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I thought I had a thread about this already, but maybe it was on the old board.
Anyway, Cot's numbers are out. Mets have a payroll of $160 million, good for 9th in the league.
https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/payroll/
Which, on its surface, sounds ok. But once you dig deeper, the numbers don't look as good. As everyone knows, that number includes Wright and Cespedes, players for which the Mets are receiving insurance. If you deduct 75% of those salaries, the Mets actual payroll is $123 million, good for 18th in the league.
The Mets' on field salary is $79 million, which is good for 20th in baseball. Some of that is bad luck, obviously, but some of that isn't. Before the season started, we knew David Wright would not play one inning. We knew Cespedes was out for at least half the season, with question marks about his return even before the ankle fracture. Robinson Cano's $19 million is on the shelf, but he's 36 and coming off a PED suspension, and Jed Lowrie's $8.5 million was handed out to a 35 year old without a clear position to play.
When you look at who took the field for the Mets last night, it's not hard to see why they are struggling. The players with the highest base salaries are Todd Frazier, Juan Lagares and Jason Vargas. ($9M, $9M and $8M). deGrom is next at $7M (plus a $2M signing bonus). Our two big free agents Ramos and Familia combine for $14 million, then everyone else is $6 million or less.
In a nutshell, this is more evidence of what we already know. The Mets don't spend nearly enough, and when they do, they spend it poorly. Rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat...
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