These have to be especially irritating times to be a Mets fan, and not only because the Yankees throw $155 million at Masahiro Tanaka the other day, the latest time they were forced to sit quietly, and still, and wonder, “Why can’t we ever have nice things?”
No; Mets fans have been stripped of their most reliable source of aggravation, the belief that the Wilpons will never spend any money, that they will do nothing to better the team. They were robbed of that dependable crutch in November and December, when the Mets signed Chris Young, Curtis Granderson and Bartolo Colon.
We can argue about the relative merits of all three of those players, especially as they compare to the Yankees’ Big Four Gets of Tanaka, Brian McCann, Jacoby Ellsbury and Carlos Beltran, but that’s really beside the point.
Because in a way, it was easier for the Mets when they simply punted in the offseason, when the general manager, Sandy Alderson, was reduced to barking stand-up one-liners about a dearth of outfielders and a lack of gas money to make the trek to Port St. Lucie, Fla., in time for spring training. The Mets rose from their self-induced coma to make themselves viable.
But they have stopped short of the next step.
Signing Stephen Drew would represent the next step, which would mean declaring that 81 wins as a best-case scenario isn’t what the Mets are in business for. If everything goes well, if everyone stays healthy, if everyone plays within reasonable reach of his potential, that’s what this Mets team is: Break even. Eighty-one and 81. Compared to the recent past, .500 might be considered a breakthrough.
Compared to their pedigree as a professional franchise competing without a salary cap in New York City, that is also known as not nearly good enough.
They are in for a dime, why not in for a dollar? In for a penny, why not in for a pound? Unless, of course, despite their protests, they don’t have the extra 90 cents (or 99 pence) available to make what a legitimate run at Drew — terrific defensive player, good offensive player, key ingredient of the defending World Series champion Red Sox — would entail.
Say, three years, $39 million?
The Mets’ payroll right now sits at around $85 million; signing Drew at that number would still keep them under $100 million as they go about the business of filling out the roster and the bullpen, something that, when all is said and done, should still be able to be done at a number south of $110 million. Which would still be third in their own division, second in their own city, and right around where the Reds of Cincinnati (population: 296,550) presently reside.
Look, Drew isn’t Troy Tulowitzki, and he isn’t Jose Reyes. He has durability questions. But if there are no lingering physical issues, he also showed he can play, and thrive, in Boston, which is as safe a litmus test as any for New York — which would explain a report Thursday that states the Yankees may be pondering a run at Drew (and good luck to the Mets if that happens).
More to the point, Drew would be an upgrade — a significant upgrade — on Ruben Tejada.
Tejada, whom the Mets themselves have little problem filleting, on the record.
Put it this way. If Pop Fisher’s appraisal of Roy Hobbs — “Well, you’re better than any player I ever had. And you’re the best damn hitter I ever saw” — sits on one end of the praise/disparagement continuum, how far on the other end of that spectrum lies this doozy from Alderson last summer:
“You know, one of the problems with Ruben is, it’s like pulling teeth. Extra batting practice, extra this, extra that, doesn’t happen unless someone else is insisting on it.”
(An aside: all-time Mets slogans:
1. ‘BASEBALL LIKE IT OUGHTA BE’
2. ‘THE MAGIC IS BACK’
3. ‘CATCH THE RISING STARS’
92. ‘IT’S LIKE PULLING TEETH’)
Does Drew make the Mets a contender? It’s a fair question. I was against the Mets throwing the farm at Michael Bourn last year because not only would he have cost them a first-rounder, it was unlikely he was going to make them anything more than the 74-win team they became.
Drew’s WAR was 3.1 last year, exactly 4.0 higher than Tejada’s. Just using that alone, does he make the Mets less an 81ish team and more 85ish? And does 85ish at least bring you into the September conversation? And if it does, shouldn’t a New York team in a sport without a salary cap — in which signing Drew would only cost a third-round pick — be making that effort?
Unless it’s just easier to, you know, punt.