In a must-read report for MLB.com, Tom Singer looks at the lack of quality, young 
free-agents, and explains how a change in how teams treat their young stars is ifluencing the market.
…this is the single-biggest worry i have for the Mets, in that they may have misread the market a few years ago, betting on the international signings instead, while signing big-time free agents and sacrificng top draft picks, then not spending over slot to make up for thier late-round selections… and, as a result, as teams began locking up their young players, like the Rays and Evan Longoria or the Brewers and Ryan Braun, the Mets ended up having little to show in their farm system and fewer and fewer impactful options to fill in with on the free agent market… it is this reason, more than any, that explains the situation the Mets are in today…
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What I haven’t seen is teams clamoring to lock up their pitchers.
We did the same thing with Reyes and Wright a few years ago, so we were aware of the practice.
So what will be happening essentially is that the players we will be able to get will be 31-33 and looking for long contracts, making them risks towards the end.
I think it is imperative that we keep Ike Davis so that our teams stays young
I don’t understand why they won’t pay over slot for draft picks, but they will give Luis Castillo, who is an aging 2nd baseman 24 million dollars?
How about giving career .240 hitting backups like Alex Cora 2 million dollars as well?
This is of course a good point, but let’s not forget that aside from Reyes and Wright, not much has come from the Mets farm system over the past 5-8 years (and that includes the ones we packaged in deals).
Some of the players that have really had success (Jason Bay) were fairly unheralded prospects at the time they were traded. Many of the prospects that were hyped (by the Mets and by others), like Carlos Gomez and Lastings Milledge, haven’t amounted to much.
Here are a bunch of guys Omar has traded away since 2004:
Gaby Hernandez, Dante Brinkley, Mike Jacobs, Yusmeiro Petit, Grant Psomas, Jed Hansen, Matt Ginter, Andy Dominique, Pat Mahomes, Jason Phillips, Ian Bladergroen, Brian Bannister, Henry Owens, Matt Lindstrom, Heath Bell, Royce Ring, Victor Diaz, Evan Maclane, Jeff Keppinger, Geremi Gonzalez, Robert Manuel, Jorge Julio, Angel Pagan (and then we re-acquired him later), Jae Seo, Lastings Milledge, Dustin Martin, Drew Butera, Aaron Heilman, Mike Carp, Ezequiel Careera, Maikel Cleto, Anderson Hernandez, Carlos Gomez, Deolis Guerra, Phillip Humber, Kevin Mulvey, Corey Coles, Ryan Meyers, Greg Veloz.
I mean, quite frankly, there is no one in there worth having too much discussion about, and that is more a sign of trouble than anything else. A lot of these players were drafted before Omar was the GM of course, but it shows a rich history of poor draft choices the Mets have made. They have really only produced 2 impact players in the last decade, both of which are still on our roster (Reyes and Wright).
Our drafting and scouting needs to be revamped so that we can begin the process of lamenting lost talent. Right now we haven’t lost much talent.
excellent post! sad, sad list
I would quibble that the Bell trade is worth discussing seeing how much the Mets have spent on the last two closers they bought instead of using the home grown option.
That money could have bought a real left fielder already…
I gotta add Pelfrey to the mix of usable parts. Mainly because we have depended on him the past few seasons. With out him, we’d have to add another player through FA or a trade. Other than him and Wright and Reyes though, we haven’t produced anything for our big league club.
You could argue some of those prospects produced players for us through trade, which is a valid argument considering the farm system is all about improving the big league club. The problem with going the trade route, however, is it’s not sustainable and weakens depth, which we are very aware of.
I agree, but I guess my point was that if nothing else we seemed to have fleeced quite a few GMs. One would think with all of those prospects having been traded away that there would be a few we would be kicking ourselves over.
Bell has been excellent for San Diego, but the Mets didn’t think too much of him before he was traded (nor did Scouts). That was more of a Jason Bay scenario: decent player with some upside, but not a blue chip. In fact, Lastings Milledge is just about the only blue chip we’ve lost. I think the lack of blue chip prospects is more the problem with the franchise over the last 5-8 years than what we have traded away.
great post! Wow viewing the names speaks volumes. And even Heath Bell, with all his weight fluctuations and roller skate exercises–he never looked like much until he left.
Matt,
I completely agree with your point. Another thing to consider is how the Mets (Omar Minaya in particular) have misread the marketplace the last few years. They often overspend on mediocre talent in terms of years and dollars.
(1) Did Marlon Anderson merit a 2-year contract? No, he’s a bench player.
(2) Did Julio Franco merit a 2-year contracts? No, he was an old and useless player.
(3) Did Luis Castillo merit a 4-year contract, coming off surgery on both his knees, when no other team was rumored to be interested? No.
(4) Should the Mets have risked losing Oliver Perez rather than guarantee an extra year and 30% more ($) than the market dished out for other players of his ilk?
(5) I like Alex Cora, but is he a $2M player? No.
Truth is that the Mets need a philosophical change in the way they do business.
(i) They need to concentrate free agent dollars on top-tier players.
(ii) They need to develop role players in their farm system in order to avoid the need to pay for the Marlon Andersons, Fernando Tatises, Julio Francos of the world. THEN, then need to invest those dollars saved in the draft.
Not to say that they don’t also need to develop impact players but that goes without saying.
(iii) The Mets need to understand that in this new age of baseball cash and prospects are king and you get the latter by investing the former. Not signing a $2M player like Alex Cora and investing that in the draft would have a bigger long-term impact for the Mets. An extra $2M in the draft and the willingness to go above-slot would have netted the Mets 3-5 high-end prospects in this year’s draft.
Agreed, this is another huge problem the Mets have had over the recent years: They pay millions of dollars to replacement level players like Franco, Anderson, Cora. Even Luis Castillo, who produces near-replacement level numbers, can be lumped in here. I felt the same way when we signed Scott Shoeneweis a few years ago.
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