10/24/12

10-24-12 – Adam Rubin, 2013 25-man Salaries, Andres Torrez, Ozzie Guillen


Adam Rubin‏ @AdamRubinESPN -  As a public service, let's reiterate: If the player makes more than $2 million in 2013, I wouldn't hold my breath Mets are signing him.
Mack – I agree with Mr. Rubin. The money just isn’t there. The only gathering of dollars can be done through releasing players under one-year contracts. Still, most of that money will go to the new arbitration eligible players like Ike Davis, that might walk away with a one million dollar raise. Vulnerable players, regardless how well they played 2012, are P Jon Rauch ($3.5mil), OF Andres Torres ($2.7mil), P Ramon Ramirez ($2.65mil), P Tim Byrdak ($1mil), P Chris Young ($1mil), and P Manny Acosta ($870K). This is where the money will come from if the Mets want to make any kind of moves this off season.

Where does this leave the 25-man:

Let’s estimate:

SP – Johan Santana ($25.5mil), Jon Niese ($3,050mil), RA Dickey ($5mil), Dillon Gee ($502K), Matt Harvey ($490K)

RP – Frank Francisco ($6.5mil), Bobby Parnell (est. $800K)), Robert Carson ($490K), Josh Edgin ($490K), Jeurys Familia ($490K), Jeremy Hefner ($490K), Jenry Mejia ($490K)

IF – Daniel Murphy (est. $850K) ), Ike Davis (est. $1.5mil), Rubin Tejada (est. $520K), Justin Turner (est. $520K), David Wright ($15,350mil)

C – Kelly Shoppach (est. $1.5mil), Josh Thole (est. $750K)

OF – Jason Bay ($18.125), Lucas Duda (est $520K), Mike Baxter (est. $520K), Jordany Valdespin (490K), Kirk Nieuwenhuis ($490K)

This is 24 players, meaning any more than one new player means someone has to be replaced. The 25-man salary would be $87,327,000, so, if Sandy Alderson is telling the truth when he says there is “around” $100mil to pay out in 2013, the Mets still would have a little less than $13mil to pay out to one top player, or a bunch of smaller ones. 

So, should the Giants activate Melky Cabrera for the World Series? You want to think they could win it without him, but what if they lose it? Will the pundits throw it back in their face for years to come? I’d hate to think that the Mets got this far and then didn’t activate someone as talented as, say, David Wright or Ike Davis.

 

There seems to be some indecision regarding whether or not OF Andres Torres should come back in 2013. IMO, it’s the age, not the money. Torres has been a disappointment and I still consider 2013 as a turnaround year. Let Kirk Nieuwenhuis prove first if he can play CF and, if he can’t give the shot to Matt den Dekker for the second half o the season. If that doesn’t work, take some of the Bay-Santana money in the 2013-2014 off season and go get yourself a real centerfielder.  

There’s not much I can say about Ozzie Guillen. People like this need to immediately win to keep their job. I think he’s a disgrace to baseball and, hopefully, he’ll go away and spend the money he’s going to get coming to him for the two years that were left on his contract. Does he know enough about baseball to be a successful manager? No, he doesn’t because he can’t even ten minutes in front of a camera and not come off as a complete ass. Attention baseball: please let this guy go away.

2 comments:

Brian Berness said...

The only saving grace for 2013 is to see how the pitching rotation plays out. It can play out in one of three scenarios- the 1984-1985 and 1968-1969 variety; the 1995-1997 transformation; or just plain average and incrementally growing..

Obviously, we hope for the great leap forward of the first scenario and are scared to death of the Generation K scenario. However, if we can expect further development from Harvey and Niese, a presentable emergence of Zach Wheeler come the summer, it will be nice. R.A. Dickey will either be here- and expect a dropoff- or be traded to improve one of the 5 gaping holes we have in our lineup at all of the OF positions, C, and even 2B.

I think we know what we have in Duda- the lefthanded side of a left field platoon, and Niewenhuis needs to learn some pitch recognition and fast. Tejada is an OK player who does everything OK. Not great, not flashy, and not really a core player- in the words of Mel Brooks- not thrilling, but nice.

WRT Ozzie Guillen- he's Billy Martin in an age where there isn't an owner dumb enough to hire and fire him 5 times.

Charles said...

Ozzie G: good riddance
Melky Cabrera: good riddance
Andres Torres: good riddance

Also, concerning Andres Torres, I have been defending the Mets Front Office for two years now; always pointing the finger at Fred Wilpon and his inability to fund his team with a "big market" payroll. That being said, if Sandy gives Torres another contract after his horrific season, I'll never again waste my time pointing fingers at anybody regarding the Mets.

I would think that Captin Kirk, even with all his K's, would still be a better option just because he'd be so much cheaper then Torres. Put Kirk in center, bat him seventh and hope he produces somewhere near his minor league numbers.