Jayson C. asks…
Did the Mets leave the door wide open for the Washington Nationals to come away with both Daniel Murphy and Yoenis Cespedes?
Joe D. replies…
No, not really. From what I’m hearing they want a center fielder and I’m not sure any team other than the Mets would look at Cespedes as an everyday option in center. He really wasn’t that good out there. The Nationals will probably look to Dexter Fowler or even bring back Denard Span if he can show teams that he’s healthy during his showcase in a couple of weeks.
Cameron asks…
Why do you keep insisting that the Mets are out on Denard Span or Gerardo Parra? Did it ever occur to you that Alejandro De Aza was just an upgrade to Kirk Nieuwenhuis? You keep trying to hammer home this narrative that finances are still an issue and payroll won’t be more than $115 million the other day. There’s still two months left in the offseason!
Joe D. replies…
Why would the Mets spend $5.75 million guaranteed on a fifth outfielder? Not even the Dodgers and Yankees and their $250 million payrolls would do anything as preposterous as that. The reason I keep trying to “hammer home” that the Wilpons are still not in the clear financially is because they have yet to pay down any debt and now that mountain is up to $880 million owed – that’s almost $300 million more than where they were in 2011.
There is plenty of evidence that we see on a day to day basis to prove that the team is still navigating in choppy waters and none to suggest that things have gotten any better. They immediately declared themselves out of Cespedes as soon as the offseason started citing affordability. They took themselves out of the premier relief market over concerns of shelling out contracts that were less than $30 million in total – even though they said revamping the bullpen was their highest priority. So far payroll projects to be about $10 million more than last opening day. My question to you is what evidence do you have that shows the team and owners are back on Easy St.?
McCullers asks…
Can you tell me where the $12.5 million that Michael Cuddyer gifted the Mets is going?
Joe D. replies…
It looks like it will go toward helping to pay for the $20 million in arbitration raises and keeping payroll no more than $115 million. It hasn’t exactly been earmarked for a specific area of need, but that’s not really how these things work. If you thought they were going to use it as a lump sum to upgrade from a $10 million center fielder to a $20 million center fielder, that was never happening.
