Dillon Gee: Untouchable.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Jeff Wilpon says Mets' hands aren't tied financially

GARFIELD, N.J. - As the Mets near the start of an offseason long considered to be critical in the team's rebuilding plan, chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon offered a glimpse into his team's priorities. Speaking publicly for the first time since organizational meetings in Florida earlier this month, Wilpon reiterated Tuesday that the Mets will be free from the financial shackles that have stunted their efforts to add talent in recent years. It remains to be seen just how much the Mets actually spend to revamp a team that finished with a losing record for the fifth straight season. But expiring contracts alone are expected to free up more than $40 million in payroll, signaling what the team insists is the end of an era marked by austerity. "That's always been part of the plan, to use the money that's coming off the books and try and improve the team," said Wilpon, who spoke at the Boys & Girls Club, where he and other Mets employees helped to restore a building that was damaged a year ago during superstorm Sandy. However, Wilpon also threw a curveball, saying that the Mets have a "logjam" of viable options at first base despite a season in which the position became a revolving door. Both Ike Davis and Lucas Duda spent part of the season in the minors because of their struggles, throwing into question their immediate future with the team. Yet, Wilpon said the Mets did not offer a contract to power-hitting Cuban defector Jose Abreu, citing what he called a "glut" of first basemen. "That didn't really seem like the point of need," Wilpon said of the highly touted Abreu, whom the White Sox signed to a six-year contract worth $68 million. "If he played left or rightfield, yeah, I think we probably would have offered the guy a contract." Wilpon said other clubs have already shown interest in trading for one of the Mets' first basemen, reinforcing the expectation that either Davis or Duda will be dealt this winter. Meanwhile, Wilpon identified four players -- David Wright and pitchers Dillon Gee, Zack Wheeler and Jon Niese -- as "the three or four that we're solidified on" heading into the offseason. Teams will be free to negotiate with free agents five days after the World Series ends. General manager Sandy Alderson will be tasked with filling in the rest of the roster, which has clear holes in the outfield and the back end of the starting rotation. "If the free agent doesn't present itself, is there a trade where you might pick up somebody else's larger-salary player and the swap out is the same thing?" Wilpon said. "I can't tell you which way it's going to go right now." Wilpon spoke shortly after applying a fresh coat of paint to a refurbished game room at the Boys & Girls Club, which suffered water damage during superstorm Sandy. Mets staffers also assembled new furniture for the building, which functioned as a shelter in the aftermath of the storm. Said Wilpon: "To have all the kids come in later to see all this stuff freshened up will be really neat." Notes & quotes: The Mets soon expect to officially announce their new radio rights deal with WOR (710) . . . During organizational meetings in Florida earlier this month, the Mets came up with theories about their struggles at Citi Field the last three seasons though Wilpon said they found "no exact answer." . . . Wilpon called Matt Harvey's decision to undergo Tommy John surgery "the right move," even though he won't pitch again until 2015.

http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/jeff-wilpon-says-mets-hands-aren-t-tied-financially-1.6341513

[Edgy MD]

Worst thread title ever.

[batmagadanleadoff]

The interviewee barely left me any material to work with. He's about as articulate as Choo Choo Coleman.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Dillon Gee: Solidified On

[Edgy MD]

If Alderson showed up, it could have gone down as Sandy vs. Sandy.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

He's really Showing Us The Plan there.

1) Paint Boys & Girls Club

2) Trade a first baseman

3) Try to improve the team with money

[Guest d'Kong76]

For sanity sake, I refuse to read anything Jeff or Fred
have to say about anything.

[Vic Sage]

excellent strategy, Kase. i concur.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I'm not at all impressed by the "glut" at first base. I hope the Mets don't really think that they're set at that position.

[RealityChuck]

That's not what he's saying. The Mets have at least five possible first basemen in house: Duda, Davis, Satin, Flores, and even Murphy in a pinch. There was no way to know how Abreu will do in the majors; his numbers look good, but there's no way of assessing the competition. He may be a star, or he may not be appreciably better than the ones they have in-house. If Abreu turns out to be mediocre in the majors, it just complicates things.

[Edgy MD]

He's clear that he doesn't consider them set at first. Of course he doesn't.

There's nothing particularly revelatory or objectionable here (save for the half-evasive "point of need" thing, which Chuck reasonably qualified). But folks have to file stories.

[Guest d'Kong76]

I can handle things! I'm smart! Not like everybody
says... like dumb... I'm smart...

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Edgy MD wrote: Worst thread title ever.

I might have gone with Logjammin'.

[Fman99]

I appreciate the metaphor of the Wilpons putting a fresh coat of paint on a waterlogged mess. Subtle.

[Edgy MD]

Winter reading.

[MFS62]

If someone told Jeff that the best way to find players is to look within, he'd probably visit his Proctologist.

Later

[ashie62]

Nothing in that short little interview to bother me..actually the opposite...

[metirish]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I'm not at all impressed by the "glut" at first base. I hope the Mets don't really think that they're set at that position.

Me too.. not exactly Thome and Howard.

[Ceetar]

Edgy MD wrote: But folks have to file stories.

Part of the reason the medium is dying. What is the value to the consumer of big-wigs saying meaningless sound bytes and 17 different, more if you count the bloggers that then repost the same nothing, newspapers writing it up?

[Edgy MD]

I don't know, but if bloggers are re-posting it, it has value to somebody. And the bigger outlets are the only ones who can afford to keep a beat reporter or stringer showing up at stuff like a charity building rehab.

The greater issue is the ethics of everybody copying and pasting copyrighted info all over the net. I wish I had an answer there. But clearly Rubin is a model of the good contemporary beat reporter, producing a clickable story about every. Little. Thing.

