Mets' Wilpon Says Only '3 Or 4' Players On Solid Footing
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- It sounds like plenty of Mets will be on the hot-stove hot seat.
Chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon says only a handful of players are on solid footing ahead of a potential offseason overhaul: starting pitchers Zack Wheeler, Jon Niese and Dillon Gee, and third baseman David Wright.
"That would be the three or four we're solidified on," Wilpon said during the team's Superstorm Sandy volunteer effort Tuesday at the Boys & Girls Club of Garfield, N.J., according to the New York Daily News.
Wilpon said the Mets are in "transition" heading into next season -- and there's no shortage of holes to fill. But one position that's overstocked is first base with Lucas Duda, Ike Davis and more in the farm system.
"There's probably a glut of first basemen. You can count five, if you wanted to," Wilpon said. "Something has got to happen there with the logjam. There's been some interest already. Where that interest goes and what that brings back, that you have to let play out a little bit."
Mets brass has insisted -- dating back to last year -- that there would be cash to splash if the right opportunity comes along. They'll have to prove it to the fans, who are still waiting for a spending spree now that everything has been settled with the Bernie Madoff mess.
This would be the time with some expiring contracts set to, well, expire.
"That's always been part of the plan, to use the money that was coming off the books to try and improve the team," Wilpon said, according to the Wall Street Journal. "I can't tell you exactly how it's going to happen."
Wilpon was also confident that ace Matt Harvey would return to his old self following Tommy John surgery.
"How quickly that happens, only somebody with a higher authority can tell you that," he said.
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