Manny Dollars and Cents

Manny is going to cost about $23M per season. Assuming the Mets get Perez for about $10M that would put the budget at somewhere in the $130-135M range. The target seems to be around $140-145M. Instead of looking at this year, lets jump ahead a year to 2010. The Mets will have Wagner $10.5, Delgado $12M, and Schneider $4.9M as the big tickets coming off the books, a total of $27.4M. Of course there are some contracts that will increase like Wright's and K-rod so add in about $10 cost of living increases. There is also that hole at catcher that will need to be filled, maybe pencil in another $5mil there. That leaves around $10-12M for shopping or to help pay Manny's salary. Murphy could go to first and at some point F-Mart has to become a regular OF so we should be able to fill holes. Not being a math wiz, I still do not see anyway to get Manny without the budget increasing into the $150-160M range. The question is what will Manny provide to the bottom line in terms of increased revenue. If his presence will add up to another $5-10M then he makes financial cents. I'm sure the Wilpons are thinking about that question, even without their baseball people bringing a Manny proposal to them.