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According to the Los Angeles Times, the Dodgers have made an initial offer to
37–year-old, free-agent OF Manny Ramirez, worth $25 million per season, for either two or three seasons.
Omar Minaya, on Ramirez, as quoted by the Journal News at yesterday’s GM Meetings in California, said:
“He’s an offensive player. He’s been a very good player. But for us, where we are right now, where is it we’re going to invest? Our priority right now is we have to address our pitching. We have to look at that first. (Ramirez) is a free agent but today we have to look at how to improve our starting pitching and our relief pitching.”
…as i said yesterday, now enhanced by the contract offer mentioned above, i believe the Mets will flirt with ramirez, but i just do not see a scenario in which they result to signing him…that money could be spent in so many other ways, filling so many other more pressing holes, i just don’t see it playing out…which may ultimately be a good thing…





The Mets have about $108 mil signed on for next year so far. Last year they were at 137.8 (a 17% increase from the previous year, which was also a 17% increase from the year before that).
I think its safe to say the Mets will increase salary 15% next year to around $145-150 mil, meaning that Omar has about $40 mil to play around with for a closer, SP, 2b and catcher upgrades, and a LF
25 mil to a closer and sp leaves about 15-20 mil for omar to play with, meaning there is physically no room for Manny
Even if they signed a closer, sp, and Manny for a total of $158 mil, it would leave them only 4 mil below the 2009 luxury tax threshold, which you can be 100% sure they will not go over
*I meant to say pay would be around 150-160, meaning Omar would have about 50 mil to play with
25 to a closer + sp leaves about 25, which still has to go to other members of the pen
To get Manny we would have to dump Castillo, Schoenweis, and Delgado’s contracts
What you fail to mention in the analysis, is at no time in teh past 2 seasons did the Mets move into a new ballpark that will most likely sell out every game (luxury boxes included). They should be able to increase it to just about whatever number they see reasonable.
That is true, but to think that this team is going to have a payroll above the luxury tax threshold is insane.
They will increase payroll to nearly $160 million next year and I don’t see how any of us can complain about that
It should be plenty of money for them to do literally whatever they want
Money should not be an issue with this team, but logically they will not put themselves in a situation where it costs them 1.17 mil for every 1 mil worth of player
TA09… they may also play it safe because of worries of the economy. Front offices base payroll on projections of season ticket sales… the majority of season ticket owners are corporations… if the Mets project corporations will be holding back “discretionary” spending, they may significantly scale back their budget.
Truth is, no one has any idea how the Front Office is thinking, but I can see a net decrease in salary for the upcoming year(s) as easily as I can see a net increase.
The Mets salary increase should be in line with the ticket price increase.
So give Wright Reyes and Beltran more money, but give Tatis a paycut?
Rotation 4 guys total 17M (Santana 15M, Pelfrey 762K, Maine will get bump to about 750K, Neise 400K)
Bullpen say total 40M (Wagner still gets 10.5M, leaves 30M to build 7 man pen)
Catchers 7.4M (Schneider 4.9M, Castro 2.5M)
Starting 7 as is 45M (Delgado 12M, Castillo 6M, Reyes 5.75M, Wright 7.5M, Murphy 400K, Beltran 10M next year), Church 3M)
Bench 6M (Tatis 1.7M, Endy 2.05M, Pagan 2.0, A. Reyes 400K).
Total is 115.4K …. leaves 35M to get to 150M, and that includes money already for bullpen …. Even if we pulled coup of trading Delgado (-12M) and signing Texeira for (+22M), that would leave 25M for either Lowe plus Ollie Perez, or CC and keeping Neise ….
Point is they have resourses to do big things …
1) First of all I’m not advocating signing Manny, but this notion that it’s better to spread the money around is a dumb baseball myth too. I’d rather have one great $25M player than 3 solid or average $8M players.
In 2000, aside from the 24+1 excuse, Phillips and the Mets stated that they’d rather use the $25M per year that would have gone to A-Rod and spread that to fill other holes.
So what did they spend it on? Mo Vaughn, Jeromy Burnitz and Roger Cedeno.
I smell the same thing here. We’ll signs bums like Fuentes, Ibanez and such instead of targeting the big fish.
2) I don’t want to here this team counting pennies and all. I understand it’s a business, but this team can spend $40M easily in this market. They have an additional $20M coming in per year for the naming rights, a cable network and additional revenue from a new stadium. PLUS, $30M coming off the books.
SPEND! Resign Ollie, sign K-Rod for starters and see where the rest plays out.
