(if this man confessed a few days earlier, the Mets might’ve signed Rich Garces instead of K-Rod)
New York Mets GM Omar Minaya has assured Newsday’s David Lennon the club will remain financially competitive, despite his employers being taken to the cleaners by former Nasdaq chairman / Ponzi schemester Bernard Madoff.
“Based upon what we’ve been told, they’re separate entities,” Minaya said, referring to the Mets and Sterling Equities, the real-estate firm co-founded by Mets CEO Fred Wilpon. “My understanding is the baseball team is totally separate from the other business. I’m expecting to proceed the way we were before.”
Sterling lost hundreds of millions of dollars in the scheme run by Bernard Madoff, a longtime friend of Fred Wilpon’s.
Minaya said he wasn’t aware of the Wilpons’ misfortune until news broke about it last Friday. He has spoken with the Wilpons, he said, and has been told he can go forward with his plans to re-shape the Mets.
“We’re talking to other clubs and agents right now,” Minaya said. The Mets want to add a high-end starting pitcher to replace Oliver Perez; that pitcher could be Perez himself.”We’re talking to other clubs and agents right now,” Minaya said. The Mets want to add a high-end starting pitcher to replace Oliver Perez; that pitcher could be Perez himself.
I am willing to take Minaya at his word regarding the club’s finances, but was deeply disturbed to see a game-worn Robinson Cancel jersey being sold for $35,000.00 at the Mets’ 42nd Street Clubhouse Store last week. However, a plastic bag containing Argenis Reyes’ dryer lint ($50) was a far more reasonable Xmas option in these trying times.