I will miss him if he leaves
What I am about to write will upset most Mets fans – my wife especially. I say that there is a 95 percent chance Jose Reyes does not re-sign with the Mets ! I am sorry but we fans have to brace ourselves for what seems to be the inevitable truth. Am I happy with the way I feel ? Hell no !! My wife isn’t too thrilled with my alleged pessimistic view of the situation, but as we know – THE TRUTH HURTS !
I know there are factions of fans that will blame Sandy Alderson if the services of Reyes are not retained. but this will not be the will of Sandy. If Jose doesn’t re-sign with the Mets the blame should fall on the shoulders of three men in my opinion – Fred and Jeff Wilpon along with Omar Minaya.
It is the Wilpon’s that in the end set the payroll budget, and as we all know ( as Fred alluded to in the infamous New Yorker piece back in Sports Illustrated) the Mets are hemorrhaging money due to allegedly being hit hard by the Madoff Ponzi scheme as well as the claw-back lawsuit enacted by the “Victims of Madoff” trustee, Irving Picard. And lest we have forgotten, Citi Field the last two and half years has been basically a high priced graveyard where most of the seats have been “bought” by phantom fans that never come to games ( and if they are they have a really rad cloaking device !) .
You have to put a hefty load of blame on Minaya for the horrendous drafts he presided over between ’06 and ’08 ( ’09 gave us Ike Davis along with some other quality prospects). Omar also overspent on free agent talent to long term bloated contracts that this organization still is trying to work its way from under.
As for all the total autonomy that Alderson is said to have, he can not spend money with out ownerships approval, and we know that payroll will be slashed from about $145 million dollars down to around $110 million. Reyes will more than likely get around $20 million a year. The question is can the Mets afford it ? The answer is yes and no. Yes the Mets can afford to give Jose a big contract, but then they will have to go dumpster diving to fill the other glaring needs the Mets have – that is not condusive to field a winning team next season. Secondly Jose wants to know what kind of moves will be made in order to get this team back into contention. I doubt he will like the motion that along with his retention all the other acquisitions may be of the stop gap kind. Plus there is no guarantee that Jose can stay healthy during the length of a five to seven year contract. These last three seasons have rattled my optimism of him being truly healthy.
If the Mets didn’t have Ruben Tejada waiting in the wings I would be more leery of not re-signing Jose. Yes Ruben is still very raw, and he does not have neither the electricity nor the speed of Jose – yet he is quite refined in the field, and he has surprised many with the bat. Will he be more like the Jose Reyes that we have come to know and love – or more like the all glove and no bat of Rey Ordonez ? That remains to be seen.
Truth be told I want Jose to come back, but sometimes you have to say goodbye to the one you love in order to move forward. We have gotten past the traded of Seaver and Koosman. We painfully said good bye to Doc, Darryl, Keith and the Kid. And we will soon be saying goodbye to Professor Reyes.
Yes we will miss him – but maybe we will become a better organization without him.
And with that said…. HERE COMES THE INFAMY !!!!!
Mets alumni celebrating a birthday today includes:
Mets coach from ’79-’80, Dick Sisler would have been 91 today (1920) .
Middle reliever from ’67-’68, Bill Connors is 70 (1941) .
Reserve first baseman/pinch hitter from the ’85 season, Tom Paciorek is 65 (1946).
Spot starter/middle reliever from the ’81 season, Greg Harris is 56 (1955). In his lone season with the Mets, Harris went 3-5 with one save and a E.R.A of 4.46
Sadly on this date in 1997, Mets manager from the ’75 season,Roy McMillan passed away. He was also the Mets shortstop from ’64-’67.
The Mets granted first baseman, Mo Vaughn free agency on November 2, 2004. Steve Phillips trading Kevin Appier for Mo Vaughn back in ’01 was one of the worst Mets trades in the past decade. Yes Appier wasn’t that good in his lone season with the Mets, but Mo’s hefty contract – along with his bloated contract and injury prone body , made him a pariah among Mets fans.
