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As someone who is already selling off part of his team and could be looking to unload some veterans in the not-too-distant future, Fred Wilpon picked a strange time to channel his inner George Steinbrenner.
The Mets’ owner called his team “lousy” and “sh***y” and knocked Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes and David Wright in an article in the New Yorker magazine published yesterday that added to the problems he already had with his family embroiled in a lawsuit over its alleged involvement in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme, which has forced the partial sale of the team.
And the fallout has already begun.
After Wilpon said of Wright: “A really good kid, a very good player, not a superstar,” the All-Star third baseman responded with a terse email that hardly let Wilpon off the hook.
“Fred is a good man and is obviously going through some difficult times,” Wright said. “There is nothing more productive that I can say at this time.”
Wilpon also took swipes at two of his biggest potential trade chips this season, with both Beltran and Reyes having uncertain futures at Citi Field. Given Wilpon’s comments, their departures seem all but a given.
Beltran is an impending free agent and already a likely candidate to be shipped out by the end of July. Wilpon criticized himself for agreeing to give Beltran a seven-year, $119 million contract after Beltran’s sensational 2004 postseason with the Astros.
“We had some schmuck [himself] in New York who paid him based on that one series,” Wilpon said, referring to his idea to sign Beltran, who has been slowed by knee injuries but has played better than expected this season. “He’s 65 to 70 percent of what he was.”
Wilpon also brought up Beltran’s infamous at-bat in the ninth inning of Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS against the Cardinals, mimicking keeping the bat on his shoulders, as Beltran did when he struck out looking against Adam Wainwright to end the series.
“Carlos’ numbers speak for themselves,” his agent, Scott Boras said. “I’m not sure why Fred would say that.”
And of Reyes, who is also headed to free agency — or a July trade, Wilpon said: “He thinks he’s going to get Carl Crawford money. He’s had everything wrong with him. He won’t get it.”
Wilpon was referring to the Red Sox’ signing of the former Rays outfielder to a seven-year, $142 million contract last offseason.
Reyes’ camp, as well as GM Sandy Alderson, had no comment.
As for the Mets, team spokesman Jay Horwitz said: “We’re dealing with this internally.”
Manager Terry Collins, already dealing with a beat-up lineup and a makeshift pitching staff, said he doesn’t believe the harsh words will have a negative impact on his team.
“I would doubt it,” said the manager, whose team opens a series against the Cubs tonight at Wrigley Field. “I don’t know. These guys are professionals and I don’t think a lot of that stuff fazes them. The media around here can be very critical at times and I think these guys are aware of it, and you’ve got to go play. They can’t worry about anything else.”
Collins declined to comment on Wilpon’s assessment that the Mets are a “sh***y” team.
“I’m not going to get into that comment,” said Collins, adding he hadn’t talked to Wilpon about his quotes. “I can’t.”
In the article, Madoff also tried to exonerate the Wilpons from complicity in the Ponzi scheme.
“Fred was not [at] all stock market savvy and Saul [Katz, the Mets’ co-owner and Wilpon’s brother-in-law}was not really either,” Madoff said. “They were strictly real-estate people. Although I explained the ‘strategy’ to them, they were not sophisticated enough to evaluate it properly, nor were most of my other individual clients. They were not in a position to perform the necessary due diligence and did not have access to necessary financial info or records.”
dan.martin@nypost.com