14
2012
The Wilpons: It Could Be Much Worse
An article by 
For all of our troubles lately as Mets fans, yesterday proved one thing to be true: It could be worse.
Some of you reading this are desperately hoping that one day, the Mets have new owners at the helm. I’m not here to tell you that you are right or wrong. I’m here to tell you that yesterday gave me a little more appreciation for the Wilpon family.
The Miami Marlins offered up a proposition to the public taxpayer. That proposition included an attempt to be the Yankees of the South. A new mostly taxpayer funded ballpark would help grow the franchise so much so that they’d have practically unlimited resources to acquire talent. Many of the county commissioners who approved the deal found themselves without a job.
Yesterday officially marked the end of that promise. Everything about the new look Marlins has been pushed to the side. Manager Ozzie Guillen who admittedly said some ignorant things was fired after 1 season. Hanley Ramirez, the superstar they intended to build around was traded to LA mid-season.
Heath Bell struggled, so he was sent packing. And then just yesterday, every recognizable name besides Logan Morrison and Giancarlo Stanton were sent packing. Now the Marlins greatest asset since Miguel Cabrera is publicly showing displeasure at the organization.
The irony of Guillen’s firing is that one of the reasons was due to the things he said, yet they just acquired Yunel Escobar who as you remember was suspended and fined for his user of a homophobic slur in his eye black.
These moves turned the once re-modeled Miami Marlins into the same old Florida Marlins. What I expect Loria to do is to sell his team after 2015, because he will not face any early departure penalty from the counties if he waits until then.
In my view, they spent like crazy just to fulfill promises with the public that a new park would mean the old ways of doing things are long gone. They got their new park, thus increasing the value of the franchise so that when they choose to sell after 2015, they turn a nicer profit.
I suspect that the owner who is so proud of his new park will get a chance to see every nook & crannie of it because there is going to be a lot of empty seats there for several years.
Now, the Marlins will collect revenue money from other teams, filling owner Jeffrey Loria’s pocket with no care for the product they put on the field and further alienating their fan base. What they did last night was prove to their critical fans that their concerns were valid.
The Mets are undoubtedly in some sort of financial trouble, or at least were. The difference between the Wilpon’s and the Miami ownership to me is that at least the Wilpon’s care about the franchise and its fans.
When they hit financial dire straits two years ago, they could have EASILY instructed their GM to trade everybody and anybody making money. They could have ripped the franchise a part and cut salary by a huge margin.
They could have easily spent fictitious money to try and show fans that everything was okay, only to pull the rug out from under everybody 12 months later.
The Wilpon’s have their flaws, and frankly prior to the last few years I never minded them as owners because I always felt Mets fans were lucky to have an owner who is at least willing to spend money to improve the ball club. Many teams do not have that luxury. You cannot deny their passion for this team. You cannot deny that for much of this past decade they were willing to spend large sums of money in an attempt to win, not to trick a fan base.
Yesterday, the Florida Marlins were born again in the NL East. Their “policy” on not offering no-trade clauses is what probably sent Albert Pujols to Los Angeles and not Miami. After last night, I have serious doubts about why any player would sign a contract with Miami through free agency under that same policy.
Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle, Heath Bell, and Hanley Ramirez all learned that lesson the hard way. All four of them thought they found a secure home, and all four were sent packing quicker than it took Jeffrey Loria to get a Jose Reyes Marlins jersey created.
The Mets, while struggling are still trying to find ways to put a respectable team on the field while concentrating on the future. Though some may not like the direction of the process, you can’t deny that their goal is long term health and success. Whether they achieve it is a different story.
The Marlins on the other hand shoved respectability aside and once again became the laughing stock of baseball.
About the Author: Michael J. Branda
My time with MMO began in July of 2009 when I wrote a Fan Post defending Omar Minaya (before it was cool to do that.) I grew up a Mets fan with the mid 1980's teams. My favorite Met of all-time is (and was) Wally Backman. When it comes to sabermetrics versus old school thinking, I like to think I meet in the middle. I believe thinking of new ways to get answers is helpful, especially when the same way has not produced results. However, I think over-thinking certain situations can get you into trouble. I'm excited for the new regime, because I believe they have pieces in place to focus on several aspects of the Mets organization. I've waited this long for a World Series, waiting a few more years for another chance isn't going to kill me.
