David Einhorn, a New York hedge fund manager who had agreed to buy a 1/6 stake in the Mets for $200 million with the condition that he could buy out the current owner of the Mets, the Wilpons, in 3 years if they couldn’t pay him back, is no longer going to be part of the Mets ownership. I’m not going to go into the reasons the deal fell apart, I honestly don’t really care. I’m going to talk about what this means and why it matters.
Right now, the Wilpons are in jeopardy of losing a huge amount of money to Irving Picard, the trustee in the Bernie Madoff case. Picard is trying to recover money from the “net-winners,” people who made money off of Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, to give it to the “net losers,” people who were invested with Madoff at the time that the scheme fell apart and therefore lost money. The Wilpons are net winners and are subject to a “claw-back” lawsuit filed by Picard that demands that they return over $1 billion in so called “fraudulent” assets. Though the Wilpons are fighting Picard (possibly at the expense of people who lost their life savings with Madoff), they certainly don’t have the liquid assests necessary to run a successful big league baseball team. Especially without Einhorn’s $200 mil.
This offseason, Jose Reyes will be in a position to ask for the largest contract in franchise history, somewhere in the neighborhood of the $120+ million deal that the Red Sox gave Carl Crawford last winter. Reyes is an MVP caliber talent and a fan favorite but the Mets will not be the only bidder for his services. Potentially many other teams, and likely most importantly the Giants, will drive Reyes’ price ever higher. For the sake of public support from a battered fan base that has loyally stood by their team through years of front office ineptitude and losing seasons, the Mets cannot afford to let Reyes walk. Due to the Wilpon’s financial problems, though, they may not be able to afford to keep him. Even if the organization manages to find the money to give Reyes $130 million over 7 years or something like that, they more than likely wouldn’t have the financial resources to make very many other moves. The Mets believe that they can contend. The players were a little upset with the front office after the Carlos Beltran deal because they thought that the organization gave up on them. Though that’s pretty ridiculous as the Mets are a sub .500 team in the same division as arguably 2 of the top 5 teams in baseball, it’s definitely the right attitude. In order to contend next year and the years after the Mets need (at least): a second basemen, an outfielder, a starting pitcher, a closer, and a big bat in the middle of the order.
To compete in New York and with the Yankees, a baseball team cannot count pennies. It has to be one of the top spenders in the game. The Mets should have the resources to be one of the teams with the highest payrolls in the game. Instead, they appear to be headed for a “sign Reyes or fix the rest of the team” decision. Though the Minaya and Manuel era is squarely on the shoulders of the owners, I understand that much of the Wilpon’s financial problems are not their fault. What Bernie Madoff did was inexcusable but that’s not a blank check that allows the Wilpons to short-change their fan base. Loyal Mets fans deserve better and every day the Wilpons hold onto the team rather than selling it, they are doing a disservice to the fans. That the Einhorn plan fell thorough just makes that even more clear.
Stat O’ The Day: Matt Kemp has hit 32 of the Dodgers 101 home runs this season.
-Max Frankel
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