Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post put together an impassioned plea to Mets ownership in which he asks if they are going to squander all the good will that the team garnered from a loyal Mets fan base in 2015.
You can see it on the faces of Mets fans now, as plain as their noses, as obvious as their chins. You can hear it in their words, measured carefully, and in the way they almost politely hedge their bets whenever the subject comes up.
“I hate to complain, but …” they say.
“This was a great run, but …” they say.
“I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but …” they say.
While the NL runners-up Chicago Cubs have opened their wallets and are busy bolstering a team that was swept by the Amazins in the league championship series, the Mets have made a couple of solid additions in Neil Walker and Asdrubal Cabrera.
But after hearing assistant GM John Ricco detail the rest of his offseason plan – which included signing a platoon partner for Juan Lagares and getting a lefty specialist for the bullpen, likely Jerry Blevins, many fans are wondering if that’s enough.
Some have voiced their displeasure that here we have a team playing in the largest market in baseball and fresh off a World Series and yet everything still boils down to limited spending and baseball decisions based on affordability and not signing the best talent.
With the announcement that Michael Cuddyer retired, netting the Wilpons yet another financial windfall in a season full of them, Mets payroll now stands at $89 million dollars. Sandy Alderson was said he was “hoping” payroll would exceed last Opening Day’s $105 million, but made no guarantees.
Vaccaro aptly points out that Mets fans now trust Sandy more than they used to because he rolled the dice at the trade deadline and his deals – especially for Juan Uribe, Kelly Johnson, Tyler Clippard, and Yoenis Cespedes transformed the team into a NL juggernaut. Those guys are all gone now.
However, except for a very tiny minority, “it is still hard to trust the men who own the team.”
“Normally, Mets fans would have little compunction clearing their throats and listing their laments and not minding who cares. But, normally, the Mets are coming off an 88-loss slog of a season, so that is little more than simply feeding a perpetually foul mood. It’s easier to be patient when you’re defending NL champs. And, just as telling, harder to be impatient.”
He concludes:
“The Mets built an epic amount of goodwill in a record amount of time last summer. It will be fascinating to see if they wind up setting another modern record squandering it all.”
What say ye, Fred and Jeff?
You promised drastic changes and more operating dollars for Sandy and the front office once the fans returned. And we returned in droves and record revenue-smashing fashion. Please don’t push that five pedestrian guys for $20 million is better than one $20 million impact, difference-maker crap on us.
