Spending Again, Mets Lure Curtis Granderson Uli Seit for The New York Times Curtis Granderson will spend the next four years playing for the Mets. For three years with Sandy Alderson in charge, the Mets had made excuses for why they could not spend. A lot of money had been tied up in long-term contracts for Jason Bay and Johan Santana.The Bernard L. Madoff Ponzi scam had entangled the Mets and complicated things. The Mets" empty pockets had become one big running joke. This off-season, Alderson's fourth as general manager of the Mets, was supposed to end all of that. The Mets said they could spend again, and finally, spend they did. Alderson agreed to a four-year, $60 million contract with Curtis Granderson on Friday, according to a person in baseball with knowledge of the situation, easily making him the highest paid free agent he has signed in his tenure. On the surface, Granderson seems to be worth the money. He hit 84 home runs for the Yankees over the 2011 and 2012 seasons, before his 2013 season was limited to 61 games, marred by two freakish injuries, each one causedby being hit by a pitch. Granderson has rarely hit for a high average - his career mark is .261 - and he has a penchant for striking out, but his left-handed power should translate at Citi Field. He could bat cleanup for the Mets and give David Wright more protection in the batting order than he has had in recent seasons. Not to be overlooked, though, is that Granderson will turn 33 in March. Whether he will still be a productive player when the Mets are paying him a lot of money four years from now remains to be seen. But those are the sort of calculated risks all teams have to take when they spend money on an established free-agent player and, after years of barely spending any money at all, the Mets are finally taking that risk, too.