Long since the season started, conventional wisdom has indicated that there is a good chance Jose Reyes is either traded this season or the Mets let him walk once his contract expires this off-season. Furthermore, the possibility of a mid-season trade seems to increase as the Mets playoff chances decrease. 

Considering the Mets are off to an objectively poor start, Jose Reyes trade rumors seem inevitable. The more the Mets lose, the quicker they will come up. 

DISCLAIMER: I’m the first person to smack people on the back of the head when they are pesimistic, especially in April, and I am by no means saying because of the poor start the season is over. Because it’s not. I’m just addressing the fate of Jose Reyes, which is inevitably intertwined with early season successes/failures. 

The point of this post, is that if the Mets trade Jose Reyes, they better be blown off their feet with an offer. If they don’t trade him, they better resign him. 

The main question with keeping him comes down to: is it worth spending more than $15 million a year on a player like him?

The answer is probably not. At least for most teams in baseball. Yet, the Mets aren’t most teams in baseball. The Mets are one of the few teams in the sport that can afford to have a payroll of $140 million. The Mets are one of the few teams in the sport that are willing to have that sort of payroll.

It’s not that the Wilpons are cheap, it’s that they’ve hired personnel who spend the money poorly. The GM of the Rays, Andrew Friedman, couldn’t afford to resign Carl Crawford this off-season because of financial constraints, but I guarantee you if their owner gave Friedman another $80 million to spend annually, he would’ve figured out a way to keep Crawford. 

The thing about deciding whether or not to pony up for Reyes is that the team’s deficiencies won’t be solved by taking the money owed to him and using it to pay other free agents. What does $15 million get you in terms of starting pitching? A.J. Burnett, in a good year. 

The changes that the Mets need are structural in nature, not temporary and band-aid-like. It means fewer imprudent signings, and investing more money into scouting, young pitching, the draft and a deeper farm system. If a good trade for Reyes comes along that offers enough good, cheap talent that is impossible to refuse, the fan base’s personal affection towards Reyes, a homegrown talent, should only be taken into account minimally and should probably be accepted.

But trading him for not that much, just because they plan on letting him walk in the off-season would be silly. Just down right silly, because letting him walk would be a stupid way of enacting “change.” Jose Reyes is a luxury, but getting rid of him isn’t the solution to the Mets’ problems, because Jose Reyes is a luxury a high-payroll team can and should afford to have.