Mets 2012 Payroll will be $90 Million or Less

Sandy Alderson is quickly turning into Omar Minaya in that it is getting hard to believe the words that come out of his mouth. Or perhaps he is getting mixed messages from his superiors. Either way, it appears the Mets 2012 payroll will be far less than Alderson led everyone to believe.

As I wrote Sunday in the wake of the apparent departure of Jose Reyes, during the 2011 season Alderson said the payroll would be around $120 million in 2012. Then that was later estimated downward to $100 million to $110 million. And just last week he said it would probably be closer to $100 million. I predicted the Wilpons would pocket the Reyes money and the payroll would be around $90 million. Well, just one day later I was proven correct.

According to MetsBlog.com, Alderson told reporters in Dallas on Monday that the team had $20 million to $25 million to spend this off season. Let’s do a little math, shall we? The great website Cot’s Baseball Contracts reports that the Mets have $63,325,000 committed for 2012, not including Tim Byrdak’s mystery contract, which should be about $1 million. So let’s call the 2012 commitment $65 million.

If you add $20 million to $25 million to that $65 million, that’s $85 million to $90 million. Gee, that’s far less than $120 million, not to mention not even close to $100 million.

This is an embarrassment. A New York team with a payroll that low? If the Wilpons can’t afford to run this team properly, for the good of the team, its fans and the city, they should just sell to someone who can.

As far as Alderson and his truth-telling abilities, well, perhaps the Wilpons misled him, the same way they misled all of us. Remember the repeated cries of “The Madoff situation will not effect the Mets”? Lies. Damn liars. And it is the Mets die-hard fans who are paying the price.