Speaking of Mo Vaughn – His love of bacon is legendary !!!
24 comments
Darknova306
11/2/2011-10:54am at 10:54 am (UTC -4)
I have no clue what the offers will be for Reyes or what he will actually be looking for, but my gut says he’ll be elsewhere next season. At this point, I’d almost rather see him sign somewhere else so we don’t have to hold our breaths every time he runs out of the batter’s box or steals a base. He’s several years removed from playing almost every game in a season, and I just don’t see him staying healthy long enough to make his next contract worth it.
Either way, I know several groups of fans out there have already judged this offseason a failure, but regardless of Reyes’ situation I’ll wait until Spring Training is right around the corner to see where the dust settles and make a judgment.
Anonymous
11/2/2011-11:21am at 11:21 am (UTC -4)
good piece. And you are right, even if Sandy has total autonomy to make the moves he wants, it still has to be within a budget cap.
So, he is going to balance 3-5 years down the road vs. winning as much as he can next year.
Hard to say if Reyes + a bunch of willie harris types (and crap in the pen) is going to win more than tejada (or likely a stop-gap type) at SS and 20 mill spread around among 3-5 better players.
Every player goes eventually. And maybe it is just me, but it seems that lately reyes has been over romanticized. He is good, but I am not so attached that I will swear off the team if he leaves. Just not close to the same category as Seaver if nothing else.
So, maybe it finally gets rid of some of the (incredibly annoying) people that post drivel on other sites, while the core fans will just move on to the next favorite players coming along (Davis, and of course, Duda!) Oh, and Reese havens, who is coming to camp in fantastic shape and will quickly win the 2B job.
But, I would like to see reyes back, I just won’t give up hope if he doesn’t. Especially in 1-2 years when Davis and Havens are the new howard and Utley!
Anonymous
11/2/2011-11:09pm at 11:09 pm (UTC -4)
How can you be so derelict as to forget to mention that Thole will be the next Johnny Bench?
MetsFan4Decades
11/2/2011-12:26pm at 12:26 pm (UTC -4)
Many realistic points here. The blame certainly can point to the Wilpons, by virtue of going with Minaya all those years. Hindsight tells us many of Omar’s decisions concerning the draft and FA signings were poor. I just cannot help wondering what this team would be like today if (a) Wilpons never gave Omar that extension and had the foresight to in another direction with a new GM and (b) the Madoff mess never happened.
Anyone paying attention knows the Mets are not going to top so big contract in money and years a GM or two is likely to throw at Reyes. What pisses me off is we shouldn’t be in this situation of watching a very good, electric home grown player about to sign somewhere else with his first filing of FA. I still believe we should have extended him end of last season….
Tejada will never be Reyes. But he’s about all we’ve got right now. I haven’t given up all hope of signing Jose but the handwriting is pretty much on the wall.
No matter how anyone can spin this, I still believe this team is better off with Jose then without.
Ceetar
11/2/2011-1:13pm at 1:13 pm (UTC -4)
Wash your mouth out with soap.
TRS86
11/2/2011-2:09pm at 2:09 pm (UTC -4)
Why? Life really will end if the Mets don’t sign Reyes? Man I really need to start getting my affairs in order. Start marking some things off my bucket list, cash out some insurance policies…
Seriously guys it is Jose Reyes. Great player who when healthy is in the top 3 S’s in baseball… however due at times to him and not due at times to him the Mets have been largely unsuccessful in reaching even the playoffs 90% of his tenure. Love to watch him but if keeping him means more of the same back filling with crap and playing the if he is healthy game I am done and over it. Take the 20m and 2 picks and continue the process that I think Sandy has started in turning the organization around.
Honestly I trust Sandy to get this right. If Jose will sign a contact that is good for the Mets in the long and short term he will be here… if not then so be it.
TRS86
11/2/2011-2:47pm at 2:47 pm (UTC -4)
I guess it is time to do this again. I hate doing this because I love Jose but this is not pretty.
