The Mets have been a laughingstock for a few years now. Going back to their 2006 loss in the NLCS to the St. Louis Cardinals and epic 2007 collapse in the NL East race, to the more recent off-the-field embarrassments with Omar Minaya, Tony Bernazard, and of course Bernie Madoff, this isn’t the brightest spot in Mets history. But today is a new low.
In an interview with the New Yorker, owner Fred Wilpon took several shots at his players, his players. Of Jose Reyes, he said, “He’s had everything wrong with him.” Of Carlos Beltran, “He’s 65-70% of what he was.” And finally, of poor hardworking David Wright, whose production has dipped in the cavernous Citi Field, “A very good player. Not a superstar.”
Obviously, this is stupid for many reasons. Wilpon is antagonizing an injury-plagued roster that just managed to get back to .500. He’s also belittling the fans who are shelling out their hard-earned money to see a team that the owner doesn’t think is very good. At the same time, the worst thing is that he’s hurting the trade value of all these guys.
Or maybe Wilpon is a stupid like a fox. The big question of the impending Madoff lawsuit is whether he knew that his profits were ill begotten or if he was just an assclown who fell for the biggest Ponzi scheme in history. After this, nobody will believe he was smart enough to do his due diligence and figure things out. In the New Yorker piece, Madoff himself said about Mets management that “although I explained the Strategy [sic] to them they were not sophisticated enough to evaluate it properly.” Wilpon isn’t a crook; he’s a fool.
Rainman Suite 
Wilpon doesn’t hurt the trade value of these guys by his comments. Trade value is determined by the scouts that go to the games and watch these players play and then report back to their teams on what they see. If a scout is watching Jose Reyes perform at a high level, then he will report that back to the team he’s working for.