Zack Wheeler has made his first two starts for the New York Mets and now it seems as if the future all Mets’ fans have been waiting for is beginning to take shape.
All the big prospects that the Mets have been grooming and getting ready for the big leagues are now up in Flushing and starting to move this franchise back in a positive direction. While it is nice to see all this talk about prospects turn into actual results at Citi Field, this is still a long journey that requires patience.
To this point, fans have been told to just wait and watch Sandy Alderson do his thing, as he re-creates the Mets from the ground up. Behind the scenes, he has been doing that by trading Carlos Beltran and R.A. Dickey for big-time prospects like Zack Wheeler and Travis d’Arnuad. These players were a part of the “future” and would be in Flushing soon.
Well now, it’s the summer of 2013 and Sandy Alderson’s grand plan to rebuild the Mets is taking shape and doing so quickly. Both Matt Harvey and Zack Wheeler are pitching in the big leagues, Daniel Murphy is taking over at second base, David Wright is at his best and Bobby Parnell has emerged as the closer for this team going forward.
Alderson has finally been able to show Mets fans at the big league level what he has been working out, but this road is far from over. The lineup still needs to be revamped, big contracts need to come off the books and a winning mentality needs to be installed.
The trade deadline and the offseason are going to be huge in this process. Now that the prospects have been retooled and Alderson will have money to spend in the offseason, the next part of this process can happen. The Mets can now focus on making moves at the big league level, not in the minor league system.
This process is happening very quickly and soon the Mets will be contending with young pitching and a good lineup, but this isn’t going to be an easy process going forward. It still requires the fans be patience and not expect too much, too soon. The light is at the end of the tunnel and the personal making the decisions know that as well. Soon, the Mets will be competing for NL East titles year after year, while hopefully adding some World Series hardware as well. But for now, all that can be done is to be patient and hop on for the ride that is this rebuilding of the Mets.
Patience! For loyal met fans like myself, it will be worth the wait. I look at old videos that show met fans in the stands rooting for their team. I would love to be able to see if they still are loyal or do they make Chipper Jone’s comments a few years ago correct.That met fans are only Yankee fans in disguise. For me, the 2009 World Series was a nightmare. Being a diehard since 1967, I could never root for the Bronx Bombers. But living in Philly territory, I can’t stand the Phillies. And don’t get me started on the annoncers for either team. That is why when this crop of prospects mature, I will enjoy the next 10 to 15 years as the Met dynasty will take over
While we know Sandy doesn’t like free agency, he has to decide on either making a trade or signing a 4 star free agent to solve the outfield issues. I don’t see any current Met outfielder as being a full time impact starter. What we really need is a Michael Bourn type center fielder who can play above average defense and be a lead off hitter. Then you can platoon the kids on either side of him until one emerges and earns full time status.
I just hope we don’t goof things up and make a terrible deal that will undo half of what has taken this long to accomplish.