In January of 2019, New York Mets owner Jeff Wilpon made a statement that has stuck with me since. When asked if the team would pursue free agents Bryce Harper and Manny Machado, Wilpon said, “I don’t know how many teams have two $30 million players.”
This was a passive-aggressive way to suggest the Mets were already paying Yoenis Cespedes a large sum of money—a few million less than $30 million—so why would they go after another when no other team does?
Maybe Wilpon’s “I don’t know” was literal.