Wilpon's settle in Madoff suite

Either in a move of fear of culpability on part of the Wilpons, or fear they didn't have a solid lawsuit on the Pichard side, Fred and Jeff Wilpon and partner Saul Katz have settled the Irving Pichard suit that was to bring down the Mets owners for $386 million.

With the trial set to begin Monday morning, and with the prospect that a jury would force them to pay up $303 million, the Wilpons agreed to pay up $162 million to Pichard and settled the suit.

The good news for the Wilpons is that they will not have to pay anything for at least three years and could recoup $16 million if they can force the Madoff party to pay up to $178 million in a separate lawsuit. 

Still there is the disturbing fact the Wilpons are basically admitting that they knew something was going on in the Bernie Madoff scheme by settling. There was a prolonged fear that the jury would throw the book at them because of anger over the Madoff scam, and angry New Yorkers who are tired of their dreadful ownership of the Mets franchise.

This does not mean that the Wilpons are out of the woods. They have to pay $25 million to MLB and $40 million to the Bank of America for unpaid loans. They also have to divey up money to Pichard which will include the $162 million settlement and the $83.3 million from a previous case.

However, the bad news for Mets fans is that it also means that the Wilpons will remain owners. Don't expect the Wilpons to spend much on this baseball team as they will be more focused on paying off these debts than actually supporting the team. Plus, whenever the Wilpons did spend money on the team, they never spent it well, i.e. Jason Bay, Pedro Martinez, Mo Vaughn to name just a few. So get ready for more mediocre years Mets fans.