Twenty-nine major league teams have signed a free agent to a major league contract this offseason.

The lone exception? That would be the New York Mets, who only have awarded minor league contracts.

http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/mets/post/_/id/59771/alderson-significant-activity-possible-in-future?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

the wilpons are just hoping that we can get SOMETHING out of NOTHING....not exactly a good recipe for success...

Makes it kind of hard to believe the front offices 'we plan to compete in 2013' lines.

Only an idiot would think that the Wilpons actually have a plan of any sort, other than to retain control.

Not at all.

With this article, the Wilpons are gonna want to save face. Expect Hairston to be signed soon.

"Only an idiot would think that the Wilpons actually have a plan of any sort, other than to retain control."

You might be right, but if that's the case, why didn't they just keep Dickey? Why sign DW to that contract?

Why fire Omar in the first place? If there's no plan other than cut costs, couldn't he have done that as easily as SA?

Why bother having traded Beltran for such a great prospect? Just keep him around (to sell tickets which would help them retain control).

And if there is no plan other than to retain control, doesn't winning help that far more than just putting together a cheap and non-competitive team?

"Yeah, how much do Beltran make last year again?"

Mets paid 4 million of the 19 million.

"You might be right, but if that's the case, why didn't they just keep Dickey? Why sign DW to that contract?"

I think they were open to trading Dickey because it would help bolster the farm and the future. I believe they were ok with it since it had nothing to do with paying $$ for anything. I think if the deal came down to the Mets having to pay Dickey's salary AND pick up Buck's salary in order to make the trade work, I'm willing to be that the wilpons would be thinking different about the whole thing. Even if that was the case and we HAD to eat ALL of the money (11m?), it STILL would have been a good deal for us...the difference would have been that there would have been a good chance the wilpons would have vetoed it due to the money. Of course, there is no proof of that but wouldn't be surprising if that was the case.

As for Wright, I think even the wilpons knew they HAD to sign him. The PR hit would have been too much and they probably weighed all of the options and decided that keeping him was the best decision. That was the right move of course.

Yet somehow we're smarter than EVERY OTHER TEAM. "Theres nothing out there" Now we have money...... AFTER all the decent FA's were taken

"I think they were open to trading Dickey because it would help bolster the farm and the future."

Right. My point to the other poster is that he thinks they have no plan. Bolstering the farm for the future sounds like at least part of a plan.

"As for Wright, I think even the wilpons knew they HAD to sign him. The PR hit would have been too much and they probably weighed all of the options and decided that keeping him was the best decision. That was the right move of course."

Agreed.

When I say that the Wilpons have no plan, I mean that they have no strategy for developing a perpetual contender. I don't mean that individual moves they make are no assessed in any way. They are just not assessed in the context of a larger strategy.

Example of a lack of strategy include:
Why let Reyes go and settle for a draft pick as comp?
Why extend Wright while trading Dickey? I'd think we would trade both or neither.
Why not pursue closers this offseason given the number of possible closers that are on the free agent market.
Why not trade prospects (obv not Wheeler or TDA) for guys like Span given our lack of OF talent and lack of good FA OFers?
Why did we not even look at Cespedes last offseason?

All of these make me feel like there is no strategy.

Still saved $15mm and got a top prospect.

Just because their plan doesn't match your plan , doesn't mean they don't have a plan.

All excellent questions.

Don't expect any of them to be answered coherently. Or even answered at all.

What do you think their plan is? If we really are building for 2014, why didn't we trade for someone like Span/Revere and sign Soria? That would have set us up for 2014 and made the next offseason easier to execute. As it stands, we will need to fill 3 OF vacancies and the closer role next offseason. That's not easy to execute.

They'd already been addressed. Did you not bother reading my responses?

As for Omar...he was fired because he was the fall guy.

Well, I do believe there is a "plan" and do believe that the wilpons WANT to win and they want the team to improve. No owner in their right mind would NOT want to win. The problem is however, the wilpons don't seem to be in the slightest bit COMMITTED to winning. The primary focus still seems to be retaining control of the team, no matter what the price is. If that means cutting payroll again, then that is what will happen. I just hope all of our top prospects pan out because if we want to be a competitive team, we are going to have to rely on all of those guys (D'Arnaud, Harvey, Wheeler, Nimmo, etc.) since we won't be getting much from the FA market anytime soon.

Don't count on Nimmo to make it to the majors. He's a bust.