Recently I turned to my friends in the Mets blogosphere and asked them the following question:
Was it better to spend $87.25 million for seven years of Chris Young, Curtis Granderson and Bartolo Colon or would you have rather have spent more to get in the Shin-Soo Choo/Jacoby Ellsbury bracket?
These people all do great work and their names are hyperlinked to their blogs so please go ahead and click on them to check out their real stuff.
Michael Geus – Thinks the Abominable Snowman gets a bad rap
Given the overall money spent I would have passed on both Colon and Young. Especially Colon. We keep hearing that we have all these great young pitchers and that there are no impact offensive players in our system, yet we blew a lot of our 2013 and 2014 budget on a 41 year old pitcher. I would have used any spending on offensive players. Neither Choo or Ellsbury did it for me, the guy I wanted was Jose Abreu. There was room for both Jose and Granderson. After signing Jose I would have non-tendered Davis and dumped Duda, which would have freed up money to address the bullpen.
But I rather this than standing still another winter. Signing guys is a risk, we will see what happens, but at least we participated in the process. I’ll take it.
John Coppinger – Believes Jim Carrey’s Grinch movie is extremely underrated
First off, for me it’s the Choo Bracket. If Ellsbury stays healthy for four of those seven years in the Bronx I’ll be impressed.
I don’t mind spreading the money around, even considering how much I like Shin Soo Choo. I might have done it a little differently. Granderson is fine if he re-learns how to spray the ball. I’m not in love with the Colon signing but understand that to get a pitcher in this market, you had to overpay in years. And it doesn’t make sense for the Mets to go three years on anybody with Harvey returning, Syndergaard coming, and Montero on the horizon. So Colon it is, unfortunately. I just wonder if you couldn’t have taken the money given to Colon and go hard after Billy Butler in a trade (same money), then worry about trading Davis and Duda later, and go internal on your fourth starter. Then, instead of Chris Young, make a trade for Craig Gentry and beat Billy Beane to the punch.
That said, I don’t think they’re done, and hope another stick … whether it be at first base or shortstop, is on the horizon. If that happens, I’ll be okay with the winter.
Paul Festa – Hopes this year’s holiday party rocks like the one in Peanuts
The Mets had (and still have) multiple needs. I really like Choo and Ellsbury, but that would have only filled the need for an outfielder and leadoff man. There would still be a need for power (the role Granderson ostensibly fills), a veteran starting pitcher (Colon), a shortstop, and whatever need Chris Young fills (perhaps a right-handed bat with pop ala Scott Hairston/Marlon Byrd).
The Mets still have a need at shortstop and more than one hole to fill in the bullpen. If the Mets were able to afford a Choo or an Ellsbury and fill those other needs, then fine. Their payroll would also be (rough guess) about $500 million, so it wouldn’t be practical.
I think they made the right strategy decision by picking up several lower-priced players. Which is essentially the Red Sox model from last offseason.
Mack Ade – Moved to SC so he could play Heat Miser after fears of being typecast as Snow Miser
I would stay with what Sandy has done so far this year. The Mets had a lot of holes to fill and the additions of Granderson, Young, and Colon (for better or worse) filled three of them.
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My preference would have been to grab Choo but if reports are correct that he turned down 7/$140 from the Yankees then that was never a realistic option. The Mets have spent more money this season than I expected and each of the three additions is a defensible choice. It will be interesting to see if Alderson hits on all three in 2014. Now all he needs to do is go out and flip Wilmer Flores for Chris Owings and it will be a successful offseason.
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Thanks to Michael, John, Paul and Mack for participating in this holiday edition of the roundtable!
I don’t mind What they did so far except for Young. I don’t get that at all. I think they need to move one of Davis or Murphy with a couple of the Good prospects like deGrom, Montero and maybe Den Dekker for a guy like Bautista or Kemp. That would make me feel a lot better about the lineup. They have other younger pitchers coming along to fill those holes and with a 2015 rotation of Harvey, Wheeler, Neise, Gee and Syndergaard not to mention Colon, where are all these pitchers going to go? Get something that really helps the team in terms of power from dealing from organizational strength.