Career in September: .263 .323, .397, .720
Career high leverage: .267 .338 .373 .711
2007 during the collapse: .205 .279 .333 .612
2007 high leverage: .222 .352 .267 .619
2008 during 2nd uh… downfall: .243 .314 .402 .715
2008 high leverage: .236 .284 .330 .615
2009 no September
2010 September: .256 .304 .453 .758
2010 high leverage: .220 .291 .297 .588
2011 contact season….
Ceetar
11/2/2011-4:39pm at 4:39 pm (UTC -4)
so you’re telling me that it’s some mythical ‘folds in the clutch’ thing?
Would you like me to cherry pick random months too? I bet I could click on the ‘splits’ tab on B-R and find some random assertions about Albert Pujols to say he sucks too.
Anonymous
11/2/2011-10:47pm at 10:47 pm (UTC -4)
Ah Ceetar—you spouting nonsense is like the sun rising—it can always be counted on.
Jose’s a great talent, and each September when it meant something, he folded and did absolutely nothing, while Wright hit everything.
Who did you pick to win the WS this year again while most of us were picking 72-78 wins for the Mets?
TRS86
11/3/2011-1:12pm at 1:12 pm (UTC -4)
Mythical hell. Look at the damn stats. And yes whether by clutch or being worn down or not being able to train his body right he has either missed or plain sucked every September. Even this year in his career year he could do no more than be a singles hitter in fear of being injured and missing out on his big payday. However my problem is not only are you stats be damned but you can’t read. I said Jose was one of my favorites and a great player. HOWEVER it is not the end of the world and Mets life will never cease to exist. Heck by now they should be used to seeing life without Reyes as much time as he has missed the last few years.
The old adage of so goes Reyes so goes the Mets has often been true. Unfortunately so goes Reyes is a roll of the dice every year and not a luxury this team has to have.
If you want to go into a closet for two years because Sandy did what he thought was best Or that Reyes did not want to come back so be it… I will be here manning this places. By myself I guess. Lol
Ceetar
11/2/2011-4:36pm at 4:36 pm (UTC -4)
Mets life will basically end for a couple of years, yes. Might as well close the promenade to save operating costs. It says “Hey, maybe some prospects will one day be real good! Come check back in a couple of years.”
Ceetar
11/2/2011-1:13pm at 1:13 pm (UTC -4)
Wash your mouth out with soap.
SaltyGary
11/2/2011-4:08pm at 4:08 pm (UTC -4)
People need to stop with the blame game and move on. It’s strictly a business decision at this point and it’s one that doesn’t make sense. At 11m a year, he didn’t get fans to the seats and giving him 18m won’t increase attendance either. The only way to get fans to watch is winning. Locking the payroll up with a oft injured player while limiting the resources to improve other areas does not make a winning formula.
The team’s foundation is currently being re-designed and it’s not time to spend big dollars on that flashy copper roof until the structure is closer to being completed.
SRT
11/2/2011-4:39pm at 4:39 pm (UTC -4)
What pisses me off is the ‘business’ aspect of this.
If not for the Omar extension by the Wilpons in ’08 and the Madoff disaster with the Wilpons, we quite possibly are not having this discussion.
We might have actually made it to post season a couple of times in the past 5 years, revenues would be up, payroll would be well spent, blah, blah, blah.
Nope. It’s 2011 reality though.
We’ve got the Wilpons trying desperately to afford to hold onto this team while we’ve got a new GM trying to field a competitive team while slashing payroll.
SaltyGary
11/2/2011-5:00pm at 5:00 pm (UTC -4)
I personally would be having this discussion even if the payroll was at 200m.
The team that was constructed 5 years ago was not a winner and it’s time to move forward and try a different formula. If they were in a winning position now I am positive they would find a way to secure Reyes. With the state of the team it’s just a waste of money. They are losing so much with attendance down, why throw another 20 million out the window just so the fans that are paying attention don’t get more P-O’d. In the end it is a business and the team needs to make positive revenue to stay alive. They can’t keep losing 50-60 million a year because people don’t want to come and eat a hot dog.
