Anthony DiComo - @AnthonyDiComo
Fred also says payroll has zero
limitations going forward, and could go back to old heights.
You need to have a business
background to understand this. If you read Howard
Medgal, he will tell you about the millions of dollars that are due on
bank notes in the future. If you listen to Fred Wilpon,
he’ll tell you that the team is currently operating debt free. If you
understand the business world you will know that they both are correct.
Every asset has a value, thus, the
New York Mets are worth a certain amount of money. The owners have borrowed a
certain amount of money against that value, but it is far less than the value
of the asset. The Mets pay interest on these notes, which do have dates of
expiration. What usually happens then is what happened last month… the asset is
revalued and the debt is restructured.
Add to this the Madoff mess, which
now has a limit placed on it and the Wilpons also benefit from as a past
investor who is receiving a larger share of recovery money than expected.
Payroll wise, Johan Santana ($31mil), John Buck ($6.5mil),
Frank Francisco ($6.5mil), Shaun Marcum ($4mil) will be long gone. Right now, the
money on the books is $33.55mil.
The Mets currently has $7.75mil tied
up with three ARB-1 players, 1B Ike Davis, 2B, David Murphy, and RP Bobby
Parnell. Expect attempts to tie one or more of these up into long term,
cheap, contracts a la Jon Niese; however, the last you can count on here in
2014 is $4-5mil more spent here on these three.
The next wave of ARB-1 players are
four: SP Dillon Gee, SS Ruben
Tejada, IF Justin Turner, and OF Mike Baxter. Right now, only Tejada can be considered
safe either being traded or DFA’d before the 2014 season.
Let’s say all the above mentioned
players remain a Met and go through this process. We still will have a 2014
payroll below $50mil and there will be plenty of money to compete with anyone
during the trading/free agent season next year.
We’ve talked so often that 2014 was
our target.
Well, it turn out to be the same
window that this team will financially return as well.
………………………….
There’s no reason to run
to the Internet and link up to the projected 2014 free agent list.
Yes, there are some
interesting OF names on the list (Jason Kubel, David
Murphy, Delmon Young, Jacoby Ellsbury, Carlos Gomez, Curtis Granderson, Carlos
Beltran), but don’t be surprised your future Mets outfield doesn’t come
via a trade for a couple of guys in their last (2014) year of an old contract.
It looks like the Mets
will have the money to create a ‘sign-and-trade’ situation with
players-clubs-agents… and can deal up a decent package of prospects dominated
by the 12-15 lower level SPs that dominated St. Lucie, Savannah, and Brooklyn
last year.
Some examples… Toronto’s Jose
Bautista… Minnesota’s Josh Willingham or
CWS Alex Rios.
Or… what about another
direction? Like Detroit’s Justin Verlander.
……………………………………..
We lost a couple of great writers
here (Jack Flynn and David
Rubin) simply because they grew sick and tired of the way the team they
loved was being operated by. Jack was our editor and David was my right hand,
but both simply hate the fact that this team is owned and operated by the guys
that wear those suits that weren’t bought in The Men’s Warehouse.
We, as fans, can’t do a thing about
who owns this team. I’m doing everything I can to concentrate my efforts at the
General Manager’s office and things going on there.
Hang in there folks… one more year.
4 comments:
Great article, Mack.
Alderson is a businessman. He understands that for a business to succeed you need the most band for your buck. In the MLB the key to doing that is by bringing up great young players who will be under team control. He is moving the team in the right direction. Even though the last few years have been tough to bear with. I am happy that we will have a team that will compete year in and out.
Bang*
Stephen!!!!
Boy, did I make a mistake losing you.
Any chance of coming back????
Post a Comment