Disclaimer: This is going to be one of those posts that might be most appropriate for the Playstation 3 world. If you want to read something a little more realistic, skip this and check out a previous post.
The New York Mets have mentioned numerous times that they are going to work in the $100-110 million range this season. So far, the New York Mets have only committed $63.3 million to their 2012 payroll, but that doesn’t include arbitration raises, the salaries for pre-arb players and the free agent signings that will be made. Since the idea that I’m going to discuss stretches reality a bit anyway, let’s just say that the New York Mets end up with a payroll of $100 million when the bulk of the offseason work is complete. At this point, I think management should consider adding another $15-20 million (maybe more if David Wright is traded) on the books in order to further invest into their future.
This is what I’m thinking: There are so many teams saddled with bad contracts. Terrible contracts. The players are so hard to trade because A) they are just flat out too expensive, B) they suck, or C) all of the above. The Mets should approach one of the several teams that have such a player on their roster and offer to take him and his full salary off of their hands. I’m talking the remaining $33 million on A.J. Burnett’s contract, the $18 million left on Carlos Zambrano’s deal (plus the $19.5 million vesting option that likely won’t vest), the $46 million on Barry Zito’s contract (including buy-out), etc. There are a host of wretched contracts out there to choose from.
Obviously the Mets aren’t going to do this out of the goodness of their heart. They’re going to demand prospects in such a deal. Prospects that can make an impact and a contribution when contending time (hopefully) rolls around in 2013-2014 and beyond. By then, the bad contracts will be expired or expiring (that includes Johan Santana and Jason Bay – pending the vesting option on the latter) and hopefully a few of the top prospects have successfully graduated to the Major League level.
While I can’t think of any instances of a team offering a legit prospect in order to entice a team to take a bad contract, there are instances of trade packages improving in quality due to the other team’s willingness to eat salary. In 2008, the Los Angeles Dodgers traded for Casey Blake. Instead of paying for the remainder of his salary, the Dodgers asked the Cleveland Indians to eat a chunk of it as a part of the deal. In return, the Dodgers included Carlos Santana – a catcher who emerged as one of the top prospects in the game and has translated his potential into significant production at the big league level.
Maybe not everyone is as generous (or cheap, perhaps) as Ned Colletti was in that particular instance, but you have to imagine G.M.s would be incredibly excited to crawl out from under such an offensive albatross. Not to mention, the guys listed above make Casey Blake’s 2008 salary look like pocket change. I have to remind you that we’re currently hanging out in PS3 land, but just think about some of the quality that the Mets could pry away. Maybe not a Jesus Montero, Buster Posey or Starlin Castro. That’s ridiculous even as we suspend reality a little bit. I’m talking about a legit contributor though.
There are a lot of fantastical elements to this idea, but I definitely think it is an avenue worth exploring for the New York Mets.
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