This year has been a lot of fun for the Mets and their fans. Expectations were low coming into the season and the Mets have instead played like a team that has designs playing in the postseason. After what the team has been through the past three years, 2012 feels like a cool breeze on a 98 degree day.
But I think it’s important to remember that 2010 and 2011 were not uninterrupted seasons of stink. In 2010, the Mets were 11 games over .500 and had a stretch where they were 21-7. Last year after a dismal start, the team played at a .568 pace – 92 wins over 162 games – for more than half the season, before Francisco Rodriguez and Carlos Beltran were traded and Daniel Murphy went down with a season-ending injury.
It feels like some type of revisionist history has taken place, where after 2006 the Mets became chokers, got old and were terrible. And the team could no longer overcome the lack of talent accumulated by previous general manager Omar Minaya
I think the real story is they had some rotten luck, were overrun by injuries, suffered from poor long-range planning by Minaya and felt the effects of the Bernie Madoff scandal. The team always had the talent of a first-division club, until the second half of last year when Sandy Alderson traded off assets to better position the club financially.
The two main differences between 2012 and the 2009-2010 Mets are: A) a better manager and B) better health for the team’s top players.
Jerry Manuel, clearly, was the wrong guy in the wrong city. Terry Collins has exceeded everyone’s expectations and should get a big share of the credit for keeping things together in 2011 despite the numerous potholes. While he lost the clubhouse in previous big league managerial stints, Collins now appears to be a strong leader. It’s proof that you can teach an old dog new tricks.
More importantly, the top shelf talent has stayed on the field. We can argue about who the team’s five best players are in 2012. But the fact that R.A. Dickey, Johan Santana and David Wright have all stayed healthy (knock on wood) has been huge. Make no mistake, the Mets have suffered their fair share of injuries this year. But instead of Beltran, Carlos Delgado, Jose Reyes, Santana and Wright on the shelf, it has been Jason Bay, Mike Pelfrey, Ruben Tejada, Josh Thole and Andres Torres.
Not only have the top players stayed healthy, there have been reasonable replacements for the second-tier players who have hit the DL. In 2009 when Reyes and Alex Cora went down, the Mets had to go outside the system to get an MLB-quality shortstop in Wilson Valdez. This year Tejada went down so they plugged in Ronny Cedeno. Then when Cedeno went down they plugged in Justin Turner. When Turner went down they plugged in Omar Quintanilla. The veteran Quintanilla is now too valuable to send down, as the Mets fear he would be lost if they exposed him to other clubs.
Some felt like depth was going to be an issue for the Mets this year but instead depth has proven to be an asset. And the two main reasons for that is the talent acquired by Minaya and better long-range planning by Alderson.
Much was made earlier this year when the Mets trotted out an entirely homegrown lineup. Minaya was responsible for getting those players, being the GM when all the players were acquired except Wright, when he was the assistant GM.
With his hands tied due to the uncertainty about how the Madoff scandal would play out, Alderson has been limited to filling in at the margins. But he gets credit for Mike Baxter, Frank Francisco, Scott Hairston, Quintanilla and Chris Young – who have all contributed to the team’s success in 2012. With the exception of Francisco, none were acquired to play key roles on Opening Day in 2012.
Soon we will get to see Alderson play a bigger role, as it’s likely the team will be buyers at the trade deadline. We saw the Mets’ GM hit a homer last year as a seller at the deadline, getting a top pitching prospect for a two-month Beltran rental. Will he do as well picking up someone, likely a reliever, to help immediately? Just as important, will he hold onto the right prospect(s) while putting the finishing touches on this year’s team?
So, enjoy the second half of 2012. But let’s not pretend that it could not have been this enjoyable the past few seasons, either, with better luck with injuries to the team’s top players. Alderson will be responsible for making the moves to get the Mets over the hump and into the playoffs. But the main reason for the 2012 success will be the talent assembled by Minaya.
For a long time Minaya had a reputation as a good talent evaluator. He was not well-suited for the role of GM in NYC—too many things to tend to. It would seem that Alderson is a much better executive. He would not put up with rogue asst. GM or a non-talented owner’s son meddler. He has surrounded himself with solid baseball people. Yet, the finding of young talent and the nurturing of them until they are ready for the big show is a tricky enterprise. Ultimately, Alderson will be judged by what happens in 2012-2015 or thereabouts. Hopefully he will be successful.
Many of the guys who have made it up here are really just bookmarks or will be downgraded into platoon, backup or utility roles.
Duda and Kirk should be platooned with RH hitters. Murphy and Valdespin utility guys, Gee a spot starter/long man, Thole a backup and Davis might need some help against LHP as well.
Niese, Tejada and Parnell are Minaya’s only solid successes so far but his story is far from complete. Position players like den Dekker, Flores, Marte, Havens, Campbell, Pena, Tovar, Forsythe, Cecciliani, Vaughn and pitchers like Harvey, Mejia, Familia, Gorski, Edgin, Armando Rodriguez, Carson, Edwin Ramirez, German Gonzalez, Tapia, Morris and Urbina all have the chance to significantly add to his legacy and at the very least will provide tons of depth. Omar got really unlucky with Sean Ratliff as well.
Alderson’s moves have all been about the future in Adrian Rosario, Mateo, Nimmo, Evans, Muno, Cecchinni, Plawicki, Nido, Wheeler, Leathersich, Verrett, Fulmer, Mazzoni, and Jose Garcia ect but Cedeno, Quinitanilla, Baxter, Hairston, and Young as well as the resigning of Niese and Dickey have been real good moves while he straightens out the roster and payroll situations and gives the young guys a shot and thereby increases his chances to make some well conceived trades and get decent play from guys we didn’t have to spend early round draft choices on.
Good job by Minaya in obtaining some useful players and some potentially really good ones and good job by Alderson in using what he inherited while sorting out the payroll and roster situations and adding to the farm with some very solid more all around type players.
Good article crediting Minaya.
I personally think that Alderson has been getting WAY too much credit for the success this met team has achieved. In reality, we probably won’t see the fruits of Alderson’s work at the earliest 1.5-2 years down the line.