Hmmm....What?!

Way to instill confidence, Sandy. Here's my take away from this article:

-The Marlins will probably sign Reyes for 5 years, 18-20M
-The Mets cannot offer Reyes anything near that money
-The clincher: when asked if the Mets' decreased payroll affects their ability to sign Reyes, "I wouldn't say that was necessarily the case," said Alderson. How very ambiguous of you.

Sandy Alderson doesn't seem like he's invested much, if any, energy in trying to court Reyes. In fact, to sum up the correspondence he's had with Reyes's agent, Alderson used the term "phone tag." I play phone tag with an old friend I know I'll be seeing for the holidays. Not a key free agent for whom I am supposedly doing all I can to re-sign. Well, not supposedly, but ?I think should be. And listen, I'm not saying that Alderson should offer whatever money is necessary to woo Reyes, but at least let the guy know you're interested.
Maybe now I'm just talking as a fan. But even if they know they couldn't go higher than, say 80 over 4 years, or even 80 over 5 whatever the number, the Mets should be aggressive at least with what resources they have. That way, at the end of the day, Mets fans can at least say "we did what we could." It's a lot better than "I left him like 3 messages."
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Oh, and did I mention this? I'm not sure if you could argue that Kemp and Reyes mean as much to their respective clubs as one another, but:
Both play key defensive positions; both are coming off career years; one is 27, the other 28; both are fan favorites.
Now, the Dodgers don't have an owner and they are somehow able to commit $160,000,000 to one player. Who is writing his checks? Spam, I realize you and I spoke of this earlier, but what the heck? Met ownership has less money than Dodgers ownership, who - if I may repeat myself - is undetermined!

But seriously, putting money aside, why do I get the feeling like the Mets are not at all motivated to go after Reyes? It just seems to me like Alderson should be more vocal; if he really feels like he's unable to go after Reyes, say so. If going after isn't the game plan for health concerns or any other strategic reason, it would be nice to know that management is at least following reason and not being guided by the wilponzis.

This is going to be a long off season, which may not quickly enough turn into a long season.
-Natron