New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon has been appointed as the new head of Major League Baseball’s finance committee, a questionable move considering the owner’s struggles with his personal and team’s finances, a report said.
Wilpon hasn’t exactly been a great example of how to handle one’s finances. He lost over $700 million in Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. He also showed people how to keep players on a payroll for 50 years by deferring their contracts, as he did when signing Bobby Bonilla to a 1999 contract that will pay him until 2035 at a rate of almost $1.2 million per year. Many current Mets players don’t make that much, Fansided.com said. Bonilla retired in 2001.
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Deadspin, which published the original report, thinks Manfred really just appointed Wilpon to the post because it’s a “nothing” position out of the spotlight, but did so out of gratitude for all his contributions, the website said.
Wilpon is a friend of outgoing commissioner Bud Selig, and incoming commissioner Rob Manfred is close to Selig’, so the move is not surprising. Now he could very well make the league inept, as he did for the Mets, and nothing could ever be said about it, the report said.
Maybe in a sense it is a smart move on MLB’s part. This way, they have a fall guy if things go south fast, but the way Wilpon has managed his finances in the past makes you wonder just how fast things will go bad, the website said.
Wilpon has been with the Mets in some capacity since 1980, so if things don’t go the way they should, it could be difficult to replace him. Owners can do pretty much what they want and since Wilpon will now have the role within MLB there may be a huge increase in ticket prices soon, the report said.
