Mets owner Fred Wilpon, who lost a metric ton of money in Bernie Madoff’s ponzi scheme madness, and is being sued for over a billion dollars by trustees, made some dubious claims today about some of his players on the Mets. These claims ranged from the insane to the ridiculous…not much of a leap there, but pretty much everything that Wilpon said was egregiously damaging to his players and their value come the middle of the season. The Mets are two games under .500 and are one game above the cellar of the NL East.
- Re: Jose Reyes and his free agency this offseason. “He thinks he’s going to get Carl Crawford money. He’s had everything wrong with him. He won’t get it.”
- Re: Carlos Beltran getting signed to a huge deal after his awesome 2004 playoffs with the Astros. “We had some schmuck in New York who paid him based on that one series. He’s 65 to 70 percent of what he was.”
- Re: David Wright, the face of the franchise. “Really good kid. A very good player. Not a superstar.”
My reaction to all of these comments? Oh my god, Wilpon is completely insane. Of these three players, none is really the issue with the Mets right now. Reyes is hitting .310/.362/.455 and is providing great defense. In his first full season after microfracture knee surgery, Beltran appears to be back to his All-Star form, going off with a .280/.377/.533 season. Before going on the DL with a broken back (he literally BROKE HIS BACK for this team, and gets thrown under the bus by the owner), Wright was struggling, but still providing value with a .226/.337/.404 line. None of these players are responsible for the Mets’ struggles. None of these guys forced Johan Santana to be signed to a nine figure deal and require shoulder surgery. None of these players signed Jason Bay to a four year deal and watched him play for a bad, injury-laden season and a half. None of these players forced the Mets to go into the season with RA Dickey as the staff ace. None of these players gave Francisco Rodriguez an obscene contract for a reliever and watch him try to beat people with his hands in addition to with his pitching.
Over the course of their Mets careers, none of these three players really caused the Mets to be a bad team. Since he became a full-time starter in 2005, Reyes has one season uder 2.0 WAR, a 2009 season where he only played 36 games. He struggled with a 2.8 mark last season in his return, but is already at 2.3 this year, and is looking to reclaim his five win form from 2006-2008. When healthy, Reyes is one of the best shortstops in baseball, and it appears he’s healthy. He might not be worth the nine figures that Crawford got (mostly because he’s a middle infielder with no power), but I’d be content with my team giving him Dan Uggla money.
Beltran’s 2005 with the Mets was a disappointment, as he posted uncharacteristic poor defense and struggled with the bat, probably in part to adapting to a large market for the first time in his career. He put up nearly 20 WAR in three seasons from 2006 to 2008 before struggling with injuries the past two seasons and playing in a total of 145 games. He’s back to his old form this season, and is looking like the hitter he once was. The injury struggles with Beltran were an unexpected risk at the time of the signing, as he had only played in 140 games or fewer once during his career before the Mets signed him.
And then, there’s Wright. He’s the player that most fans associate with the current Mets. Whether or not that’s fair is open to interpretation, but there is no denying that any praise for the team’s success or blame for the team’s failures will go on his shoulders. Before breaking his back for the team this year, Wright didn’t have a history of injury issues, playing in at least 144 years in each of his full seasons in the majors. His career line? .302/.382/.512. His wOBA since his debut is sixteenth in the majors, and fifth in the division, behind a pair of MVPs (Howard, Jones), and two players who have been the best player on their team during those years (Utley, Ramirez). He has a higher wOBA than the following players, who are considered superstars: Evan Longoria, Adrian Gonzalez, Justin Morneau, Jason Heyward, and Grady Sizemore. Hell, he’s got a higher wOBA than teammates Bay, Beltran, and Carlos Delgado. If that’s not a superstar, I don’t know what is. Wright is a fantastic player who gets unfairly criticized by many fans. During his tenure with the team, he has BEEN the New York Mets, posting at least three WAR in every season. His total of 37.1 WAR since his debut is fifth in baseball, behind four guys you may have heard of: Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera, and Chase Utley. David Wright is a bona fide superstar, regardless of what Fred Wilpon says.
These comments will do nothing but piss the Mets players off, and kill their value. Opposing GMs now know the owner of the franchise doesn’t think his star players are worth their weight in dirt. Why should they offer anything substantial for them? If Beltran is 60 to 70% of the player that he was, why wouldn’t I now cut my proposal to Sandy Alderson to 60 or 70% of what I was going to offer? It was insane for Wilpon to make these statements, because all he did was damage the team. Beltran or Reyes definitely won’t be re-signing with the team, and Wright iwll probably look to get out of town after 2012, or 2013 if the team picks up his option….but based on these comments, why would they?
Wilpon should have kept his mouth shut. Instead, the mess in New York has gotten worse and the sideshow could get even more distracting over the season’s final four months.
