TRY TO SIGN pujols, the GM and owner were in full mode to get him. the mets and sandy……. not so !!!!!
And at the end of the day Alex what happened?
They didn’t get him
Why?
They couldn’t afford him. They were in it up until he was out of their price range. Get that?
And please, the Cardinals had a chance to re-sign Albert in the Spring and didn’t pony up them. You are just looking at their story as a way to blame Alderson, not looking at the facts.
Why were they able to afford 5 years, but not 6?
I think it may have something to do about drawing a line.
Jeseep said the reason why we didn’t get is because we couldn’t afford him….However, the Mets would have been able to afford him for 5 years….but not 6.
It makes no sense – If the were able to afford to keep him for 5 yrs, they would also be able to afford him for 6.
Understood. As far as I am concerned it was most likely a bit of both. Not being able to afford him to an extent and not willing to guarantee x number of years or money.
We have no idea how that contract would have had to be structured.
Didn’t they say they were willing to give Reyes 5yrs 80M? So if they can afford that, they could have afforded giving Reyes another year.
How was the contract structured? Was it front loaded, back loaded, were the Mets going to have to pay more because of no income tax in FLA? Again, I have no idea and at this point I really don’t care.
I have no idea,
But if they were somehow able to do it for 5 years, then they would have also been able to get it done for 6.
“But if they were somehow able to do it for 5 years, then they would have also been able to get it done for 6.”
Right, maybe they could have but don’t forget the line in the sand.
LIES
You know that I was always in that minority of fans that thought they would somehow get it done regarding resigning Reyes but you know that the majority opinion for a long time was that no way the Mets could resign Reyes cause in the end they was not going to match the years or the money or both.
The Mets took the strategy to not set the market and it was looking like a good strategy until the weekend before the winter meetings. Greenberg himself was quoted to say that other than the Marlins no one else had Reyes as a priority.
“There were teams that had to wait on some decisions before they went to Plan B. Jose wasn’t Plan A for anybody else,”
and that he was working with the Mets on the parameters of a deal when the Marlins then came back with an offer that moved past whatever the Mets had worked up to at that time.
“Greenberg told Alderson that the parameters of what the Mets were talking “were not competitive” with the Marlins’ offer.”
It’s done the majority was correct in the end the Mets would not match the years or money or both.
http://aol.sportingnews.com/mlb/story/2011-12-07/marlins-long-pursuit-of-jose-reyes-ends-with-six-year-deal
I guess it doesn’t matter that Jose ignored Sandy twice when asked to negotiate. Whatever fits your preconceived notion, I guess. Pujols did the right thing and negotiated with team. He also didn’t lie about not being contacted then backtrack and say his agent did speak to the front office, like Jose did.
So many double standards.
What’s funny is people will be here pouting and moaning for a longer period of time than Cards fans will be upset over Pujols leaving.
People here need to get over it. Things are different here, if you’re gonna spend your entire time crying about every little thing then what is the point? Turn off your tv, shut down the pc and find another hobby.
Jose Reyes had his faults in this whole thing as well. Did Sandy handle it perfectly? No. Did Reyes? No. Make no mistake about it, its no coincidence that the Mets discussed limits and parameters and then suddenly reports that Miami up their offer occured.
In a normal scenario, people would look back at a homegrown player taking himself out of a game to win an individual award in what was likely his final home game and think of it with distain. Here we have people who are celebrating it, and the same people are begging for the Mets to trade David Wright for Hanley Ramirez a guy who is lazy, and has a poor attitude.
Yet we have people that will look at Rhiner Cruz leaving in the Rule 5 draft and they act as though the sky is falling when they probably didn’t even know how the Rule 5 draft worked until Brad Emaus was taken.
I’m tired of the constant complaining, quit living in denial about what is going on here. The Mets are not on par with the top teams in the division, they have severe financial troubles AND they don’t have fan support. 2009-2010 is evidence, the fans abadoned ship once things got tough.
That is not a recipe for success, and if the Mets re-signed Reyes they’d STILL lose significant $ because “YOU” still wouldn’t go to the ballpark, all because you hate Sandy Alderson.
Wanna hear a funny story? I have a good friend in Burbank that’s originally from St. Louis. I texted him my condolences with the half-hearted joke “at least you don’t have to go far to see him.” He texted back and said “it’s sad, but it was a good baseball move for the Cards, kind of like Reyes and the Mets.”
This from an unbiased source.
for a team that is never going to be a wild free spender (the cards) that would have been a heck of a hit if they were stuck for 5 years with him being a shell.
