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Mets Hot Stove: Neil Walker on the 2016 season and his trade to the Mets

By agreeing to pay at least $25 million to Yoenis Cespedes for 2016, Sandy Alderson essentially pushed his team's spending back to where it was before he joined the franchise in 2011.

Similarly, for the first time since Alderson took control, the Mets will spend more on players than the average team and along the same lines as the Cardinals, Rangers, Nationals and Cubs...

The funny thing is, he's been telling us for years that this is what he was going to do...

In 2011, one year after he'd been hired, and after cutting the team's payroll from $142 million to $95 million, I had the following conversation with Alderson about his budget and spending strategy.