In 2010, the Mets finished under .500 for the second straight year and after the season ended, the Mets cut ties with their manager and general manager. In six seasons under the stewardship of Omar Minaya, the highlight was an NLCS appearance in 2006. At the time, Minaya’s legacy seemed to be “Los Mets” and the back-to-back late-season collapses. He was roasted by the fan base for neglecting the farm system to concentrate on the major league roster. The 2011 Baseball America MLB Organization Talent Rankings had the Mets at #20, mentioning impact talents Jenrry Mejia, Wilmer Flores– whom they said, “seems destined for the outfield” – and Cesar Puello.

Minaya was replaced by Sandy Alderson, who may or may not have been foisted on the team by the Commissioner’s Office. It now appears that Alderson’s tenure as GM is over, as he announced he is stepping away to focus on his battle with cancer. The highlight of his tenure was a World Series appearance as the front end of back-to-back playoff spots. But here in mid-2018, most of the fan base had grown tired of Alderson and his collection of older players with an emphasis on power over athleticism. It will be curious to see where BA ranks the Mets in their 2019 farm system analysis. Most pundits had the Mets in the bottom third of org rankings coming into the year but since then we’ve seen the rise of Peter Alonso, the bounce back of Justin Dunn and a return to health by Anthony Kay.

It’s important to know what was thought of the GM at the time of his departure and compare it to how he’s viewed 10 years later. Few were sorry to see Minaya go, thinking that he wasn’t good at either filling out a major league roster or assembling a strong farm system. For the minors, his saving grace was thought to be his collection of international free agents. Turns out his farm system was better than anyone thought and that’s because his draft picks came through. For the most part, his international guys were a dud. It was true that he couldn’t fill out a major league roster, though. And that was with a relatively larger budget than what his successor had to use.

Now we get to write the postmortem on Alderson. Shoot, most of you have already written yours. Well, here’s another to consider.

When the Mets hired Alderson, the thought was that it was going to be Moneyball with money and that didn’t work out on either end. He was going to bring a no-nonsense approach, molded by his Marine background. We didn’t get that, either. There was too much nonsense — from employing Terry Collins too long, to having a minor league system that didn’t adequately prepare guys for the majors, to having a huge number of injuries and seemingly doing nothing about them other than shrugging shoulders.

Alderson’s downfall is that it took him too long to make the necessary changes.

He eventually lobbied the owners to spend more money. He eventually fired the manager who didn’t agree with him philosophically, he eventually overhauled the medical staff, he eventually gave a shot to Brandon Nimmo. Shoot, his final first-round pick was even praised for his athleticism. Alderson got around to everything … eventually.

It didn’t happen fast enough to help his reputation among the masses. We have to hope that the changes he (finally) made will lead to better things down the road. Perhaps, eventually, fans will remember him fondly.

Hey, it happened with Minaya.

12 comments on “Wednesday catch-all thread (6/27/18)

  • Pete

    Who do you think will replace Sandy? I am referring to a permanent GM not just for now. Hard to disagree with what the author has highlighted in Sandy’s tenure here.

  • David Klein

    Well Fred Wilpon stopped Sandy from firing Terry numerous times Carig wrote extenstevely about it.

    I wish the media would stop talking to Backman He’s a bitter old fool who couldn’t get a job with a major league team if his life depended on it. Remember when he sat Nimmo a bunch back in late 2015 when Nimmo was moved up to AAA or when he sat Conforto vs lefties? I wonder if why the coaching staffs in the Mets system are so bad because they spend so little money on the coaches and development guys, Depo is missed.

    Saw some good articles on Alderson and by far the best was Martino, who has become a much better since leaving the Daily News. I loved the story on the email he got from Sandy. There were also bad articles by the usual gaggle of idiots lead by Ackert and some idiot name Efrain from the post mentioning bad contracts, you don’t kick a guy when he’s down guys.

    Gotta be worried with Omar and Jeff having so much power and the way Fred loves Omar don’t be shocked if he leapfrogs Ricco and takes over.

  • Mike Walczak

    I am sorry that Alderson is dealing with cancer again, but life is cruel.

    The man is 70 and with the performance of the team and organization, even without the illness, it was time for a change.