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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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Wanna know what’s more amazing???? That even though all those “BAD CONTRACTS” to players were being handed out, they manage to get rid of each one of them while still acquiring talent back.. Unlike certain other GM who’s best job as a GM of a team has been releasing players while the team still gets hung over with paying the salary of those players.. Go figure and make an article about that….
ROFL! THIS!
You are wrong.
The contracts that the Marlins gave away were not dead wood like Jason Bay, Luis Castillo, and Oliver Perez.
The player the Marlins gave away and got “some” (I use that word loosely) talent back for are still All Star caliber players. Reyes, Buehrle, Johnson, Ramirez all had GREAT value. They were given away for pure salary relief.
This not comparable to the Mets situation AT ALL.
Castillo and Perez were both picked up by other teams anyway so what’s the difference? Why couldn’t Alderson have gotten some players back for them? Instead he either just cut them loose or couldn’t get the job done like other GMs. Even though it is to a lesser extent he still couldn’t get the job done so he just cut them and got nothing back. That’s Alex’s point. Other GMs most likely could have gotten something back for them. And we’ll see about Jason Bay.
You’re not gonna seriously stand there and tell me that Perez and Castillo had trade value are you? They were picked up because all teams had to pay was the $80K waiver fee, the Mets paid them the remaining $19 million.
Did Castillo even get a chance to hang his clothes in his locker before getting waived again? Ollie had to go to a MExican league didn’t he? Oy ve.
Doesn’t matter. We are seeing almost every single day other GMs making smart moves that are well within reach of what the Mets can do and he’s not doing it. And that includes signing good players at good prices and moving bad contracts.
All the other GMs are doing it except Alderson so the Castillo & Perez cases are no different either.
I am on the same page with “nothing being done” at this point. I personally gave him a pass due to the finances for the first 2 years but not doing anything to improve the team at the deadline was inexcusable. There are definitely moves that can be made but a over-paid lefty that can’t throw a strike and a second basemen who lost his range is apples and oranges compared to what Miami did. You know that.
Yes I’m going to seriously say that another GM quite possibly could have been able to move Castillo & Perez for some talent. You don’t know that and you yourself see other GMs making moves Sandy could have but doesn’t get done almost every single off season it seems. This is not a big example of Sandy failing to move contracts but it doesn’t mean that another GM could have done it.
Listen, I am certainly not a shill for the Mets or Alderson. You KNOW that. I’m a straight shooter. But you are so wrong here. Minaya couldn’t trade them when they had a tiny bit of value, and you expected Alderson to trade them when their value was less than zero? You are not being fair or objective. Lets agree to disagree.
Minaya didnt have enough permission to throw a beer belly fart, much less make a trade.
So couldn’t 3 gm come up with some value to add to them?? other teams trade players, good players to team and add to the trade players with contract baggage… No???? We see that all the time, twice alderson has just release players with nothing, NOTHING in return.. come on!
I cant believe you two are arguing about Perez and Castillo. Bottom line, cutting Castillo gave Ruben Tejada his opportunity and cutting Perez did the same for Dillon Gee.
No…
In 2011, cutting Castillo ( Tejada’s 2010 mentor ) gave Brad Eamus a shot….then it gave Hu a shot…
Remember them?
Our Super Sabermetric wizards thought they could find lightning in a bottle
Point is, Was that the only way???? Is that what we’re gonna be doing from now on? Cut a player, pay his salary and give someone else a shot and all is well?? Then the mets are paying too much for these THREE gm’s in house, because i believe me, maniac and bayonne can do a much better job at half the price!
What shot? Castillo is in a wheel chair and Ollie had to go to Mexico for 2 seasons to re-invent himself for a third time. They weren’t wanted and had no value.
hey Bayonne, thanks for reading & commenting. I appreciate that!
well you’re a jerk for saying that now i don’t comment on your posts no more and no more responses to my comments that can add to your totals. Another “All Time Backfire” by you – and you still make me sick.
Sorry if you feel me appreciating you taking the time to read and comment on something I wrote is so offensive.
Joe D…….These guys just don’t get it. They are so out of touch with the reality of the situations. Its so sad what the years of frustration has done to some minds…lol
“Castillo and Perez were both picked up by other teams anyway so what’s the difference? Why couldn’t Alderson have gotten some players back for them?”