I think you are oversimplifying by complaining that the fans abandoned the team when the going got tough. There are a couple of things going on behind that you need to consider. CitiField has a lot of expensive seats, it also has a lot of seats with poor sightlines. So if I’m going to shell out top dollar to put up with that, then the on-field product needs to be something worth watching, especially in this economy. So that’s number 1 – Economics. Keep pricing the average fan out, MLB, good job! Number 2, the front office has been embarrassing, untruthful, and they’ve treated the fans poorly. Just look at the past few years. And then you have all the shady Madoff dealings. It’s a wonder the fans stuck with this garbage for as long as they have. Maybe staying away from the ballpark is the fans way of protesting, of telling the team to get its act together, of telling ownership that we’ve had enough of the antics, that it’s time for ownership to hold up their end of the bargain. It’s much more complicated than, “Wow, a losing year with prospects for a few more. Guess I’ll just give up on them and watch something else.” Besides, the way the game is progressing these days, the money from merchandising and TV deals is becoming more of a driving revenue stream than attendance.
I stopped going to the ballpark after Jeff and Omar sat on Mike Francesa’s show after the 2009 season and said to the fans on air that they will do everything possible to put a championship team on the field and they go out and sign Jason Bay and 2 Japanese pitchers.After that lackluster offseason promising the fans they would do everything possible to put a champioship caliber team on the field said that’s enough .No more of my money will go into the Wilpons pockets. I’m still holding my end of the bargain and will never step foot into that ballpark as long as a Wilpon or Katz family member own the team.I hope the rest of the fan base follows suit.
Should say “I said that’s enough”
As far as winners…Didn’t Alderson and staff win four AL West Titles and get to the WS three times and win one in Oakland? Didn’t he build a division winner in San Diego? So I don’t see your point about winners? The man has a track record.
The St. Louis brass won multiple divisions, went to multiple WS and won twice with Albert.
With out him I’m of the opinion this doesn’t happen. They should thank him.
As for the 106 million dollar box of chocolate comment… Wasn’t Alderson reacting to comments brought to him by a new york reporter concerning Reyes not feeling loved? Jose was a little upset so I get it…he spoke his mind. Funny how we haven’t heard anything from Albert publicly… at least yet.
I’ll miss Jose too. He was fun to watch but make no mistake…he’s not a winning player. He’s not a player worth a 106 million dollar contract. He’s not a player worth 17.6 million dollar per year. If he was that much of an impact player the Mets would have been better then an 80 win team over his time with the Mets and 2009-2011 they would have been better then a 75 win team.
I wish him well…just not against the Mets.
This is a league of Mercenaries. Why does this surprise anyone?
Delcos, I think you accidentally checked your objectivity at the door along with your hat and coat. I thought for a moment I was reading something written by Cerrone. Comparing both cases is stupid, and giving the Mets a pass is beyond reproach.
“Stan Musial did it and so did Mickey Mantle.”
Keep in mind, that was when players still indentured servants.Musial is on record as saying he would have chased the big $$$ if he had a chance.
Also, Mattingly retired a Diamondback.
Huh?
“Reyes could have had close to $100 million from the Mets – which included incentives – but in the end took roughly $6 million more to move to Miami.” Actually, in the end, the Mets never contacted Reyes or his agent nor did they make him an offer…so to say he “could have had close to $100 million from the Mets,” is just wishful thinking, as the Mets never had any intention of offering Reyes anywhere close to that amount. If they did, then the moment the Marlins made him an offer, the Mets would have counter offered….or would have, at the very least, shown Reyes that they had the intentions of making him an offer. The Mets did nothing, and Reyes took a great deal to go to a team that is going to be competitive for a long time, and leaves a team that will not be.
“team that is going to be competitive for a long time”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That was funny. Good job, man.
Oh, crap. You actually meant that.
Reyes, Hanley, Sanchez, Stanton, Bonafacio, Dominguez, LoMo, Johnson, Buehrle, Nolasco, Sanchez, and Bell…with Guillen as their manager…plus, apparently they have more money to spend if need be…predicting them to be competitive for a long time is a “captain obvious” type of statement.
and a very strict stance against issuing no trade clauses on those contracts. plus, Jeffrey Loria still owns that team.
You’re the first person I’ve come across who is actually buying into this idea that things have suddenly changed and the Marlins are anything but Loria’s ATM.
2 years and that team is stripped.
Not with that fancy new stadium…every latino player is going to be dying to go there and play for Guillen in San Juan West…errr, I mean Miami.
Every Latino player? Like Pujols?
And it doesn’t matter if they want to. Loria is going to stop buying them.
