Question..and I am not sure of the answer…is Jose the most popular player and/or the biggest draw?
I believe Wright to be the most popular player…but wouldn’t say that people go to Queens just to see him play. Discuss!
“We were fortunate to experience an outstanding year from Jose. There is obviously some uncertainty as to where he’s going to be next year,” Alderson said. “We will see where that takes us.”
“We will try to be as creative as we possibly can and look at what’s available across the board,” he said.
But can owner Fred Wilpon, who told Sports Illustrated this spring the Mets were “bleeding cash,” afford one of this offseason’s most desirable free agents? Can he afford not to keep the team’s most popular player and biggest draw?
via Should he stay or should he go? Do troubled Mets have money to keep Reyes? – The Washington Post.
The Mets payroll is extremely top heavy…they have the 7th highest payroll at $118M, but because they pay a small amount of players a lot of money, their median salary ($900,000) is 22nd, just below playoff bound TB! By paying so many high salaries, they filled the team out with too many lower salary players (as Shannon has pointed out).
http://content.usatoday.com/sportsdata/baseball/mlb/salaries/team
TB’s entire payroll is only $41M. To put that in perspective, the Mets paid $41M this year to Johan Santana, Oliver Perez, Luis Castillo and Bobby Bonilla. For that money, the Mets got exactly zero production, while TB got a playoff appearance.
Yes, the Mets no longer have to pay K-Rod or Beltran about $30M total, so they could afford Reyes within their current structure…but this will not resolve their problem of a top heavy team…and if Jose were to pull a hammy for example and miss a month or two, it would really be a disaster. One final opinion…I don’t think Jose will ever play better than this year…maybe he can have a couple more similar years, but he cannot play that much better.
I agree with Steve D they are top heavy, and would remain so if he comes back. Plus I realy wasn’t thrilled with what he did on the last day. I’m leaning towards letting him fly and giving short to Tejada who is a keeper. That should give Alderson the freedom to get the type of players Shannon and Steve are talking about.