On Tuesday afternoon I fielded a reader’s question on whether the Mets were now doing better financially because of the recent Cuddyer signing. Of course they’re not.
But right on cue, GM Sandy Alderson had the following to say regarding where the Mets payroll currently is and where it’s headed. He completely validated my earlier response which you can read below.
“The payroll is where it is today. I don’t know it will be there at the end of the offseason,” Alderson said tonight at the GM Meetings in Phoenix.
“But there are probably some things we need to do anyway, whether it’s with regard to the payroll or just the roster, the rotation and what we have available and what’s in excess, so I try not to focus too much on that right now.”
“Our payroll is like a bathtub with water,” Alderson said. “It can go up, we can pull the plug, it can go down.”
MetsFan1672 asks…
With the Mets signing Michael Cuddyer I read the payroll now stands at over $100 million when you count raises. Plus you see them spending money to renovate the fences, they went after a high priced hitting coach, extended Sandy Alderson, and basically they are behaving like a big market team again. Is this finally the sign we’ve been looking for and are the Mets finally out of the woods as far as financial limitations?
Joe D. replies…
It would seem that way but a closer examination reveals that nothing has really changed. Let’s start with the Cuddyer deal, it’s a backloaded contract that pays him $8.5 million in 2015 then jumps to $12.5 million in 2016. Knowing Sandy Alderson’s aversion to backloaded deals, at least that was his contention when he arrived, why the need to back load it by this much? Obviously they were trying to minimize the initial outlay as much as they could due to limitations.
Now also consider that by forfeiting the first round pick it also had a huge positive side effect in that now the Mets save the $2.5 million allotted for that pick, bringing Cuddyer’s net outlay in 2015 to only $6 million dollars – significantly less than the $7.25 million they paid Chris Young this season.
So what about 2016? Anything can happen between now and then. If the Mets start winning and look postseason bound, attendance could ramp up dramatically and the $12.5 million is not an issue. However if the Mets fall flat and Cuddyer is producing, they can always flip him at the trade deadline as they have with many others before him. Also, as two readers pointed out, Bartolo Colon is off the books in 2016, thus no real spike.
As for that $100+ million payroll number… You never count your money until the dealing’s done. For one, the raises you mention include Daniel Murphy at $9 million, Eric Young at $2.5 million, and Ruben Tejada at $3 million. All three will likely be gone and suddenly your $100 million is back down to $85.5 million. If they trade Colon it’s down to $75 million. The point is that it’s to soon to determine what payroll will be, but one thing is certain and that’s that the Cuddyer deal is definitely not proof of better financial footing. In fact it proves otherwise.
