It is no secret that Sandy Alderson has failed Mets fans as their General Manager to this point. Sure, he brought in prospects and lowered the payroll, but throughout the Alderson Era, the Mets are yet to finish a season with a .500+ record. When he took his place as Mets’ General Manager in 2010, he promised Mets fans that he had a three-year plan, and he would get the team to the playoffs. But now it is almost 2014 and, going into the offseason, the Mets still seemed at least three years away from contending. With Matt Harvey out, no legit shortstop, and both first basemen in a yearlong slump, the playoff picture seemed out of reach for New Yorks’ second favorite baseball team. But now, Alderson has finally begun to put a winning team on the field. Why is he doing it? The answer is simple.
In 2010, Sandy Alderson signed a four-year deal, with a club option for a fifth year. In his first press conference, he said that he was going to establish a three-year plan, along with a division title on the way. However, here we are, almost in 2014, and the Mets have been the laughing stock of New York. But why does all this matter? It matters because of Alderson’s club option for the 2015 season.
So far, Alderson has been sitting back in his chair, and watching the Mets lose, knowing that he will definitely be back next season. But now, he looks at his roster and sees the jeopardy he is in. He knows that 2014 could very well be his last year as the New York Mets’ General Manager, so he needs to try and avoid that. Being human, he does not want to be out of a job, especially one as big as this one, so he needs to put a winning team on the field.
Up until now, the biggest offseason move Sandy Alderson has made was signing David Wright to an eight-year extension. However, this was not even a free agent signing. All Alderson did was push some cash towards David Wright, because he understood what Wright means to the Mets. Though, for all of us fans, we do not even know if it was a good signing or not, because Wrights extension does not kick in until the 2014 season. But now, Alderson has gone out and signed Curtis Granderson, Bartolo Colon, met with Robinson Cano’s agent, and expressed interest in players such as Stephen Drew, Shin-Soo Choo, Bronson Arroyo, and other free agents.
By now, I believe the jury is out that Sandy Alderson is a sketchy General Manager. Up until this offseason, Alderson did absolutely nothing to help the team win. He traded Carlos Beltran and R.A. Dickey, he did not bother to go after Jose Reyes, and he has failed to fill the void at both first base and shortstop. Finally, Alderson has dove into the free agent market, and he has signed players such as Granderson and Colon. He is not doing all this to be a good General Manager for the Mets, but so the Wilpons will want to pick up his option for 2015. In fact, I guarantee that the minute the Mets pick up his option, Alderson will begin a fire sale and gain poorly ranked prospects in return.
***************************************************************************
What do you think of Sandy Alderson? Head over to the Mets 360 Forums and share!
***************************************************************************
This has to be satire, right?
I sincerely hope so. Otherwise this is a very cynical view not just of Alderson, but the owners, the team, the game, and perhaps just humanity in general.
It would make me happier to hear this was a satire piece.
This is not up to 360 standards. Very embarrassing. Very awful. Misspelled player names, and unbelievably inaccurate on many levels. Wow.
Dan, Sandy has not been doing much because he is simply a glorified GM. There was no excuse to not get a least 1 player who could help during his first 3 years. Instead he did not extend Reyes and traded Beltran and Dickey without replacing their combined contributions which is why the team has been so bad lately.
In the time that it has taken Sandy to get rid of payroll, the Marlins build a WS Championship quality team, traded just about everyone for prospects and started to build another WS quality team from the prospects they got in return. Not only that, but they are further along than the Mets at this point. All that without getting rid of the marquee player Stanton.
The 3 Stooges have done some smart trades for pitching prospects so lets give them credit for that but where are the position players that they have picked up that are ready to contribute in 2014? Nimmo? Smith? those guys are years away. The only one is d’Arnaud and that is still to be seem.
I hope Joe Vasile is right and this piece is an attempt at satire. Any evaluation of Sandy Alderson that does not place his tenure within the context of the Wilpon fiasco is incomplete. We probably won’t ever know how the Wilpons have misled or tied Alderson’s hands. Sandy took this job at the behest of Bud Selig. The Commissioner looks after those he believes are loyal to him and the Wilpons have met his desires. If Bud retires in 2014, as he has said, Sandy will either replace him or move on to something else. He probably won’t put up with li’l jeffie one minute more than he has to.
