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.