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.
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..
ReplyDeleteObviously, 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.
Ozzie G: good riddance
ReplyDeleteMelky 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.