All We Need Is Just a Little Patience

As SNY’s Ted Berg has been beating the drum of patience this off-season, I thought I’d chime in with a different take. By and large, I agree with Ted, particularly since the early off-season moves weren’t exactly viable (pretty sure the Phillies won’t be trading their best pitcher to the Mets anytime soon) or reasonable (The Brewers deciding to turn Randy Wolf into Jeff Suppan 2.0). But as January approaches, Mets fans are still waiting for Omar to make a move, and I’m beginning to worry that Omar’s restraint will cost the Mets more than a shot at Javier Vazquez. By refusing to make a move that could be perceived as foolish (although one could argue that offering any multi-year contract to Bengie Molina is dumb in and of itself, but whatever), Omar has managed to further anger an already infuriated fanbase, and that has serious financial implications. The Times has reported that the new Mets “retro” jerseys aren’t exactly flying off the shelves, and an informal poll conducted by Caryn of Metsgrrl.com showed many season-ticket holders are not renewing. This means that there are fewer people buying merch and fewer people are committing to showing up to games, which presumably means that there will be fewer concession sales, luxury suite rentals, and ridiculous parking lot income. This also means that the Mets will be operating with a lot less cash-on-hand this year in the slower winter months than they have in the past. I don’t think it’s not too much of a stretch to think that the expected loss of revenue will affect all aspects of the Mets, including the amount they can spend on free agents So to paraphrase Peter Arnett, Omar may be destroying the Mets’ budget in order to save it.