New York Mets News & Rumors

Mets owner Fred Wilpon publicly criticized three of his team’s best players in a piece by Jeffrey Toobin in the New Yorker. MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes explained and weighed in on the drama earlier today and others have since done the same. Here’s the latest on Wilpon, Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran and David Wright:

• ESPN.com's Buster Olney says it was a "really, really bad idea" for Wilpon to agree to do the New Yorker interview in the first place. People aren't going to feel sorry for him and the news will generate lots of headlines for the wrong reasons.
• Olney reports that the Mets would trade Reyes between the middle of June and the beginning of July if a deal occurs (all Twitter links). Though Wilpon's comments appear to be true, they cut into the leverage GM Sandy Alderson has, according to Olney. The Mets haven’t engaged Reyes in talks about a possible extension yet, Olney reports.
• Reyes' agents are not going to comment, but the shortstop himself is not bothered by the story, according to Andy Martino of the New York Daily News (on Twitter).
• Agent Scott Boras told Brian Costa of the Wall Street Journal that he was surprised by Wilpon's jabs at Beltran, given how well the outfielder is playing this year. Boras also suggests he'd prefer to see Wilpon be more supportive of his team's players.
• Matthew Cerrone of MetsBlog wonders how Wilpon's words will impact the trade market for Reyes and how the story will impact players like Reyes and Wright as they try to focus on their jobs. 
• Author Jeffrey Toobin said today on WFAN that he expects the Mets to try to re-sign Reyes and keep Wright, according to Cerrone.
• As Joel Sherman of the New York Post points out, the sympathetic portions of the 11,000 word article "are obscured in total by Wilpon's critical comments on Jose Reyes, David Wright and Carlos Beltran." Mets officials say Wilpon is an obsessed fan who cares about every game, rather than a detached owner.
• Though many owners and club officials talk critically about players in private moments, Wilpon made a mistake in expressing his thoughts publicly, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports.
• Mets skipper Terry Collins told Mike Puma of the New York Post that his team consists of professionals who can tune out distractions like this (Twitter link).
• The Mets are formulating a response, according to Andy McCullough of the Star Ledger (on Twitter). It could take a while, he reports.

Jeffrey Toobin of The New Yorker has penned a must-read article about Mets owner Fred Wilpon, although at almost 11,000 words you may have to save it for your lunch break.  Toobin spent significant time with Wilpon, and also conversed with Bernie Madoff.  The article serves as a great primer on Wilpon's rise.  A few items within MLBTR's realm:

Wilpon on Jose Reyes on April 20th:

"He thinks he’s going to get Carl Crawford money.  He’s had everything wrong with him.  He won’t get it."

MLBTR's take: We've heard the rumor that Reyes could seek a contract in the seven-year, $142MM range, but it gains credibility coming from the Mets' owner.  While it's rare to hear this kind of blunt honesty from a team owner, there's nothing surprising here.  Reyes may have raised his stock beyond Crawford's in the month since Wilpon's quote, and a Mets extension has seemed unlikely for some time.

Wilpon on David Wright on April 20th:

"He’s pressing.  A really good kid. A very good player. Not a superstar."

MLBTR's take: Again, there are plenty of people who consider Wright less than a superstar at this stage in his career, but now we can count the Mets' owner among them.  Since Wright can be under team control through 2013, there's not much reason to consider an extension right now anyway.

Wilpon on Carlos Beltran:

"We had some schmuck in New York who paid him based on that one series [his 2004 postseason with the Astros].  He’s sixty-five to seventy per cent of what he was."

Toobin notes that Wilpon was referring to himself in this quote.  I imagine most GMs agree that Beltran is 65-70% of what he was, especially since he's playing right field rather than center.  But Wilpon's comment doesn't exactly boost Beltran's trade value.

Wilpon on Ike Davis and the Mets in general on April 20th:

"Good hitter.  Shitty team—good hitter."

MLBTR's take: I just thought this was a funny quote coming from Wilpon.

Bernie Madoff on Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz:

"He must feel that I betrayed him, as do most of my friends who were involved. Hopefully, they will understand the pressures I was under. I made money for them legitimately to start, but then I got trapped and was not able to work my way out of it. It just became impossible for me to extricate myself, or even try and extricate myself…Fred and Saul were only guilty of trusting their friend and I will live with that guilt and shame forever."

Toobin feels "there are many levels of self-delusion" in this quote, but it is "relevant evidence" as Irving Picard attempts to prove that Wilpon and his associates just looked the other way in Madoff's Ponzi scheme.

Fred Wilpon on investing money with Madoff:

"We certainly wouldn’t have had five hundred and fifty million dollars invested in something that’s a Ponzi scheme, when you know it can only evaporate at some point. We didn’t know."

For me, this is hard to argue.  Toobin notes that as the Mets' risks in the Picard lawsuit far outweigh Picard's, "some kind of settlement seems likely, if not inevitable."  For Fred Wilpon's sake, hopefully the sides can agree on an amount closer to the owner's initial $160MM-range expectation rather than Picard's one billion-range figure.