Off-Season Clues From The Mets: On New Fences And Hitting Coaches

The World Series ended last night, you may have heard. As soon as the ball settled into Pablo Sandoval’s glove near the third base coach’s box, we on the outside could detect an almost audible click: the Silly Season has begun. Free agency 2014-15 is exactly five-and-a-half hours old at this writing and I’m sure there are some Met fans already wondering why GM Sandy Alderson is “sitting on his hands.” This is the time when all manner of trade proposals and rumors will surface; we’ll hear about a Tweet from some national columnist, saying something about Alderson sending a young arm for an old(er) bat and we’ll all get giddy. The call-in shows will feature brilliant ideas like sending Ruben Tejada to Anaheim for Mike Trout, but only if the Angels kick in a shortstop prospect. And this is all two weeks before the GM Meetings begin – the annual precursor to the Winter Meetings, baseball’s pre-eminent trade show and swap meet, where the winners and losers of the off-season are declared. We fans have been told that this is supposed to be the Winter of the Mets. Actions of the past couple of weeks have led this fan to wonder, however.

First of all, as the MLB playoffs got under way, there was an almost daily update on the supposed parade of unemployed hitting coaches tromping into Sandy Alderson’s office. Lamar Johnson was no doubt discharged the day after the season ended, and the search began for a credible replacement. Old friend Dave Magadan’s name was mentioned prominently. Then, in the next breath we heard that he wouldn’t come back to Queens because he wants to go to a team of already-strong hitters – then what, exactly, would his job be? – and one which is ready for contention. The longtime Mets FO watcher could immediately take that to mean “He wants too much money.” That the Mets would be spurned by a candidate for a largely vestigial position speaks volumes about their stature and reputation in MLB circles. The man they eventually hired – Kevin Long, lately jettisoned by the Yankees – is widely respected, just not among Yankee fans. Your intrepid columnist heard the familiar horselaugh from Bronxian acolytes as soon as the announcement was made.

Next up was the tumult caused by owner Jeff Wilpon’s all-too-rapid quashing of any hopes that erstwhile Tampa Rays manager Joe Maddon might prowl the Citi Field home dugout. The fact that he would dismiss the idea out-of-hand speaks to either the aforementioned dollar-consciousness, blind loyalty to Terry Collins or an inkling that Maddon’s situation might already have been a foregone conclusion.

Finally, photos have surfaced of the right-centerfield wall at Citi Field being brought in. While there is debate on the relative merits of the move, one can’t help but wonder if this will hurt the Mets’ young pitchers more than help their hitters. Yes, the pitchers coming from Las Vegas might be used to dealing with an uncooperative ballpark or atmosphere, but they won’t be used to pitching to major league hitters while doing so. Couple the shrinking right field dimensions with Long’s hiring, it’s become clear that as a sub-plot to the Winter of the Mets, this will also be the Winter of Curtis Granderson. Moving the walls is most disagreeable in this corner, a maneuver the Mets will regret after their first series with the Nationals. Long ago, Bill James wrote – I’m paraphrasing — that tinkering with outfield distances and re-jiggering the field is nothing more than a gimmick, a loser’s gambit. The way to improve the offense is to hire better offensive players than the ones on hand. Monkeying with the fences and trumpeting new hitting coaches is mere window dressing.

It sounds like a bad omen for the rest of the Silly Season.

Follow me on Twitter @CharlieHangley.