Reese Kaplan -- How to Spend the Remaining Payroll

In the spirit of the holidays, let’s give Sandy Alderson and the Wilpons the gift of common sense and wisdom since they apparently have nothing to give us fans that patiently watch them spin their wheels or accelerate in reverse when other clubs actually make efforts to try to improve.  I’m not here today to debate the money that should be spent on a franchise in the biggest city in the country.  No, the money is what it is.  The question is how best to use it. 

To recap (and don’t even put your cup of java in the microwave oven since this won’t take long enough to heat it up), they signed Anthony Swarzak for two years at $7 million per year.  That’s it for the major league level.  Be grateful.  It’s more than they did all of last year.

They did add a few warm bodies in the minors, the most notable of which was the contract extended to Jose Lobaton and his lifetime .218 batting average.  I’m sure glad we were aggressive on that front.  After all, players who perform that poorly don’t grow on trees.  To put it in perspective, he makes you long for the offensive prowess of Ruben Tejada, Anthony Recker, Eric Young, Jr. or Kirk Nieuwenhuis – you know, guys who couldn’t stick in the majors.

So if we believe there was $30 million to spend and $23 million is left, how best should it be allocated?  Do you take on the payroll of other clubs in the hopes of improving the ballclub or do you aggressively (bwah-ha-ha) court free agents since signing them wouldn’t require you to dip into your rather barren farm system to make deals?  Or do you try to move some of the pricier assets on your roster to free up some extra cash?

Let’s look at these options.  First, who makes the most money on the Mets?  (For purposes of this exercise, we’ll leave off the underperforming personnel who get paid without picking up a bat, ball or glove):

Yoenis Cespedes -- $29 million

David Wright -- $20 million

Adrubal Cabrera -- $8.5 million

Jerry Blevins -- $7 million

Anthony Swarzak -- $7 million

Juan Lagares -- $6.5 million

These other players are arbitration eligible and thus the dollar figures are estimates:

A.J. Ramos -- $9.2 million

Jacob de Grom -- $9.2 million

Jeurys Familia -- $7.4 million

Matt Harvey -- $5.9 million

Wilmer Flores -- $3.7 million

Travis d’Arnaud -- $3.4 million

Noah Syndergaard -- $1.9 million

Zack Wheeler -- $1.9 million

Hansel Robles -- $1 million

Well, arguably there are a few here who are considered tradeable assets.  Wilmer Flores, Travis d’Arnaud, Hansel Robles and Juan Lagares immediately jump out to me.  Flores isn’t slated to be a starter, d’Arnaud has seemingly worn out his welcome despite turning in career highs in HRs and RBIs last year, Robles was more bad than good and Lagares is expensive for a defense-only player who is slated to jump to $9 million next year. 

You unfortunately have two unmovable huge contracts in Yoenis Cespedes and David Wright.  Given Cespedes’ health, bad clubhouse reputation and weak market when he was a free agent (twice) the only way he could be moved is if you kicked in a sizeable amount of money which is not the Wilpon way.  Furthermore, you’d be robbing Peter to pay Paul in that it would create even more of a struggle to save runs.  Now a brave front office might try to correct the wrongs of the past by doing just that – paying down Cespedes to say $20 million per year to the acquiring team and for that $9 million per year investment secure 2 or 3 blue chip prospects who will be cost controlled for the foreseeable future, but that requires foresight, courage and planning, none of which have been evident under the current regime.

The dark horse possibilities here might be part of the “closer by committee” chatter in which they try to free up $9 to $16 million by moving one or both of A.J. Ramos and Jeurys Familia.  If you could sign multiple quality setup guys like Boone Logan, Matt Albers, Peter Moylan, Seung-Hwan Oh, Trevor Rosenthal, Drew Storen, Koji Uehara and Tony Watson, then you could muddle through the season with quality across the board and free up some capital.  I would advocate moving both of them for $16.6 million and replacing him with two from this list such as Moylan who pitched in 79 games for the Royals last year for $1 million, Albers who earned $1.1 million or Oh who earned $2.7 million coming off a bad year.  I’d also be crazy like a fox and offer a deal to Trevor Rosenthal who is still just 27 and likely to miss the 2018 season recuperating from TJS but who has already had two seasons of over 40 saves.  Say you spend $3 million each for the 2 healthy pitchers and another $1 million for Rosenthal, that’s $7 million spent and $16.4 million saved PLUS the assets you would receive for Ramos and Familia.  If these guys were in play, all of the sudden wouldn’t the trade market open up a bit for the Mets?  Let's assume we get back one blue chip prospect for each to help prepare the Mets for the future.

As far as free agent acquisitions go, you’re pretty much behind the eight ball to start negotiations based upon the team’s reputation, the GM’s reputation, the tax basis in New York and the fact the club is not likely contending for the post-season without a major overhaul.  Still, as we have seen many times starting with the then record setting Alex Rodriguez contract with the Rangers, money talks and pennants are a secondary consideration for many free agents. 

So, towards that end, who would I target with the money available to spend?  Remember, in addition to the $23 million from the rumored budget, I have freed up another $9 million by dealing away the two expensive relievers.  So how would I spend $32 million?

Forget Jake Arrieta and Yu Darvish.  They will be overpaid for likely declining years.  Lance Lynn rejected a QO so you know he’s looking at the 5 year/$100 million range.  To me they’re off the table.  My long advocated bargain option of Jhoulys Chacin and Andrew Cashner have the durability, youth and moderate price points that they would top my list.  I could be convinced to add Jason Vargas on a one to two year deal as well with his left handedness trumping his decline in the 2^nd half.  Call it a $10 million insurance policy for one of them in the mold of when they brought in Bartolo Colon.  Have a backup plan in the event Wheeler, Matz or Harvey miss large chunks of time again. 

Position players are where the rest of the money needs to go.  I would look at Lorenzo Cain for CF at $16 million per year and the remaining $6 million would be put towards fortifying the bench with pieces like Jose Reyes and Mike Napoli.  Flores and Reyes could platoon at 2B and Napoli could spell Smith against lefties (or if he falters). 

None of the above will likely happen, but it’s good to dream.  How would you deal with the remaining $23 million and trade options?