MetsFan4Decades
11/2/2011-9:04pm at 9:04 pm (UTC -4)
Point I was making I think agrees with your statement of: ‘ If they were in a winning position now I am positive they would find a way to secure Reyes.’
Again, it’s not the money the last FO spent, it’s how they spent it. A couple of winning seasons like ’06, revenues would be up, forecast for revenues would be better and spending that money on Reyes wouldn’t hurt. Maybe we wouldn’t be discussing ‘we can suck as much w/o Reyes as we have with him this past 5 years’.
MetsFan4Decades
11/2/2011-5:02pm at 5:02 pm (UTC -4)
And what might be worse is as soon as this circus concerning where Reyes signs is over, queue the ‘here’s why we need to trade Wright mid season’ debates will start. Especially with that new CBA looks like is going to be signed where you no longer get 2 draft picks anymore for a type A player.
SaltyGary
11/2/2011-6:08pm at 6:08 pm (UTC -4)
Yea I hope that theme doesn’t go all year, but it probably will until he is gone or re-signed. I am not as opinionated on this subject like I am with Reyes. I really want to see how David performs next season.
To me David is a table setter not a clearer, so I don’t look to him as an answer (like many view Reyes) but I view him as a strong component to a successful formula.
Patrick
11/2/2011-5:37pm at 5:37 pm (UTC -4)
Look, Alderson is the GM he is the one who is making the executive baseball decisions. We’ve been told from day one the adults are now in the room. If that is the case the guy can not get a free pass on Jose Reyes walking. If he believe Reyes is part of the solution he advocates for him to stay. If the Mets go Vlad Guerrero on Jose Reyes than Alderson should resign out of self respect for himself. If Reyes leaves because some team backs up the truck for him, so be it, but if the Mets freaking low ball the guy severely it will be a tough one to swallow.
Anonymous
11/2/2011-10:49pm at 10:49 pm (UTC -4)
Agreed all around, and personally I would not be surprised if Alderson does walk before his contract is over.
They will lowball Jose, and he will walk, because Alderson clearly has not been given the OK to spend a lot of dough.
Anonymous
11/2/2011-11:53pm at 11:53 pm (UTC -4)
IOTW they will make Reyes an offer he could refuse.
TRS86
11/3/2011-1:14pm at 1:14 pm (UTC -4)
I just don’t see it that way. To me it is not about the money to the same extent it is about making good decisions. Signing Reyes to 6/120 is just not good business for THIS Mets team.
Anonymous
11/2/2011-11:05pm at 11:05 pm (UTC -4)
I can hardly wait till the next Reyes article tomorrow, or the next segment on SNY or Fatcessa. I’m so over this. Reyes is my third favorite Met all time behind Seaver & Staub and I’ve moved on. We’re in rebuild mode give me the draft picks, spend the money elsewhere, move Wright & Santana during the next season and get the rest of this mess completely torn down. I’m completely worn down waiting for the next hamstring tweak with Jose. It’s not a matter of if anymore it’s a matter of when. I’ve sat through far crappier squads I can take tearing the rest of this down and building it back up through another good draft year in 2012 and spending on next years free agent crop which looks excellent.
In regards to trashing Omar’s drafting I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s hard to draft when your owner’s won’t spend the money to sign picks or go overslot which was a prevelant mantra during Omar’s reign. It’s like they gave him the choice of spending on FA’s or the draft but not both. To build a consistant winner you need to do both.
My fantasy dream is to have Selig make Freddie’s dream come true and have him swap ownership of the Mets for the Dodgers and roll up both teams woe’s in Dodger Blue and let the Mets move onto a Cuban or other owner. Then I woke up.
Anonymous
11/2/2011-11:55pm at 11:55 pm (UTC -4)
When you get to my age waking up is a measure of success.