Kudos to the Wilpons

[Centerfield]

I'm not saying they're completely off the hook. Even with Cespedes, the payroll remains lower than it should be. And until more info comes out, I would guess that they never really intended to bring Yoenis back at all, and were shocked that he came back to them. But still, when the situation presented itself, as unforeseeable as it may have been, boy did they step up.

It would have been so easy for the Wilpons to stay at the 3 year, 60 million mark, or to refuse to grant the opt out. In which case I think Yoenis is probably a National. As these talks dragged on, this is the direction I thought they would go. But they didn't. They pulled the trigger. They raised payroll. And they deserve credit for doing so.

Maybe this is a sign of things to come, or maybe this will be the exception. I don't really know. But those are problems for another day. Today, we celebrate. And it's because of the Wilpons.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Fuck the Wilpons. They sucked even when they spent big.

[MFS62]

Thanks Wilpons.
Make this deal your legacy.
Sell the team.

Later

[Guest d'Kong76]

Screw them, they'll get us in the end.

"Would you like a roll with your hot dog?"
"Uh, please."
"$3.50. Will you be using the condiment island?"
"Uh, yeah."
"$2.00 surcharge. Is there anything else?"
"Is the water fountain still free?"
"I think they've been removed."

[Frayed Knot]

I come not to praise Wilpons here but merely to remind folks that one of the reasons I don't like playing accountant here is that we don't always know what we think we know.
So after all the speculations and often flat-out statements, here and elsewhere, about what they could not or would not spend; about how Cespedes was not sign-able since he was only brought in the first place due to recouping of Wright's insurance money, or that he couldn't be added due to Lagares's contract, etc. ...
since the close of business in October they've added (2016 numbers):

Cespedes @ $27.5
Walker at an arb-to-be-determined 9.4 - 11.8
Cabrera at 8.25
de Aza at 5.75
Bastardo at 5.5
Reed at 5.3 (about 4.5 of that is over their pro-rated portion of his 2015 salary)
plus arb bumps for Harvey & Familia at approx 3.5 each (on top of minor adjustments for others) and a built-in bump of 2 mil for Lagares

at the reduction of only Niese's 7 mil, Murphy's 8, some portion of Cuddyer's 8.5 (there was apparently some buyout agreed to), and a 3.75 mil reduction in Colon's salary

[nymr83]

well put by Frayed Knot. I dont like to worry about the $$$ in a contract because only they know what they can afford, when i evaluate a deal as a fan i look more at how many years it is. the Mets won big here.

[Lefty Specialist]

I think both Sandy and the Wilpons look at this as a one-year deal. And frankly, that's not a bad thing.

[Frayed Knot]

Lefty Specialist wrote: I think both Sandy and the Wilpons look at this as a one-year deal.

Maybe. But between the dollar figures being so high (it's the highest AAV of any position player aside from Miggy Cabrera) and the deal only slightly front-loaded, the idea that Yo is bailing after year one is hardly a sure thing.
IOW, one has to hope that the team is prepared for at least the possibility of living with this deal for the full three seasons.

[Gwreck]

If Cespedes stays for 3 years, it's still a very good deal for the Mets.

Jay Jaffe in Sports Illustrated writes:

[sports Illustrated's] What's He Really Worth model—which uses a player’s last three years of performance, estimates of the market cost for a win ($6.5 million for 2015), a 5.4% rate of inflation and a decline of 0.5 WAR per year for its aging curve—projects him to be worth $84.2 million over the next three seasons. . . . In other words, it doesn't take a best-case scenario for this to be a good deal, and it might turn out to be a bargain

http://www.si.com/mlb/2016/01/23/new-york-mets-yoenis-cespedes-deal

[MFS62]

WAITAMINIT!!!
I turned on the TV this morning and the Mets had NOT traded Carlos Torres for Mike Trout. When asked about it, Jeff Wilpon (in an interview while on his private island) said there wasn't enough money left in the budget.
I knew the Wilpons were cheapskates all along.

Later

[Centerfield]

Hey, I'm not saying that the Wilpons don't suck (they still do). And like I said, until the full report comes out, I believe that they never had any real intent to bring back Cespedes. But still, when the situation presented itself, whether it was Cespedes saying he wanted to come back, or the pressure from Terry and the other players, or the threat of the Nats, or the fan outrage, whatever it was, the Wilpons had the choice to step up, or make more excuses. And they stepped up. Like we've been asking them to do.

And for me, one right step, even if it's in a sea of mis-steps, is worthy of credit.

We'll see whether it was just this perfect storm of circumstances that caused them to open up payroll, or whether this is the start of a long-awaited trend. But for now, there is joy in Metville.