    I am sure he did his best, but for many reasons, it was not enough. All we can do is move forward from here.

    I was not a fan of Alderson, but I respect him. Thank you for your service as a marine in Vietnam.

    I do think we will see Familia and Cabrera go, and maybe Blevins. I don’t think we will see deGrom or Syndergaard go until the off season when we have a new GM.

    But who knows, maybe they make a huge splash and sign Machado and keep deGrom and Syndergaard.

    For better or worse, this is the start of some change.

    • Pete In Iowa

      It’s gonna take way more than Machado to turn this club around. Don’t get me wrong. I would love to have him, but if we were to go out and sign him alone, we would be just throwing away the money. We need way more than one really, really good player.

      • Mike Walczak

        Machado is just a piece of the puzzle. His value besides his performance is his age.

  • Pete

    If Wright does not play this year he should retired and move into the FO. Free up some salary. Move Bruce to first base to free up the logjam in the outfield. Re-address the bullpen. Can we please give up on the old timers?

    • David Klein

      Bruce would block Alonso and Smith at first base. If the Mets had ownership worth a damn they’d eat most of Bruce’s salary and trade him.

  • Pete

    I’m with you but then you need to add Vargas as well. At least it gives Bruce a chance to rebuild his value.

  • Chris F

    Wishing nothing but the very best for Sandy and his family during difficult times. I am thrilled the prognosis is so positive. But more importantly, Im sure he and his family are knowing they have a positive, albeit difficult, path ahead.

    Be strong Sandy.

  • TJ

    I echo the sentiments of Chris above and wish nothing but the best wishes and good health for Sandy. While not always agreeing with him, I have complete respect fr him professionally and as a person.

    His tenure is quite interesting, and assessing it is not easy given the ownership issues at the outset. Frankly, if the Mets were competitive in 2018 and the youngsters performing ok, a case could be made that he stabilized them through the lean financial years and set them up for sustained winning, While injuries are not an excuse, his tenure was really hurt by the Wright and Harvey injuries, which essentially changed everything for the franchise and really can’t be pinned on the GM.

    Looking forward, these are a crucial two months for the franchise. They have clearly been surpassed by several NL East teams, but they still have some big arms and a few pieces that can go either way. For me, I would listen on any player, but I would still look to hang on to the core starters – deGrom, Syndergaard, Matz, and Wheeler. I would look to deal any vet than is not controllable beyond 2018. They will clearly need to eat money on some of the 2018 free agent mistakes, whether in mid-season or year end deals. Alderson’s bullpens may have been his biggest weak link. If they can find a way to fix that while retaining the core 4 starters, and eat $20 million or so, they could find a way for a “micro-mini” rebuild, but the ownership will need to step up.

  • Mike Walczak

    Ouch Ouch Ouch – tough loss. Up 3-1 in the 9th and losing the game. Typical story for a 2018 game. At this pace, the Mets are on the road towards 100 losses.

    They have no trajectory except downward. Tough to watch this. But. We have to hope for change. It really can’t get any worse.

    They are going absolutely nowhere with Reyes, Bautista and Vargas. Time to suck it up and eat Vargas’ contract. Forward progress will be getting rid of these players.

    Too bad we couldn’t trade Bruce for a bag of ice and a bus ticket to Montgomery.

    Where in the world is Ces? I saw him on a new commercial. “Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up”.

    But no matter how ticked off I get, I still love the team.

    Hey, at least we are trending to get a good draft pick next June.

    These teams are killing me. Why do I have to be a Mets, Jets and Knicks fan.

  • Pete

    Because we love “our” teams but hate ownership. I care about all 3 teams as well. Some players our GM has signed are not to our liking but we still want them to succeed. It’s nostalgic but as you say it’s time to move on. Just trying to get a grip on how badly this team has played and how badly they’re set up for next year. Can we at least not see half of payroll on the DL? Between the bad signings, the walking wounded and arbitration hearings the Mets will be over 100 million in payroll. How can Tampa Bay with 1/3 the Mets payroll and playing in what’s probably the toughest division in baseball be near .500? I’ll bet you can’t even name 2 starters on that team. At the end of the day I will stiill root for our lovable horrible Mets.

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