Tell me you’re joking. You want to make us believe someone would pick them up with their godawful contracts? You know as well as I do that wasn’t happening. Did you seem to forget 2010′s trade deadline when Minaya attempted to trade Castillo & Perez for Zambrano and the CUBS turned down the offer, despite Zambrano being on thin ice? Didn’t matter. Nobody wanted them. Try again.
My point is Alderson has done such a terrible job while we read here about other GMs getting rid of bad contracts, making creative trades, signing good ballplayers the Mets could have afforded that I put nothing past him.
The way this guy has gone about business i would not put it past him that another GM could have been able to get SOME value for the Perez & Castillo contracts. That’s all i’m saying. If you choose to believe that Alderson’s solution to the problem was the only way it could have been handled that it’s your choice. I happen to think if we had a smarter baseball man as GM things quite possibly would have been handled differently.
Heath bell??? even if it’s a scrub the marlins got something back, hell, the red sox got the dodgers to take on crawford’s contract.. That’s called being creative.. i am sure sandy would’ve made a move trading dickey or wright or both to someone and dump bay on them as welll.. but instead we sit here and applaud him for getting rid of 3 all stars, dump salary and acquire one single pitcher with a wildness streak ala oliver perez.. but hey, at least we’re not the marlins right???
My oh my, how things have changed, from winning and wanting to win to OBP and we should be happy because there’s a team out of 5 in the division who’s worst than us.. amazing.. This article is just another shot at the marlins for no reason other than the fact that jose reyes went there and the marlins dumped him and others already… Guess what? Don’t be surprised if the marlins with all those young players and stanton along surprised people next year.. Believe it or not Henderson alvarez is a stud and can become an ace for them just like johnson was.. Baseball is a funny game. we should focus more on ourselves and the problems we got in our FO with THREE GM’S who have proved to be pathetic and incapable of making one good move to help the franchise.. All we got to show for is zack wheeler in what will be our 3rd offseason under the sabergooners, and yet we’re worrying and being preocuppied with the marlins?? Seriously…
“hell, the red sox got the dodgers to take on crawford’s contract”
As long as they packaged in Adrian Gonzalez and a ton of cash.
You mean like Vernon Wells?
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/dailypitch/post/2011/01/vernon-wells-trade-to-los-angeles-angels-/1#.UKPj0cWHLJI
You mean like AJ Burnett ?
http://espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/story/_/id/7593203/new-york-yankees-pittsburgh-pirates-complete-trade-aj-burnett
You mean like Randy Johnson?
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2720413
Would you like for me to go further?
A more talented GM would’ve gotten more for K-Rod than 2 dishwashers and some salary relief
You know what else all those deals had in common? The former teams all sent cash to cover at least some of the player’s salary.
Also, they had at least some appeal to the team acquiring them.
You can see all the appeal Perez and Castillo had.
…and all the appeal that Billy Wagner had
…and all the appeal that K-Rod had
…and all the appeal that Scott Hairston had
…and all the appeal that Tim Byrdack had
…and all the appeal that Jose Reyes had
must I continue or will you concede that Sandy is doing an atrocious job of “rebuilding”
How many guys did you just mentioned were either coming off injury riddled/underpeforming season or were injured around the trade deadline?
With the exception of Reyes (who came off the DL a week before the deadline) and Hairston (who is still out there) all of those guys took paycuts and down grades to their roles immediately after leaving the Mets.
And what does Billy Wagner have to do with Alderson?
The Red Sox were offering a BETTER PROSPECT in exchange for the mets picking up the 1 mil…Mets opted to do a SALARY DUMP instead….
K – Rod in July of 2011 was the best closer available, we opted to do another SALARY DUMP
Scott Hairston could’ve been traded
Tim Byrdack could’ve been traded
Jose Reyes ( who they knew they were not going to resign ) could’ve been traded
I cant put all the blame on Sandy as I think he is working within certain parameters
yay so we have the 2nd worst owner in Major League Baseball
whip out the champagne
Hi Alex, thanks for reading & commenting!
I agree with everything you said.
Well, except that it should be “the Wilpons” (plural). Not “the Wilpon’s” (possessive).
Jessep just got the Coutinho bounce!
@coutinho9
@MetsMerized Nice take…very well-written
And hey, Alex and Bay commented on a Jessep article, way to give him an extra comment count
woot woot!
haha, thanks Salty!
Hi Jessep,
“When they hit financial dire straits two years ago, they could have EASILY instructed their GM to trade everybody and anybody making money. They could have ripped the franchise a part and cut salary by a huge margin.”