[Guest Mets Guy in Michigan]

It seems like every year there are some free agents who the scribes feel the Mets should fixate on, and then pummel them when they go elsewhere. Note that Wilpon is put in a defensive mode here about not signing an unproven Cuban defector for a position at which they are well-stocked and have much more pressing needs.

But the Mets don't sign them, the team is derided as failures and you get those "Player X rejected the Mets because they are a crappy organization."

What you don't get are the stories later, when it becomes clear that the team made the right move. Remember the frenzy last year over Michael Bourn? Who was the pitcher who we were allegedly chasing hard who ended up signing with Angels had a shitty season?

We don't see those "Mets made right call" stories.

[MFS62]

Bravo!

Later

[seawolf17]

metsguyinmichigan wrote: It seems like every year there are some free agents who the scribes feel the Mets should fixate on, and then pummel them when they go elsewhere. Note that Wilpon is put in a defensive mode here about not signing an unproven Cuban defector for a position at which they are well-stocked and have much more pressing needs. But the Mets don't sign them, the team is derided as failures and you get those "Player X rejected the Mets because they are a crappy organization." What you don't get are the stories later, when it becomes clear that the team made the right move. Remember the frenzy last year over Michael Bourn? Who was the pitcher who we were allegedly chasing hard who ended up signing with Angels had a shitty season? We don't see those "Mets made right call" stories.

Not for nothing, but this is half of the reason why I don't know why anyone DOES sign in New York. It's a no-win situation. (The other half is the douchebaggery element of our fan base that still hates Carlos Beltran.)

[Edgy MD]

metsguyinmichigan wrote: It seems like every year there are some free agents who the scribes feel the Mets should fixate on, and then pummel them when they go elsewhere. Note that Wilpon is put in a defensive mode here about not signing an unproven Cuban defector for a position at which they are well-stocked and have much more pressing needs. But the Mets don't sign them, the team is derided as failures and you get those "Player X rejected the Mets because they are a crappy organization." What you don't get are the stories later, when it becomes clear that the team made the right move. Remember the frenzy last year over Michael Bourn? Who was the pitcher who we were allegedly chasing hard who ended up signing with Angels had a shitty season? We don't see those "Mets made right call" stories.

Are you thinking of Tommy Hanson? Latest case of the Braves dealing high on pitching that.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Well, I wouldn't say that the Mets are "well-stocked" at first base. They have quantity, but not a lot of quality. And other needs may be more pressing, but not by such a wide margin.

The next four or five months might be very interesting. I'll be glad when the World Series gets out of the way and the off-season will get started in earnest. For someone like me, who has no interest at all in a postseason that doesn't include the Mets, October is the deadest month.

[Ceetar]

Edgy MD wrote: I don't know, but if bloggers are re-posting it, it has value to somebody. And the bigger outlets are the only ones who can afford to keep a beat reporter or stringer showing up at stuff like a charity building rehab. The greater issue is the ethics of everybody copying and pasting copyrighted info all over the net. I wish I had an answer there. But clearly Rubin is a model of the good contemporary beat reporter, producing a clickable story about every. Little. Thing.

well, it has value to bloggers in that it creates a thread on a site to keep Mets fans at to keep talking about the Mets, whether or not it's on topic. But really a "morning applesauce" thread has the same sort of effect.

You'd be surprised at how few beat reporters are showing up at charity building rehab stuff or what not.

Rubin's model is good for 'clickable' but maybe really what's needed in a reporter these days. Take the scorpion bite story that he blew out of proportion because it was something he could put on a page to get hits. The story persisted well past the original retraction and even past Rubin's (which I believe was in a different post, meaning you only saw it as a 'reader' of his site, not if you followed one of the original circulated links) correction because he decided to drum up something.

That's fine from a let's create noise and Mets chatter standpoint, because Mets fans will yammer on about anything, which was why his "Mets passed on Ortiz" tweet/post continued to generate buzz despite being about as stupid a tweet as you can make.

[Edgy MD]

No, I wouldn't be surprised at the paucity of beat reporters at a charity event. To the rest of your post, I am struggling to suss out what you're getting at.

[Edgy MD]

Daily News runs with their own distortion:

Mets COO Jeff Wilpon says team has just quartet of solid players

[Ceetar]

Edgy MD wrote: No, I wouldn't be surprised at the paucity of beat reporters at a charity event. To the rest of your post, I am struggling to suss out what you're getting at.

that there's a difference between value to consumer and value to producer. A lot of this stuff is simply generating traffic, but it's fluff content and empty calories creating a smokescreen. Execs are giving beat guys sound bytes so that they can write columns, and then they use those columns to generate questions to ask execs to generate more sound bytes to generate more columns.

Why? Because they have to? This is the same thing sports radio does. And yes, we're consuming it so that seems to imply that it must have value to us, but I disagree. I think if you replaced it all with something better no one would miss it. Maybe they should actually send beat reporters to more of the charity events and minor appearances. Hell, Harvey's appearance at a Rangers game generated at least as much buzz and interest as an overly digested spun Wilpon quote.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Well, I wouldn't say that the Mets are "well-stocked" at first base.

Me neither.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: They have quantity, but not a lot of quality. And other needs may be more pressing, but not by such a wide margin.

nWoCJjz6He8

Benjamin Grimm wrote: The next four or five months might be very interesting. I'll be glad when the World Series gets out of the way and the off-season will get started in earnest. For someone like me, who has no interest at all in a postseason that doesn't include the Mets, October is the deadest month.

Same here,too.