Who Can You Blame For Jose Reyes's Departure?

would rationally say it was a reasonable move to not sign a 6 year deal with an injury prone speedster whose legs are in question. But the Wilpons are morons, greedy, and delusional in their stranglehold on this franchise. Yes lets LOWER ticket prices in 2012 because fans won’t want to pay more to see a losing team!! These guys have no idea how to take their diamond in the rough brand and turn it into a shining gemstone. How can they not understand that building and spending for a winning team at all levels – farm system and draft, medical staff, coaching, 1 year spot acquisitions AND a handful of long term big money investments is going to make them RAISE ticket prices. And once they build the brand they can sustain it, even with big money mistakes (see Yankees and now Phillies)….what a complete cluster f*ck of ownership we have. Can the fans do ANYTHING to get through to these idiots and make thenm feel pain……I really like Sandy but I am now convinced he was hired because the Wilpons feel he could lower the payroll and pay for his own salary ten times over by being a credible pawn to weather the media shit storm that continues to surround this losing franchise

They drew well over 2 million, and the tickets aren’t that cheap. Plus, their TV deal, etc. $70 mil seems like it was pulled out of a hat.

Well, at least its not to Philly. Heck, the Fish may even be in Wilpon territory after the SEC is done with them. Void the contracts now I say!!!

whether it’s sitting next to $80MM or $0MM. You want him to forfeit that to show “loyalty” to a bunch of FAN callers who will turn on him in an at-bat? Who’s being greedy?

The revenues are coming in. A player should accept less than fair value, while an owner is free to trade him whenever, or not put a decent team around him? And the great bulk of fans will turn on a dime – perhaps he’s traded a lot of stupid booing in his final years for not so much booing.

It’s clear that both sides understood where the other was willing to go. Sandy was not willing (or not able) to come anywhere near the Marlins’ offer. Reyes and his team knew that, by yesterday morning at the latest. And we know very little – it’s likely their final conversation got to brass tacks, and just because it didn’t happen yesterday, doesn’t mean a “final” attempt wasn’t made.

I was screaming about this last night.

But if Sandy was never going to offer more than 5year/$80mil contract, then he should’ve known that that wasn’t going to cut it, and he should’ve traded him for at least a more advanced version (already in high-A or above) of a player(s) with similar value to a first round pick (compensation pick). Such a player has way more certainty concerning their future in the bigs, and are available to help the Mets sooner. I feel like when he was on the trade block back in July (and he was healthy and playing from July 19-31), even after coming off of injury, teams would have been willing to trade a package of equal or greater value than the arbitration picks a team receives when a type A FA leaves (assuming first round picks too). Obviously, it seemed like a huge long shot that the Mets would be compensated with a supplemental pick and at best a 3rd rounder, but it was always a possibility – plus, it apparently only took a bottom 15 team signing Heath Bell to push the Mets pick into the 3rd round, so it wasn’t that hard to have happen (again, who knew how rankings would be back in July).

I was all for keeping Jose and signing him this offseason, but if I was in Sandy’s position back in July and I knew I wasn’t going to resign him in the offseason, I would absolutely start a bidding war for his services and truly believe he would’ve netted better than any first round pick comp we could have gotten had he gone to a top 15 team instead.

Again though, back in July, Einhorn seemed more likely to be contributing to the Mets monetary needs and so maybe Sandy thought he could offer a $100 million contract. In conclusion, my feeling, which doesn’t likely reflect the fan base you are addressing with your comment, is that if Sandy knew he wasn’t going to offer a $100 mill contract, then he absolutely needed to trade him for more certainty in value.

AND, by trading Reyes to a specific team for a minor leaguer, you force that team to be more invested in Jose and make a bigger push for him in the offseason (not to mention exposing him further to division rivals who might not have seen much of him). This is relevant because the team Sandy traded him to would’ve been nearly guaranteed to be outside of the division; as only the Braves were likely to make a push from w/in the division, and they couldn’t afford him anyway.

It’s been about money from the get-go. Before the players had any power, it might have been a simpler story, but the exploitation of the time made the story just as ugly.