- Isn’t that exactly what they did?
I have my doubts about the Wilpon concern for the fans due to their outpricing them and disregard in other ways but that is for another day. The important thing to remember is that no matter what Loria might be, it doesn’t change anything regarding how our own owners and front office conduct themselves. Their goals for the long-term (and how long is that?) is certainly health and success for the team but their immediate goal is more to keep the Wilpons from having to sell than it is building the team for the future (as we saw with this past year’s draft) and the longer that continues, the longer we have to wait for those long-term goals to start taking priority.
Spot on target. Again its the Wilpons
1st : survival mode (this phase is done
2 .
2. placate the fans mode (current phase)
3. Have all star game revenue
4. Pay creditors ans minority owners
5. Decide how to win on a 110-110 payroll (moneyball) with DW on team
I agree.
I was listening to MLBN radio last night and this morning and Cliff Floyd and Todd Hollandsworth both said that the Marlins had screwed themselves when it comes to future FA and this type of stuff DOES matter to the players. While money is important players want to know where they are going to be now and in the future and don’t like surprises.
If the Marlins play in the FA market again, where they will draw players is by paying the marginal guys top dollar. The upper tier guys wont touch them but there will be plenty of guys who are middle of the road who accept a huge overpayment to go there.
The Wilpon’s are far from the best owners but I will accept they arent the worst. You are correct that they (Fred) was willing to spend money. If Met fans will think back, that one of the rifts between Wilpon and Doubleday; Doubleday didnt like the idea of spending money. Also, Fred was the one who forced Phillips to spend hence the Appier ordeal. So writing out check never was Fred’s problem.
I always thought him to be a hands off owner. He put people in place and let them run things. Omar approached the market how he thought best and was given reign to do it. I never read publicly where Fred debunked any more that Omar wanted to make or denied the cash for the deal. It might have happened but I dont recall reading it.
Now, I wish that Wilpon would have the same approach with Wright. Alderson doesnt want to sign him to a long term deal…it isnt the way he goes about things. This horse is being driven by Fred (and maybe Jeff). They want Wright to stay and are willing to pay him. To me, this is a bad baseball move. But in this instance, it isnt all about baseball and that sucks.
The intent of the article was right on…Loria is much worse than the Wilpons. I would also say Dolan is also in that boat.
Either way, it really doesnt matter how good or bad the Wilpon’s are because they are not going anywhere in my opinion. Met fans just need to get use to them as owners.
“The intent of the article was right on…Loria is much worse than the Wilpons. I would also say Dolan is also in that boat.”
Dolan wants to compete to spend money even over the cap. You may think I am an apologist for Dolan. I definately am not. Dolan always went for the short term over long term. He now has a collection of aging stars good to compete at a high level for tops 4 years. Thats fine maybe the knicks will finally bring back a championship since the Nixon era. He could have rebuild properly and got high draft choices — real young stud superstars. However for all my distain for Dolan he let Jeremey Lin him walk. PR never wins games.
It’s rare that I agree with you lately. I think we oppose each other in every Roundtable we do. But you nailed this one.
You’re probably right. I think it’s time for another roundtable so I don’t get used to this!
Spot on – much I agree with here.
Only thing I’ll add is I believe there is a big difference between Fred and Jeff. Fred does appear to care about his team and has invested to put a winning product on the field.
Jeff….I’m not so sure. We’ll find out someday when it’s just Jeff as the sole majority owner.
Hi SRT,
If Fred does care so much for the team, then why would he be eventually leaving it in the hands of Jeff?
It has been reported that Jeff was the one behind those absurb Barnum and Bailey nuances throughout Citi Field because he thought it would create more “excitement” for the fans. Those attrocious gimmicks instead made a mockery of the game and it’s integrity – auxillary walls of varying heights interspersed throughout the outfield, some with horizontal slants; fences with varying angles within them causing the ball to bouce away from fielders, the death valley in right which guaranteed triples and thus made them a bore instead of joy to watch unfold, the porch overhang in right; the lower field level stands judding out to affect the projectory of the ball hit down the line.
Even after the financial situation is straightend out, Heaven forbid the day Jeff gets full reign of this franchise.
You know how this goes, Joey….your kids are the ones screaming and running around in a restaurant bothering everyone else, but their parents are the only ones who don’t seem to notice.
