Larry Brown Sports

Mets owner Fred Wilpon gave one of the oddest interviews by a sports executive this side of David Kahn when he ripped into his own players and team. In his interview with The New Yorker, Wilpon took aim at Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, and David Wright. Oh yeah, he also called his team “sh***y” and “snakebitten” for good measure. I’m surprised he left franchise icons Tom Seaver, Keith Hernandez, Doc Gooden, and Darryl Strawberry off his hit list. Could he not find anything wrong with Mr. Met?

Anyway, if there’s anything worse than tearing your team to shreds while leaving nothing behind but the rotting carcass, it’s apologizing for your comments with phony excuses. Check that, it’s clearing things up over speakerphone, then apologizing with phony excuses.

Speaking on Friday, David Wright addressed Wilpon’s apology. “He called to say that he misspoke,” Wright said. “And that he appreciated the response and that he loves the team and the organization and he’d never do anything to try to embarrass us.”

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If you had a chance to read Mets owner Fred Wilpon’s comments about the current state of his team and players on Monday, you don’t need us to tell you the things he said were idiotic and ill-advised.  For starters, it probably isn’t a good idea to refer to your team as “sh***y” when you are the one who put it together and fans are paying huge money to attend games.  It also may have been best if Wilpon refrained from trashing his most highly-paid players, especially ones like Carlos Beltran who could shaft the team going forward.

Beltran is on the books for the Mets for one more season and owed $18.5 million.  The Mets have not gotten off to a good start (22-24) and thus far have looked like a team that would be sellers at the trade deadline.  Dealing Beltran would make the most sense considering he is in the final year of his deal and owed a ton of money, but the problem is Beltran has a full no-trade clause.

When asked about Wilpon’s comments, Beltran’s agent, Scott Boras, said that he wished things like this would be kept in-house but also reiterated the importance of the no-trade clause. “No doubt,” he said. “It was a primary point that he wanted to make sure he got to stay in one place with his family as long as he could.”

Check and mate.  As ESPN’s Adam Rubin pointed out, Beltran could make life very difficult for the Mets if and when they are looking to trade him.  He could refuse to go to certain teams that are offering the best deal simply because they are not playoff contenders.  He could also refuse to be traded to a team that has no interest in extending him.  Whether or not Beltran is interested in sticking it to New York after hearing Wilpon’s comments remains to be seen.  The only thing that matters is he can if he so chooses.

The following is not a Saturday night live skit. We promise. This is the real deal. An April Fool’s joke in late May really makes no sense, so there goes that possibility. New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon is just that fed up with his team’s lack of success, and he apparently doesn’t care much for his individual players, either.

The Big Lead passed along an epic interview from The New Yorker in which Wilpon completely tools on his own team, even calling them a “sh***y team” at one point.  Allow us to summarize the most entertaining moments for you.

For starters, Wilpon has no intention of keeping Jose Reyes around next season, so he might as well pack his bags now.  In fact, I wouldn’t blame Reyes for not giving it 100% this year.  Here are Wilpon’s thoughts on Reyes:

“He’s a racehorse. He thinks he’s going to get Carl Crawford money. He’s had everything wrong with him. He won’t get it.”

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