I obviously agree with you (my post says they should take payroll all the way to near $160 mil)
If the past few years have showed us anything Omar will increase payroll this year at the same rate, meaning we should be looking at a team near $155-160 mil next year
That should be more than enough to field a potential championship team
The tax threshold is $162 mil this year, meaning every single dime they spend over $162 mil costs them 17% more, and also puts them on a list where if they are over again in the future that rate goes up to 30 and then 40%
That depends how you look at it. I’d rather spend 25 mill to fill the big hole that is our 5th starter, and two spots in the bullpen with above average guys, than fill the one outfield spot with Manny. Those three would be a much bigger combined improvement over the nothingwe have there now versus the improvement of Manny over Tatis/Murphy/Church or however you shake that out.
Call me daffy, but I actually think Manny would be a better investment than a closer. Throwing that much money at a relief pitcher is unwise — too much psychology, too fragile, too soon after Eric Gagne imploded.
And I don’t think Manny is a good fit for the Mets, anyway. On a team with Varitek, you can deal with him. With a team that can be as lethargic and dysfunctional as the Mets, no way.
Starting pitching, on the other hand, deserves an investment, and we need two of them, at least. We should work on a trade to get our next closer, and pick away at some undervalued middle relief. At this stage, it’s a scouting game — very tough to predict. Look at Romero and Lidge’s numbers right before the Phillies acquired them to pitch in an absurd hitters’ park in front of awful, unforgiving fans.
Manny Ramirez singlehandedly got the Dodgers into the playoffs last year – enough said.
So obviously that means he will single handily get the Mets into the playoffs next year.
metindc23, NEXT YEAR AND THE NEXT 2 – 3 YRS AT LEAST, MANNY RAMIREZ IS WICKED BAD ……OUR LINE UP WITH THE ADDITION OF RAMIREZ BECOMES UNSTOPABLE PERIOD. PITCHERS WILL ONLY HOPE TO CONTAIN A LINEUP CONSISTING OF -
REYES
BELTRAN
RAMIREZ
WRIGHT
DELGADO
CHURCH
MURPHY
SCHNIEDER
SANTANNA
DAMN! SENDS SHIVERS UP MY FREAKIN SPINE JUST THINKING ABOUT IT.
If you mean by saying “high quality” that we can get a Garland or someone, I’m fine with that.
We need BP help more than anything, but that doesn’t cost huge dollars, it’s more scouting and luck.
Get Manny, Garland, trade Delgado for pitching and sign about 4 BP arms, and we should be in great shape.
Reyes
Murphy
Wright
Manny
Beltran
Church
Evans/Carp/Blalock
Schieder
Santana
Maine
Pelfrey
Garland
Niese/FA signing
I’m all for trading Delgado, but I need to see some realistic deals. I’m not sure what his value will be. I think we wait until Teixeira signs and shop him among the losers — see how desperate they are.
God, that’s something to fantasize about, can you imagine David Wright hitting in front of Manny. .330 easy, 35 hrs. Imagine the possibilities.
That would be great for 09, good for 2010, average for 2011, and terrible for 2012.
Who is Blaylock and where is he coming from.. If this is Hank on texas they are picking up his option.
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According to the Dallas Morning News, the Rangers are expected to pick up Hank Blalock’s $6.2 million for 2009, but are “unlikely” to play him at third base.
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So you are going to have to trade to get him also. I’d be all for this approach though.
But I’d rather Trade Delgado, sign Texeria (money better spent), Lowe and another FA starting pitcher.
All Pipe Dreams probably, the only people who truely know what is going on is Omar and the Cheap-pons.
Ahhh . . . I thought I read Blaylock was going to be a FA. I thought he could be an under the radar signing.
Also, the 5th starter, shich I have noted as a FA signing, could be gotten through a Delgado trade as well.
This does hinge on Murph being able to play 2nd, otherwise it’s Hudson I guess, unless we can relieve someone of a player that’s blocked or take a player to unblock someone, but I don’t have details.
As for thereal’s comments, this does hinge on only three years for Manny, so at the end of the deal, it’s average.
Which is fine if we have won a WS in there somewhere.
who do you think they should sign as a fa starter
For all of you that think Manny will get us to the playoffs without addressing our pitching staff need look no further than the Texas Rangers (speaking of Hank Blalock)…they have tried and failed for years to mash there way in!!!
Pitching First Please!!!
I would like Manny sure the guy can hit..but this offense wasnt the problem last year. Heres my take night in night out the offense had to battle the bullpen and i know they are major league ball players they should be able to do it 162 games but lets face it they were tired down the stretch and i really dont blame them.
We need pitching and a creative trade to gets us both pitching and a bat.