Hi SRT,
I’m paraphrasing this but a collegue of mine used to work for a financial firm downtown and said that one day both Fred and Jeff were there to conduct some business with one of the higher ups. After they left she and others were told they were both jerks or idiots or something to that extent.
Can’t put too much salt into that but the story only adds to their public persona.
I agree with Joe D…for once
Disease A is worse than Disease B
Disease B is not the worse disease on earth
Say what you will about the Wilpons but you nailed it when you said “It Could Be Much Worse” Jessep.
What Loria did yesterday I equate to chopping your hand off because one of your fingers required stitches.
How is what they did yesterday better than keeping Reyes, Buehrle, Johnson, Stanton and retooling around them this off season? Marlins fans everywhere keep using use one word to describe how they feel “betrayed” and how can anyone blame them after the promises made when they got the new stadium.
I have little tolerance for all these fans that whine and cry about ownership. Man up. They are the most ignorant and naive fans in the base. They act like its a given that new owners would be an improvement. They are led by their leashes by Medgal who has proven himself to be a no-nothing liar without an ounce of integrity.
I think this should be the Mets new slogan and advertising campaign for 2013:
“It could be worse” and “At least we’re not the Marlins”
This is when you know your team has hit a new low. When fans are comparing themselves to the worse run organizations in the sport.
What a brown noser
the opposite of marlins ownership is the dodgers but the result will be the same.
Really now, we are gonna compare our mets to the marlins, come on now. The mets as a team has been around alot longer than the marlins, excuse me. What i see by the mets owners is this, yes we have the mets and as long as they stay a little above 500 we will make money, lots of it, ,at least the marlins tired to get market players via free agents, on paper yes they did look good, but it was how the manager approach his players on the game and how these players should do, yes as a whole their direction went the wrong way. Just like the mets, but our owners are not committed for us to win. Like i said the wilpons have own the mets a long time with nothing to show because of their direction. They don’t know how to hire player development coaches, managers etc or know how to treat thier own players. The marlins acted out of anger by trading all those players, and doing one right thing by firing there manager who was stupid. Now the mets can work around things to be on top by getting rid of the wilpons finally, sandy, player develpoment, the manager who just cries too much, the coaches who should have been fired at the all star break. Now must sign wright and dickey and make trades to fill the holes that need to be done.I feel it’s a shame that the mets don’t take the same approach as the yankees, cus it should bve our time to finally be the top team in new york not just for a week, a month, a year, or two but for a long time. As a long time mets fan it hurts, so don’t say it can be worse when it has been for a long time now, enough is enough, why is it hard for everyone to understand this i just don’t get it. It’s a bout time for the stuipd wilpons to take pride in there team, the city and of course there fans. Like i said sandy, the wilpons enough is enough, time to shut up and put up.
If I may, I hope all of the people screaming that the GM(S) are doing such a terrible job don’t get blamed for the 40 something million you’re asking them to shell out for a washed up formerly above average 3B. I say 40 million because Wright will not be a major league starter at the second half of a seven year deal.
Listening to SNY and Metsblog fawn over David reminds me of how biased most of the NBA commentators are when Lebron or Kobe plays.
So annoying
I still believe david wright will be around through his next contract, the one thing that does hurt baseball is the salarys these players get.
The truth is, the marllins did what the mets could not do–a couple of times. They created teams that won big from nothing with only money. Not that the mets did not try. We are currently going through a phase of having to pay for the last attempt at trying to buy a penant. The marlins do not mind going through these periods because they have been able to win a few when they tried the big spender approach. What I see with the mets is a complete dearth of developing position pkayers. Maybe Flores, but he has no position. They are trying to do it the right way with guys like Harvey and Wheeler and Niese and Gee. The Wilpons are a disgrace as owners. true they were always willing to spend, but they rarely spent wisely, because they rarely hired wisely. They had to compound their felonies by losing money needed for their team in madoff’s debacle. I think the team is on the right track. The problem is that people do not realize how deep a hole they are digging out of. It is a talent hole as well as a money hole. I think they are crazy if they give Wright anew contract at this point. It will just be another foolish overpayment that will hamstring them down the line. My suspicion is that Sandy does not want ot do it but the Jeffie boy does, because he is listening to the blogsphere and the writers and not trusting baseball professionals.
jdon, what you say was correct for the marlins in 1997. in 2003 they won with a payroll of 40mm.
my mistake. I take your word for that. I still think that the mets are suffering a hangover from their failed attempts at that earlier model, though.