I agree that Alderson is standing still with his young pitchers, but we are assuming that no one in the rotation gets hurt. What if Neise and Colon go down, and we need Montero and Syndergaard up early just to put together a rotation. I’d rather those guys get their shot than us going out and getting Matsuzaka again. I like the Granderson signing, and don’t mind Colon, but Young is a medium-risk, medium-reward kind of guy for me, with the money he got pushing him into high-risk territory. I like the Jose Abreu idea a lot, though.
I think Sandy has something left up his sleeve. He has been stubborn in negotiating trades, and it has paid off in getting good returns. I think he’ll flip Ike for alot more than Mets fans are predicting.
Ike wont get much because other people know he is a high risk trade. Lets see, he was sent to AAA to work out his struggling place approach only to return and not hit home runs. Its one thing to be dealing Beltran or Dickey with proven star creds. If Ike was high demand, he’d be gone. I think it just as likely he gets cut for the 600k we can dump him for.
I dont get the CY contract at all. Its for waay too much and for too short to mean anything, but he clearly has to play at that salary. If starting EY Jr means benching Lagares, a possible long-term answer to the center field question then I shall remain highly perplexed. Is EY Jr speed that much better than the defense posted by Lagares in a critical position? Not to me. The CY signing means there is a lot unnecessary bench sitting for people that need to be out there every day.
Meanwhile shorstop (and 1B) remains a complete hot mess.
Metsense – Who thought the Polar Express was going to deliver the Mets a Choo-Choo
It wasn’t the money for Ellsbury and Choo, it was the years that turned me off.
C Young was a signing that didn’t thrill me because as a RF he wouldn’t be above average but the signing of Granderson and his above average production in LF balanced out the OF production and with three center fielders in the outfield Citi Field just got a lot smaller.
Spending $10M on Colon when the obvious need was at SS and the offense is someting I can’t get on board with. Tejada and Lagares in the starting lineup is too deep a hole especially with a new unproven catcher, a first baseman that spent
Some of the year in the minors, a new RF trying to bounce back and a LF who had an injury plagued season in 2013.
I am glad money was spent to make the team more competitive but I don’t think it was spent as wisely as possible.
I am not sure how so many people are against the Colon signing. We only had 3 starting pitchers that you knew you could pencil in for 2014 (Niese, Wheeler & Gee), 2 of which have been injured for significant stretches of the past two years and one of which will likely be on an innings limit that may not allow him to pitch a full season in 2014, Wheeler. While I have high hopes for Meijia, I don’t think you can count on him as a dependable starter and there is no way he will be allowed to throw a full season of innings if he is healthy. Thor, Montero and DeGrom are great prospects but all will be on innings limits this year. Colon was the highest level short term answer to our starting rotation and I am glad it is a 2 year deal. There is no assurance Harvey is ready or the same pitcher when 2015 opens and all of these young pitchers need some mentoring or someone to emulate. Niese isn’t that guy yet.
The Chris Young signing was the head scratcher to me. If you want to take the bet he is a turnaround candidate, you need to have control for more than one year to get value. Granderson was the best bet/fit for the money and years of the major outfielders and I wanted no part of Nelson Cruz; we will see if he plays out well. For me, a Granderson, Colon and a trade for someone like Aoki, would have been what I could have asked for if we add a legitimate additional back of the bullpen pitcher. I am okay with Tejada at SS if he is in better shape and motivated, not that I would mind an upgrade, as there is strong basis to believe he can be a league average starter based on all of his past, sans last year.
“Go hard after Billy Butler?” Billy Butler is a DH. He’s a full-time DH at 27 years old. He was moved to full time DH three years ago and for very good reasons. Clearly you have never seen him play defense. The Mets need a DH like a fish needs a bicycle.