The New York Mets have spent $900 million on player salaries since their last playoff appearance, writes Cork Gaines of Business Insider. Only the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners have spent more.
The following chart shows the 20 teams that did not make the playoffs last season and how much they have spent on player salaries since last making the playoffs.
In another article by Adam Felder of The Atlantic, he makes the case that teams that are in the top tier of payroll are considerably more likely to make the post season than teams in the bottom third of payroll.
Since 1990, only 2 teams (the 1990 Reds and 2003 Marlins) have won a World Series while in the lower third of MLB payroll. In the same time period, 15 teams in the top third took home the trophy.
“Since 1990, the average winning percentage of a playoff-bound team is .583. Since the first wildcard was introduced in 1995 (technically 1994, but a labor dispute ended the season prematurely), that winning percentage is also .583. Even in the two years since the introduction of the second wildcard, the average winning percentage remains a strong .578.”
“Simply put, only good teams tend to make the playoffs, and it’s very difficult for a low-payroll team to be good. While it’s true that money doesn’t buy championship rings, money does at least get your team into the jewelry store.”
While it appears the Mets have squandered a great deal of money over the years with little to show for it, the bottom line is that it wasn’t the spending that killed the team, but how that money was invested and allocated.
For example what if the Mets had signed Matt Holliday instead of Jason Bay? Or how would have last season played out if we had signed Jhonny Peralta instead of Curtis Granderson?
With the Mets set to begin the season with a slightly higher payroll than in 2014, they are still in the bottom third of MLB payrolls.
New MLB commissioner Rob Manfred gave the Wilpons a vote of confidence when asked to respond to the Mets maintaining a small market payroll.
“I think they have developed a strategy with respect to the Mets they’re going to try to grow from within so that they have a team that can be competitive and sustainable, and I have no doubt that as that process continues and it requires the owners of the Mets to invest additional dollars in payroll that they are going to be willing and able to do that.”
In all honesty I’m not sure there was any player the Mets should have broken the bank for this offseason. Nobody is advocating spending for spending’s sake.
My concern however, is this…
If and when the time comes that the Mets are a player away from winning it all, will they have the wherewithal to make a Gary Carter or Mike Piazza type splash?
My read of the situation tells me no, and that’s what’s most dispiriting to me.
