Omar Minaya Returns to Mets, Fred Wilpon is Cheap

The Mets continue to turn their off-season into a three ring circus.

The team announced that former General Manager Omar Minaya will return to the franchise as a special assistant to current GM, Sandy Alderson. Minaya's job will be to revitalize the Mets scouting department which has taken a lot of hits since he was fired by the Mets in 2010. Remember it was Minaya who found guys like Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom, not Alderson.

If you think that this means Alderson is on the hot seat, think again. Anderson signed an extension earlier this week with the Amazin's. So the Mets, who have done absolutely nothing this off-season, have made more moves in the front office than they have in signing players.

Should be very interesting to see Minaya work alongside Alderson, the man who took Minaya's job eight years ago.

On a side note, Fred Wilpon is "IRATE" that the Yankees made a deal with the Marlins to get Giancarlo Stanton. In a case of some serious sour grapes, Wilpon has a history of being obsessed with the Yankee payroll, which he calls unsustainable.

While I agree that the Yankees are taking some financial risks with their future stars by adding Stanton, and likely Pirates ace, Gerrit Cole, how about Wilpon actually spend some money to fix his own team?

In fact the Mets are reportedly cutting payroll by $20 million this season, lowering their payroll down to $135 million.

The Mets have put so many financial constraints on Sandy Alderson that there is nothing he can do to really improve the team.  A trade with the Indians for Jason Kipnis? Forget it. Kipnis is due $13.7 million this year and $14 million next year. The Mets will never leverage for it. How about Mike Moustakas who is expected to command about $90 million on the open market? Forget it.

In years past the Wilpon's have used Bernie Madoff as an excuse for their penny-pinching ways. Now there are no more excuses. The Mets are just flat out cheap and do not care about their fanbase. If Wilpon really wants to compete with the Yankees, he needs to open up the coffers and start spending some money on this team. As it stands right now the Mets are on their way to complete irrelevancy in 2018.