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Yo! this one goes out to my boy D-Wright, I feel ya D I feel ya!
Yesterday on Twitter I tweeted out that I felt the Mets were the drunken uncle at the holidays of baseball, meaning that no fan base feels more uncomfortable about their team and ownership than Mets fans. It seems that every piece of baseball business that the Mets get involved in makes Mets fans feel as awkward as going on a double date and the other couple fights the whole night. The latest issue with the club that has the fan base squirming is the now public David Wright contract re-negotiation.
In a perfect baseball world, a world we of the orange and blue persuasion will never inhabit, the star player of the team would sit down with management and hash out a deal that makes everyone look like a winner. They would hold these negotiations in a quiet business-like manner. Instead, we get a leak from a Mets Jeff Wilpon source that the club has made a starting offer of 6 yrs/$100 mil extension to the Face and Future Team Ambassador (as one org member stated “Tom Seaver won’t live forever”)David Wright. As soon as that offer hit the social media, the magpies were chirping, “Cheap ass Mets are lowballing Wright”, “Mets are going overboard on offer Wright they should trade him” “Don’t buy tickets to Mets games” (that one is the morning prayer for some) Word came from the Wilpon propaganda machine, the Daily Lupica, that Wright was angry with that the offer was made public, so the Wilpon house organ played a tune called “did we say 6 yr at $100mil? What we meant to say is 8 yrs at $140 mil”. To which Wright and his agents screamed that the song was out of key.
Now there a couple of ways to look at this, first, it puts Wright in a spot where he has to choose between being a Met 4 Life at some nice coin or decide to go to another team that has a better chance at winning and a better lineup that would protect him in the lineup. David Wright has to do what’s best for David Wright. So what right for Wright?
If he turns down this Mets offer (and why would we not believe the Daily Snooze with men of integrity like Andy Martino and John Harper doing the reporting that this offer is legit? Yes the captain has activated the sarcasm sign) then the Mets have no choice but to trade him and Wright becomes public enemy #1 greedy bastard in the eyes of Mets fans. If Wright takes the offer then everyone is a winner, Wright a Met 4 Life and set financially, the Mets show they are back in business and the fans get a glimmer of hope that all is not as awful as some perceive in Flushing.
Again this is the biggest decision of David Wright’s baseball life. I’ve always felt that Wright needs to be protected in the lineup to play at his best. Put Wright on the Reds between Joey Votto and Jay Bruce or the Dodgers between Adrian Gonzalez and Hanley Ramirez with the Dodgers or even to Toronto with Joey Bats and his brother from another mother Jose Reyes (would that be a kick in the nuts to Mets fans if Wright turned down Mets offer and he’s shipped up North and he and Reyes lead the Jays to a World Series championship? YIKES!)
The Mets have not made it easy for Wright, yes that sounds a bit ridiculous but think about this, the Mets are not going to up that offer, so Wright and his agents have to decide to take the Mets offer and the word of Sandy Alderson that the team will be making moves to improve and that the future of the franchise is not the unmitigated mess that some media and fans portray it to be or make a new start of his baseball life where the grass may be greener or it could be all crab grass.
It seems many Mets fans worry about the Mets back loading this deal to defer money in the late stages of the contract. Yes the Skill Sets have made the back loaded contract their benchmark in these type of negotiations but with the new network money coming in in 2014, and the team in some dire financial straits now, it would seem to be in the clubs best interest to free up some cash to add the players needed to place around Wright and Ike Davis in a lineup that could help support the starting pitching that is as good as any team in baseball.
Any plan that keeps Wright and R.A. Dickey as Mets and frees up some money to add a first string catcher and a power hitting outfielder I support 100 %. When you get past the entire Mets fan and Twitter nit wits belly aching bullshit, the bottom line is I want the Mets to win by any means necessary.