Alderson may yet get a failing mark as the Mets GM, but let’s wait until he leaves and evaluate him based on the totality of his work and the environment created by the Wilpons.
I honestly doubt a fire-sale is in place for this team, in a lot of ways he has failed as GM so far but he is not going to dismantle something he put together.
This article is negative and unintelligent. Terrible.
You cannot blame Harvey injury on Sandy. You cannot blame Ike going from promising young 1B to trash overnight on a Sandy. You cannot blame Wilpons being too broke to resign Reyes on a Sandy. I’ve read multiple places that Wilpons pushed D Wright deal on Sandy. I realize last 2 seem to contradict each other but they do not. Wilpons realize they do not have funds to field winning team for foreseeable future so they need someone to draw fans to ballpark.
I do not expect him back as Mets GM in 2015. I expect he will be new MLB commissioner. I’m not saying he’s done a great job last three years but the things this article tries to pin on him are ridiculous. You want to rail on Sandy, talk about Carrasco, Francisco, Marcum, etc.
Dan! I guess SA is not on your Christmas list! Was Ned Colletti a bad GM in Los Angeles? The infusion of cash sure helped him didn’t it? Having your hands tied because the owner does not have the means to support a proper payroll is not the general managers fault. The GM can say he is interested in signing any free agent he chooses to speak about. It doesn’t mean it’s going to come to fruition. The meeting with Canos representatives was not initiated by SA. So what’s your point? You’re pissed off because the team keeps losing? Are you looking for a scapegoat? If you are, then that burden rest squarely on the shoulders of the Wilpons.
I believe we will look back at this post a year from now and laugh. There was plenty wrong with this franchise, above and beyond the won-lost record these last few years.
We had ownership facing a really perilous financial situation with a mountain of debt that will STILL take years to dig out from under. They had just discovered the clubhouse guy was selling everyone’s stuff. The towel boy was talking to investigators about steroid use. They had not seen much from the past few drafts. And those we did draft, were subject to shirt-off tirades from Tony Bernazard! The lobby of their new stadium was a museum for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Add in the fact they tied up ALL their available cash (professionally and personally – including completely wiping out all their friends, like Tim Teufel) with Bernie Madoff. I am certainly leaving many other interesting tidbits out, but these are a few of the ingredients for a Hollywood movie.
So, I repeat, a year from now, and five years from now, we will look back at this post and laugh.
Sandy Alderson has restored order to this organization.
1st things 1st. Reyes has yet to live up to the contract that Miami gave him.
What in his tenure as Mets GM indicates that Sandy will trade for poorly ranked prospects? When he was shopping Beltran, every expert claimed he would be lucky to get a B level prospect and he ended up getting the #1 pitching prospect in the sport. When he was shopping a 38 year old knuckleballer coming off his only above average season, we heard “don’t expect a big return”, yet looked what he was able to acquire. Even the Byrd/Buck deal has a chance of looking like a steal for us. When they announced a two year deal for Colon, the first thing I thought was “I can’t wait to see what Sandy gets for him in July”. What are you basing your “poorly ranked prospect” comment on? Certainly not history.
I expect Alderson to be the next commissioner after Selig retires also. We have gotten good prospects back for guys we have traded away mostly. I can’t wait to see our future 2nd baseman Herrera soon and don’t forget Black who has a chance to be our 8th inning guy or closer if Parnell has problems coming back.
He’s now a seasoned, tortured and scarred employee of Fred Wilpon. he learned that there is truth to the line “There ain’t no Coupe DeVille lying at the bottom of a Cracker Jack Box…” Who is responsible for this? For letting us BECOME the SECOND favorite team in NY; who’s business decision has had this franchise on the ropes for years…. Sandy can only spend the money he’s been sent. Refocus that anger; we know who the colossal failures have been!
Sandy Alderson contract expiring in 2014.
Tony La Russa now looking for a FO position.
I’m just sayin….