Jeff Wilpon Makes Rare Appearance to Defend Mets’ Spending

Photo

Jeff Wilpon, an owner of the Mets and their chief operating officer, made a rare appearance Tuesday before reporters to assert that the team’s spending on players has been sufficient despite a wave of public criticism that it is falling behind many other teams.

Despite playing in the largest market in the country, the Mets’ 2017 opening day payroll, $155 million — their largest ever — still ranked just 11th among all 30 teams, according to The Associated Press.

After the season ended, General Manager Sandy Alderson indicated that the 2018 payroll would be smaller. That irritated many fans, who took to talk radio and social media to argue that the Mets, who don’t have the caliber of prospects in their farm system to pull off big trades, should instead spend money on free agents.

But Wilpon brushed aside the complaints.

“It doesn’t have to come down,” Wilpon said during a luncheon with reporters. “We’re not at spring training yet. We’re not at opening day. I can’t tell you where it’s going to end up. I don’t think it always goes down.

“Last year, it well exceeded whatever number we originally started with. And there were good reasons that Sandy and the baseball department made for the acquisitions and acquiring of players that we did, and we stepped up and did that.” He added that the decision about the final payroll number was “an ongoing dialogue.”

In an oddly slow winter across baseball, with big-name free agents such as Eric Hosmer, Jake Arrieta and J.D. Martinez still available, the Mets have been among the biggest spenders to date. They dished out nearly $54 million to sign outfielder Jay Bruce, reliever Anthony Swarzak and first baseman Adrian Gonzalez.

But that still pales in comparison to the last off-season, when the Mets spent nearly $120 million on free agents (mostly to re-sign outfielder Yoenis Cespedes) and ended up spending the second-most of any team on free agents, according to Spotrac.com. But their overall payroll still remained outside the top 10.

Through much of the 2000s, before the team had to rebuild its roster and deal with its entanglement in the Bernard L. Madoff financial scandal, the Mets regularly ranked in the top five in payroll. In 2013, when the payroll dropped to $93 million, Fred Wilpon, a Mets’ owner and their chief executive officer, said the team would spend money when it became competitive again.

That began midway through the 2015 season, when the Mets traded for several players, including Cespedes, and eventually reached the World Series behind a talented group of young and inexpensive starting pitchers that included Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Matt Harvey and Steven Matz. But injuries and underperformance led to a disappointing 2017 season with a 70-92 record during which the Mets traded away several veteran players, and the team does not appear to have any desire to dig deeply into its wallet soon.

“I’d rather look at what we can do in terms of wins and losses,” Jeff Wilpon said. “Being top five in payroll, I don’t think that won us a World Series. We’re set out to make the playoffs and do well deep into the playoffs and try to win the World Series, not try to be the top five in payroll.”

Wilpon admitted that the team’s attendance and revenue were indeed factors in the following year’s payroll. Their attendance saw the third-biggest drop in baseball from 2016, when they reached the National League wild card game, to last season, according to Baseball-Reference.com.

“You don’t want the revenues so far to lag behind what the payroll would be,” Wilpon said. “It all goes into the mix in determining what we should do. But I get where the fan perception is. It’s not lost on any of us. We have a plan, and because we believe in Sandy and the baseball department we’re going to stick with that plan.”