The Future Of: Step One - The Off Season

The Future Of… Step One: The Off Season

Okay, it’s the end of the 2009 baseball season, the Mets have just finished in third place, and I’ve been hired to “turn this ship around”.

No, the first thing is not to fire Jerry Manuel.

When I was in the radio industry, this would be the time to request the profit and loss statements, by month, for the past three years, schedule one-on-one meetings with all my existing department heads so they can rip each other apart to me, and determine if I have the ducks to swim in the ocean, no less turn the ship.

As in the case of baseball, the “P&L” are the stat sheets, and, in the case of the Mets, all birth certificates and medical records have to be included.

Let me tell you a secret… don’t tell anybody. If you have a business that is losing money, and it’s a bad economy, the first rule of a turnaround is not to create new, exciting sales and promotional direction designed to generate new income. No, in a bad economy, your job is to get the business to a break even level first, and you do that by spending less than you have in the past.
In the case of the Mets, no one is looking to spend less, they just want a better return on their investment, So, the first order of business is to the clear the books of salaries of people you don’t want around anymore. As an old boss once told me, open the windows and tilt the building… the good ones will hold on.

First cutbacks:

Gary Sheffield: $ 400,000
Carlos Delgado: 16,000,000
Billy Wagner: 10,500,000
J.J. Putz: 7,600,000 (after buyout)
Brian Schneider: 4,900,000
Ryan Church: 2,800,000
Tim Redding: 2,250,000

In one day, I have just cut the operating expense of this team by $44,450,000.

I still have the core of the team… David Wright, Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, Fernando Martinez, Francisco Rodriquez, Pedro Feliciano, Bobby Parnell, Mike Pelfrey, Johan Santana, Omir Santos, and Fernando Tatis.

That’s 11 players.

The team needs 25.

Tomorrow, we’ll first take a look at the other players on the current roster and determine if we’ll keep them around, and then we’ll move on to re-spending this money (remember, this isn’t radio… we’re not trying to save money here; we’re trying to win).

But that’s it for today. And, it’s been a productive one.