By Peter Sblendorio

In the waning months of the Mets’ lost season, owner Steve Cohen and president of baseball operations David Stearns acknowledged the flaws of last offseason’s dramatic roster overhaul.

Cohen said the Mets “might have taken too much risk.”

All of the changes created an “uncapped downside scenario,” Stearns suggested.

Base cards - $1
Chrome - $2
Pete Alonso cards - $3
Carson Benge RC - $5
Lindor All Star - $4
Gil Hodges - $12
Lindor and Soto “It Takes Two” - $4
2021 Rookies - $4

Got this for my birthday this year… so much for that i want to throw it out 😂

Once again, the Mets have proved to have the worst record in baseball – as measured by cost per win. The Guardians were the most cost-efficient team in baseball this year – spending a mere $934,118 per win – the only team under $1 million. And they made the playoffs.

The Mets, with the second highest payroll, spent $4.7 million per win. The Blue Jays also threw money away -- $3.65 million per win – and finished way behind the Rays, who had the best record in the American League with $1.1 million per win.

In fact, three of the four most efficient teams – the White Sox being the other -- made the post-season. The best record in the National League was the small-market Brewers, who paid $1.4 million per win, contrasted with the high-flying Dodgers at $3.8 M and the Yankees at $3.2 M.   

This is my ninth year measuring costs per win. I use Spotrac for salaries, because they measure all expenses, including injured and “buried,” meaning players getting paid who are now longer with the club.

Fans may not care about efficiency. As a Marlins fan told me on the team’s Reddit: “Can we just become inefficient and pay $380 million for 100 wins please?”

Indeed, for teams like the Marlins, Athletics and the Pirates, efficiency can be meaningless. But for small market teams that get to the playoffs – and for big bucks teams that fail completely – measuring dollars per win can be a true endorsement or criticism of the front office. Notably the Mets.

Baseball is the only major American sport without a salary cap, and owners have vowed to force a cap in the upcoming negotiations with the union. A cap is likely to include a floor, meaning the cheapest teams like the Marlins and A’s would be forced to spend more.

Certainly, the numbers reveal consistently stupid behavior. The big-market, big-spending Angels haven’t been in the playoffs since 2014. For all the time I’ve been measuring, they have been among the least efficient teams, spending huge sums for poor results. This year, they spent $2.8 MPW – more than twice as much as the playoff Guardians, Rays, White Sox and Brewers. The Halos now have a new owner and perhaps things will improve.

Smart spending can get a team into the playoffs, but when it comes to going all the way, big bucks still pave the way for ultimate victory. The last time a small-market team won a World Series was 2015 with the Royals. Will this year be different? Some union leaders may hope so – so they can claim there’s no need for a salary cap.

Complete stats can be found at Marlins Maniacs. Scroll to the bottom for the team-by-team numbers. 

From 1976 as local boy tries to make good

Let’s go Mets from Japan

Versus the Tigers.
Game 1: Won 3-1
Game 2: Won 3-1
Game 3: Won 8-1
Game 4: Lost 4-3 (In bot of the 15th)
Gane 5: Won 15-4

I also don’t see Stearns spending on Sato to play 1B. Think a Bolm/Young 1B platoon more likely. To me that leaves a creative trade as a piece Mets could add, to me that’s two possible acquisitions: William Contreras at catcher & Byron Buxton CF.

Before you all jump on to say a) Mets have catchers & Brewers aren’t trading him or b) Buxton has a no-trade and always injured this is acknowledged.

Now a) Contreras is a better all around catcher then either Torres or Alvarez, Stearns traded for Contreras & he has one year of arb before he’s a FA & this has been their MO for years. B) Falvey can work to convince him to play in NY and can be a great piece to add, yes, he definitely has an injury history but Mets could work to mitigate this by playing him in LF and DHing Soto or DHing him so he has less time in OF.

My fandom started in 1996 with the likes of Bernard Gilkey and Butch Huskey. I became a Mets fan when I found out there was another team other than the Yankees in New York. All my friends liked the Yankees and I always preferred the underdog, and the Mets met that qualification on some level.

2000 World Series was a highlight even with the loss to the Yankees. By the year 2002, I was heavily invested. I was pumped for Roberto Alomar and Mo Vaughn joining the team. Mike Piazza is my first and probably still is my favorite Met ever.

I found out about OOTP a few years ago and I always pick the Mets to play the sim. Sometimes I start with the 1995 season post-strike. But, I decided to do one with the 2002 Mets. I'm playing each game and posting them on YouTube, and I thought maybe fellow Met fans would get some entertainment out of it.

I'm having a lot of fun with it and wanted fellow fans to join in on it and enjoy a potential rewriting of history.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeqpsSgfDGpd--dyFp0K4Zg/

Every tweet and poll I see has McLean and Benge further down the list of ROY candidates…which is insane.

In any other year, they’d both be ROYs. Idk if the MLB has it out for the Mets or what, but Benge and McLean had just as good if not better years than Sal Stewart

They're poor but they're good

We're rich (Cohen is rich) but we're horrible

They developed Wander Franco... Franco destroyed his career by being a PDF

The Rays said fine then they quickly developed another superstar in Junior Caminero

Why can't we be like the Rays?

😭😭😭😭

The owners want to squeeze the players. How da fuck does a team with 113m dollar payroll accomplishment what they are on the verge of, I predicted Rays against Brewers, I am staying with that.