Report: New York Mets Will Cut Payroll By $20 Million in 2018

The New York Mets have been hinting all winter that they are going to reduce payroll from last year’s high of $155 million, but they have refused to put a number on how much they will spend. General Manager Sandy Alderson recently bristled at payroll questions, telling reporters that fans need to stop obsessing over how much money the Mets spend. It took the intrepid reporting of New York Post baseball insider Joel Sherman to find out how much the team plans on spending this winter, and it’s a figure that Mets’ fans won’t be happy with. According to Sherman, the Mets are planning on having a payroll of roughly $135 million in 2018, a cut of $20 million from a year ago.

This news comes shortly after former Mets’ GM Steve Phillips provided some insight into how the Wilpons operate their team. Phillips took to Twitter yesterday and explained that the Wilpons want to win, but that they set up a payroll so that they can break even at the end of the year.

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In this scenario, the ownership looks at the state of the roster and spends just enough money to come out at zero after the season. The Mets will make money if they go on postseason runs, like they did in 2015 and 2016, but they will look to tear down if things go bad in order to save money. This is exactly what happened last season, when the Wilpons gave Alderson permission to raise his payroll after two strong years. Alderson then dumped as much salary as he could at the trade deadline instead of receiving better prospects back, allowing the Mets to essentially break even again.

Sherman notes that the Mets projections don’t necessarily mean ownership is giving up on the season. The Wilpons are banking on the additions of pitching friendly manager Mickey Callaway and new pitching coach Dave Eiland to help them get the most out of their talented young pitching staff. Alderson also has the freedom to pitch any idea he wants to the front office, who may sign off on it even it could lead to a bigger budget. This may explain why the Mets aren’t being nearly aggressive enough this winter as Alderson doesn’t want to get stuck with a ton of long term deals that will be nearly impossible to move if things go south.

The problem is that even after the Mets signed Anthony Swarzak to boost the bullpen, their payroll is currently projected at about $125 million according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts. That leaves Alderson less than $10 million to add a starting second baseman, a corner outfielder with the ability to play first base, and anything else the Mets need. The Mets could add more money to the budget by dealing guys like Juan Lagares or A.J. Ramos, but that would be counterproductive since those two could be key contributors to the 2018 team.

This is a big problem as the Mets are again doing the bare minimum to get by instead of going all out to win. It remains to be seen if the slow moving free agent market will let them fall backwards into a good player, but the Mets need to fill too many holes. $10 million isn’t enough to do that without sacrificing serious quality, and they even passed on a guy like Matt Adams, who just signed a one year deal for $4 million with the Washington Nationals. Adams would have been a great fit for the Mets, but Alderson is hoping better values emerge later in the winter. Mets’ fans have to hope that Alderson is right or else 2018 will come down to a year of everything needing to go right for the team to win. That almost never happens in Queens.