That may be a bit of any overstatement, but Mets fans will disagree. Matt Harvey will meet with Dr. James Andrews on Monday, in order to determine if his elbow will require Tommy John surgery. If the surgery is needed, Harvey would miss the entire 2014 season.
Harvey missing an entire season, when everything seemed to be looking up, would deal a huge blow to a fan-base and to “The Plan” that Sandy Alderson was supposed to enact this offseason. According to Alderson, that plan hasn’t changed but that is without the full story on the extent of Harvey’s injury.
So, for a fan base and a team that has been on eggshells since the announcement about Harvey’s injury, Monday can’t come soon enough. The sooner that a decision can be made, the better it is for the team. Now being without Harvey for next year would completely alter the decision making process Alderson would need to make this offseason. Money that was going to go to re-tooling this lineup might need to be invested in a veteran starter for the back end of the rotation. Any pitching prospects that were rumored to be available in return for a big bat might be a little harder to trade.
But the Mets have one thing going for them and that is the depth of the pitching in the system. A popular phrase in baseball is “You can never have enough pitching” and that is so true in this situation. Having guys like Rafael Montero and Noah Syndergaard in the minors can help fill the giant hole that would be there.
Alderson is a creative GM and knows how to make it work. 2014 can still be a year where the Mets take that next step and spend money on the lineup. This shouldn’t be a reason to call off spending money. It just means Alderson needs to get more creative in the way he does it.
By having this question mark hovering over the future of the Mets, it hinders Alderson’s ability to gauge what type of moves he has to make. Knowing this front office, they have two plans ready: one for the team with Harvey in 2014 and one with the team not having Harvey in 2014.
All this does is complicate and already complicated off-season. But, hopefully after Monday this nightmare that fans have can at least have some sort of ending. Either way Monday is the day that the cogs get going and Alderson has begins to work his magic for 2014. Hang on folks, the offseason just got a lot bumpier.
“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”
― Dwight D. Eisenhower
Brett Gardner, Asdrubal Cabrera, Chase Headley, Hanley Ramirez, Pablo Sandoval, Colby Rasmus.
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2013/09/top-34-free-agent-starters.html
I will take a different approach and say that the Mets should stay on the course for this offseason. The first line of names are the best free agents available after the 2014 season. Exciting, huh? So to not spend on hitting but go after pitching, is not worth it down the road. The Mets are not winning the World Series next year, so let’s just see improvement, ok? Passing on a good bat this year will make it harder to get one the next year when Harvey, Wheeler, Syndergaard, Montero, Niese, Gee, Hefner, Gorski, deGrom, etc, are all available for the rotation, but what if the bats are short?
The second line are the available free agent pitchers this winter. There are plenty of mediocre pitchers, and so is Aaron Harang, pitching tomorrow. I would just get one of these mediocre pitchers, but keep the plan hitting wise because missing an opportunity now will show up now and later.
Love the Ike quote …. The Harvey injury might make the team even less desirable to an impact bat. The Mets might just be used to drive FA contract prices higher.
Three years after being hired and Sandy Alderson will finally have some money to implement his “plan”.
The farm system has been improved with solid pitching to the point that there should be more starters than rotation spots. Of course it will mean some very young, inexperienced pitchers in the 3-5 spots but wasn’t young pitching the “plan” ?
If the Mets get a protected draft pick then it will be time to go all in and sign” two ” qualified free agents. It may be there only opportunity in the years to come to do this. Choo, Ellsbury or Pence and yes we are talking 15M plus and at least 5 years.
Free agency over trades this winter, because the opportunity exists and the money should be there and the farm system does not have that caliber of outfielder.
It’s gonna be an interesting off-season, to say the least. I don’t buy that the Harvey injury alters Alderson’s ultimate plan all that much. I mean, at the worst (hopefully) he will be back in 2015. That may delay the team from being competitive until 2015 instead of 2014, but that shouldn’t alter the overall plan. Harvey hasn’t disappeared. He’s still there. Alderson should enter the off-season with that in mind. If he had planned on trading some pitching depth for a big time bat before the Harvey injury, he should still do that. If he holds back now he (and we) may regret it in 2015 when Harvey IS back.
Dr.Andrews is everywhere!! He was on MNF next to Shanahan during the game the other night