Reese Kaplan -- Beware the Ides of March, Mets Edition

On Friday Jon Heyman tweeted that the club is going to be sold quickly but it won’t be to any of the usual suspects detailed in the media...no Steve Cohen, no Mike Bloomberg, no Bill Maher and no Alex Rodriguez.  That suggests the buyer is a corporate entity looking to earn money and not an individual with a desire to win. In other words, expect new Wilpons.

At first when I read this news I was upset about what would happen, but at this point I’m an advocate for change.  Change is good. We’ve seen way too much losing under the current administration who occasionally interjects personal opinions into building the ballclub.  We've seen how that works out. No one wants Jeff Wilpon a part of the baseball culture in the present. You can bet no one wants him in the future.  

To me the main objective is to get over this obstacle which is perpetuating stagnation.  Nothing new is happening for fear of the price going up or the winning going down. Consequently, it’s easier to do nothing than to do anything.  Luis Rojas was chosen as manager being an insider at minimal cost and available at the last minute. Don’t get me wrong. I think he’s a far better choice than the sign stealing Beltran.  However, I also don’t think he was picked because they felt he was the best choice.  

Once new ownership is found, then it’s time to revisit what the club is made of currently, what it should look like in the future and how extended contracts work.  You remember them -- the ability to secure a player to your long term future before you are forced to face his free agency. They are not good at doing this maneuver and as a result you wind up hoping for offense from the likes of Omar Quintanilla types and pitching from the current season’s equivalent of Frank Francisco.  

There are some conspicuous free agents in the coming year like J.T. Realmuto, Yuri Gurriel, George Springer, Mookie Betts, Trevor Bauer, Marcus Stroman and Robbie Ray.  All of them will cost big bucks and all of them will want long term commitments. The Mets will have money available due to the end of contracts to Yoenis Cespedes, Jed Lowrie, Justin WIlson, Michael Wacha, Rick Porcello and others.  

The bigger question is whether you build for the future on a big name player who could singlehandedly lead you over the top or who could sit on the sidelines injured as he approaches the twilight of his career.  To build for long term success you really need a combination of solid on-the-field production (at a cost) as well as formidable younger players coming up through the minors who give you 5 years of low cost output.  Most folks will advocate spending all of that new-found payroll budget on the big ticket players like Betts or Springer while others would say it would be more sensible to replenish the upper levels of the minors where the club is bereft of likely talent. 

Depending on how the club is doing come July, I might advocate you start that minor league refurbishment early and simultaneously bring yourself some salary relief.  Remember, the 2019 club flourished without contributions from many of the soon-to-be-departing personnel, so it’s possible that additional development from the likes of Amed Rosario, Jeff McNeil, Pete Alonso and others could be enough to do so in 2020.  If you don’t trade away the departing players, then you get absolutely nothing for them when they hit free agency.