In a series of excerpts released by Tim Britton of The Athletic on Thursday afternoon, New York Mets chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon and general manager Brodie Van Wagenen gave some insight as to the organization’s stance on two of the more prominent free agents to hit the market in some time — Bryce Harper and Manny Machado.
When asked of the frequency of the team’s internal discussions involving the two 26-year-old superstars, Van Wagenen alluded to the philosophy of quantity over quality.
“When we looked at our roster and we tried to build our plan, we recognized we had multiple areas that need to be addressed — not just one area […],” Van Wagenen said. “I think the execution of our plan sort of shows what our intentions were […].”
To be fair, there is plenty of quality among the plethora of additions the first-time GM has made this offseason in Robinson Cano, Edwin Diaz, Wilson Ramos, Jed Lowrie, Jeurys Familia, and a host of depth additions; there just happens to be two potential future Hall of Famers just reaching their “prime” still available.
As was noted earlier Thursday by Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, there is really no reason the Mets shouldn’t be in on either of these generational players. Their current payroll ($163.1 million for luxury tax purposes) leaves them $42.9 million below the Major League Baseball’s 2019 luxury tax threshold.
If the organization truly wants to win now, as Van Wagenen emphasized the day his tenure as the Mets’ GM began, they would pull out all the stops to field a true, bonafide competitor; ready to — as former Mets skipper Davey Johnson said before the 1986 season — “dominate” the opposition.
A rotation headlined by reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom, a healthy Noah Syndergaard, a rejuvenated Zack Wheeler, as well as Steven Matz and Jason Vargas (who showed promise in the second half of the season) will be the foundation of this team.
One of the more talented relief corps in the division (if not the league) in the aforementioned Diaz and Familia, and Seth Lugo (among others), as well as the newly-constructed Mets lineup — laden with a healthy mix of veterans and younger players — certainly has the potential to make some waves in what looks to be an ultra-competitive NL East.
Making the necessary peripheral moves to accommodate the addition and bringing in a Harper or Machado would undoubtedly bring this Mets roster to elite status. But, alas, Mets’ COO Jeff Wilpon seems to be content heading into the season with the current roster intact.
“We have two pretty good lefty outfielders and we’re pretty full on the infield. And then the price from a value point of view, I don’t think they’ve come to me and said, ‘We should really do this[…]’,” Wilpon said. “We went into this offseason, Brodie knows exactly where the target is for the payroll. He still has some room in there to do things. We’ll see where that brings us.”
As for Wilpon’s “I don’t know how many teams have two $30 million players” comment — clearly referring to Yoenis Cespedes, who will earn $29 million in 2019 with some likely being covered by insurance — Van Wagenen chimed in on the subject as well.
“I believe Cespedes has the highest AAV of any outfielder in the game [$27.5 million]. He was rewarded with that contract for a reason,” Van Wagenen said. “We believe in him, we believe he can make a high impact, and we hope that he will in the coming season and beyond.”
Tim Healey of Newsday reported that Van Wagenen noted “six [outfielders] that can impact us on a nightly basis”, referring to two of the team’s young cornerstones Michael Conforto and Brandon Nimmo, as well as the injured Cespedes, the incredibly inexperienced Jeff McNeil, and light-hitting defensive whizzes Juan Lagares and the newly-acquired Keon Broxton.
As per Anthony DiComo of MLB.com, Van Wagenen indicated the Mets “are going to make a commitment to developing [McNeil] as an outfielder”. He’s 26-years-old and has shown plenty of promise as a roving, more-than-capable infielder. Why would the team throw this proverbial monkey wrench into a potential budding star’s development now?
With all due respect, what happened to “eliminate the ifs”? Expecting a division-winning caliber of play from three virtual question marks in Lagares, Broxton, and (in the outfield) McNeil, and expecting Cespedes — a notoriously slow starter to begin with — to return to playing at a high level after surgery on both heels is simply naive.
Using Cespedes’ potential return to the lineup, as well as his salary (which, again, will be offset by insurance), as an excuse not to add either of these generational players is just plain wrong. A simple “we’re out on Harper and Machado because we’re broke” right from the get-go would have surely sufficed.
These PR gymnastics and “we believe” rallying cries mean next-to-nothing if the organization isn’t willing to take the next step — which isn’t too far off, mind you. Increasing payroll to a respectable-but-responsible level (read: just below the luxury tax threshold) could have quite the positive effect on the team’s bottom line.
Takes money to make money, right? We’ve all seen Shea Stadium or Citi Field absolutely rocking when the house is full and the team is playing well. By vaulting this roster to astronomical heights with a high-profile addition, this team could be a powerhouse. And unless the wheels completely fall off by the end of May, they should draw a healthy crowd on a regular basis and keep eyes glued to their various screens through the summer.
There is upside to taking a chance of this magnitude. This writer, for one, believes that reward would be worth the risk.
