Mets’ Owner Wilpon Calls Team Stars Overrated, New Yorker Magazine Says

New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon said the team overpaid for outfielder Carlos Beltran and called third baseman David Wright “a very good player. Not a superstar,” according to an article in the New Yorker magazine.

Wilpon also said that Mets shortstop Jose Reyes won’t succeed in getting “Carl Crawford money” on the Major League Baseball free-agent market, referring to the seven-year, $142 million contract the outfielder signed with the Boston Red Sox this year.

The Mets paid Beltran $119 million over seven years in 2005 after he led the Houston Astros to a World Series berth. He’s been plagued by injuries during his time in New York.

“We had some schmuck in New York who paid him based on that one series,” Wilpon told the magazine in the article, which appears in the May 30 issue. “He’s 65 to 70 percent of what he was.”

The Mets are 22-24 and six games behind the division- leading Philadelphia Phillies in the National League East. They haven’t reached the postseason since 2006.

To contact the reporter on this story: Larry Siddons in New York at lsiddons@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net.