Five times Sandy Alderson has joked about the Mets being poor

The Mets finances – or lack thereof – seem to be a big joke to Sandy Alderson. While the team’s beaten-down fan base is hardly thrilled the Mets have the 23rd-ranked payroll in the sport at just over $82 million, the general manager tries to make it amusing.

His quip about the payroll Monday was just the latest instance of Alderson cracking a joke at the expense — get it? — of the team’s inability to spend. Here are the best examples:

1. On Monday, with the trade deadline approaching, Alderson was asked whether the Mets could afford another $20 million player, after saying, “We’ve got a 20 and 15,’’ referring to David Wright and Curtis Granderson.

“20, 20, 15 and what? 22 dwarfs?’’

Wright is earning slightly more than $19 million this year and Granderon is making $13 million, to be exact.

2. In January, at the annual dinner for the New York chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America, he joked about the difference between the Mets and Yankees. He had signed Daisuke Matsuzaka to a minor league contract while the Yankees shelled out big bucks to land Masahiro Tanaka.

“We each signed Japanese pitchers this week,” he said. “They’re paying $155 million and we’re paying our guy month to month.”

3. Last November, upon arriving at the general managers’ meetings, he told reporters: “I was upstairs stacking our money.”

Alderson paused and then said: “Don’t get excited. They were all fives.”

When asked how high the pile was, he said: “Not as high as some people expect.”

4. In November 2012, he poked fun at the team’s patchwork outfield.

“What outfield?” he rejoined when the subject was broached.

Alderson later added: “We’re going to bring those fences in another 150 feet,” he said. Pressed about how new outfielders would be acquired, he said: “A cardboard box?”

5. Back in February 2012, on the eve of spring training, Alderson used Twitter as the platform for his humor.