Wilpon_harryJust chillin' with Prince Harry

Oh my.

As if it couldn’t get any worse for the New York Metropolitans, broke owner Fred Wilpon took swipes at his best players in a lengthy New Yorker article.

The Mets find themselves in their current predicament mostly because of Wilpon’s horrid business dealings, which have forced the Mets to seek investors. Now, Wilpon may be wise to sell the entire team. Even though most of this is accurate, these are not the sorts of things an owner should say – at least publicly – about his players… but it's damn fun to watch.

Sit back, grab some popcorn, and enjoy:

On David Wright:

After the catcher, Josh Thole, struck out, David Wright came to the plate. Wright, the team’s marquee attraction, has started the season dreadfully at the plate. “He’s pressing,” Wilpon said. “A really good kid. A very good player. Not a superstar.” 

 

Perhaps he’s right, but they’re rather sharp words to say to the press about arguably the team’s best player.

On Jose Reyes:

In the game against the Astros, Jose Reyes, leading off for the Mets, singled sharply up the middle, then stole second. “He’s a racehorse,” Wilpon said. When Reyes started with the Mets, in 2003, just before his twentieth birthday, he was pegged as a future star. Injuries have limited him to a more pedestrian career, though he’s off to a good start this season. “He thinks he’s going to get Carl Crawford money,” Wilpon said, referring to the Red Sox’ signing of the former Tampa Bay player to a seven-year, $142-million contract. “He’s had everything wrong with him,” Wilpon said of Reyes. “He won’t get it.”

 

Oh, the horror.

On Carlos Beltran:

When Carlos Beltran came up, I mentioned his prodigious post-season with the Astros in 2004, when he hit eight home runs, just before he went to the Mets as a free agent. Wilpon laughed, not happily. “We had some schmuck in New York who paid him based on that one series,” he said, referring to himself. In the course of playing out his seven-year, $119-million contract with the Mets, Beltran, too, has been hobbled by injuries. “He’s sixty-five to seventy per cent of what he was.” Beltran singled, loading the bases with one out.

 

UPDATE: David Wright responds with a subtle slap via ESPN New York

"Fred is a good man and is obviously going through some difficult times. There is nothing more productive that I can say at this time."

 

The Amazin’ Mets, folks- America’s car accident.