Pujols never turned down the deal…The Marlins took the deal off of the table after they signed Buehrle…probably because they figured they could still get Fielder for a lower price or, worst case scenario, they already have a decent young first baseman.
That team will be stripped in years at the most.Once the novelty of the new stadium wears off they will dismantle that team faster than you can type Trade Wright for Nolan Arenado. The new park was built in the worst possible location,a nightmare to get to.People in Miami would rather be on their boats than sitting in bumper to bumper traffic to watch a ballgame.They couldn’t even sellout playoff games back in 97 and 2003.
What good does it do to worry about who is to blame to start with? I really don’t care who is to blame, it happened. Time to get over it and move on.
You gotta go back to the Matt Holliday deal back in the 2009 offseason when he signed a 7 year, 120 million dollar contract. When the ink was dried, it made everyone wonder if the Cards have enough to keep Pujols after this season and when the negotiations broke off during spring training, it was the beginning of the end between them. Now he’s an Angel with a whopping A-Rod type contract. Is Cards fans upset about it? Depends on who you ask in St. Louis.
IMO, the vast majority of fans are pragmatic. They might not like when certain players leave, but they recognize that MLB is a business, and people do things for money in this world. Then the fans move on and find new favorite players, and continue to root for the laundry.
I just don’t think the relatively small # of people go nuts posting diatribes on blogs represent the large majority of the fan base.
I blame you, John.
I #blameBeltran
Off Topic: OK so who on MMO has been showing up to Citi Field in flip flops?
http://deadspin.com/5865881/mlb-issues-media-dress-code-ending-long-tradition-of-interviews-conducted-by-a-shirtless-buster-olney
Now this is really, totally off topic. Let me a get a LGM if you find this really appalling…
http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/12-extremely-disappointing-facts-about-popular-mus
who the hell is kesha and what’s tik tok????? also, about records sold, it may have to do with more people. radio stations etc.. not gonna lie, my wife had the come on over joe, it was pretty good to be honest.. and justin jesseP beiber.. ahhh classic!!!!
Wow I would never had thought Katy Perry was so popular. I have to question the Beatles one in particular the Ke$ha’s “Tik-Tok” sold more copies than ANY Beatles single. Are they counting digital media as well as cd sales?
The Beatles especially there digital content now combined with their lifetime record sales I would think be much more than anything Ke$ha did. But I would like to see how they broke down the numbers at least.
MNJ: Not I! Collared shirt and slacks for me Lol.
Joe: Number 12 is hilarious yet so true Lol.
MNJ, LOL, that is funny to hear.. this guys get to vote who goes into the hall of fame, have some class and decency at least.. most of this goons never even grabbed a bat in their life, imo, players should get to vote who goes into the hof. also, women are trying to get an edge by wearing short skirts thinking that’ll get them the interview, but we all saw what happened with the jets and that reported, is a real shame if women who know sports and are really good reportes get the wrath of MLB for one or two who went out of bounds.. good to see tstrictions.
Alex I was throwing this around last night. I think I know what you will say but wanted you to chime in.
http://metsmerizedonline.com/2011/12/its-a-good-thing-pujols-isn’t-a-marlin..html#comment-209015
MNJ, Alex68 agrees!!!!!!!
thumbs up my friend.. that is what i am referring too, HanRam is mad, so is wright, is obvious he’s not pleased either with what’s going on with the mets, but he hasn’t said it publically, trade’em for each other.. go from there.. murphy at 3rd base, HanRam at SS, tejada at 2B, our lineup will be better having:
Whoever at CF
Murphy
Hanram
Ike Davis
Duda
Bay
Thole \
Tejada
That’s what I thought you’d say. Like I said last night it would be a ballsy move but I can see where you can make the case for this. Though the idea of watching Wright & Reyes in a Miami uniform just kills me.
Have you read the follow up posted on Deadspin by a newspaper reporter?
Oof. Lots of fail in there.
The great unknown that people on this site seem to refuse to comprehend is that NOBODY knows what the mets financial situation truly is. And they ar not likely to know it. If Alderson and Co. came in here with penury staring them in the face then it is unreasonable to be making all these claims about them. I was against the mets making Omar the GM originally. I wanted someone with more experience running an organization. They had been throwing first timers like Harazin and Philips and Omar at us instead of getting a guy who could sit the two owner/clowns down and tell them a few things about baseball, instead of being eternally grateful to them for giving them their big chance. But at least I gave Omar a ferw years before I began screaming about him on blogs. And he, and Philips both came in with plenty of money to spend. People here act like it is the FO idea not to spend, when I am pretty certain it is all due to the financial instability of the Wontpons.