This was supposed to be a big offseason. The dead weight contracts were off the books, the young gun pitchers had arrived with more on the way, The Dark Knight was coming back, and the fans were getting restless. After four consecutive losing seasons on his watch, and four winters of shedding salary and stockpiling prospects, Sandy Alderson set this up to be the big offseason when the Mets would bring in the difference maker. Fans were clamoring for this team’s version of Gary Carter or Mike Piazza – and sports writers fed their enthusiasm with talk of slugging veteran outfielders and slick fielding shortstops.
Names bandied about included Troy Tulowitzki, Carlos Gonzales, Yoenis Cespedes, Melky Cabrera, Nelson Cruz, Alex Gordon, Nick Markakis, Starlin Castro, Hanley Ramirez, Jay Bruce, Jose Bautista, Alexei Ramirez, and many others. But it was all wishful thinking. Nothing materialized beyond the signing of one overrated, overpriced, broken down free agent in Michael Cuddyer. Alderson and his team of Ivy League-educated underlings failed to properly assess the trade market and failed to facilitate the big blockbuster we were all waiting for and counting on.
Alex Rodriguez just issued an instantly infamous hand-written note apologizing to his fans, the Yankees organization, Major League Baseball and anyone else who cares about the sport who might forgive a lying, cheating, egomaniacal, former superstar with questionable judgment. Perhaps Sandy Alderson should follow suit and issue his own hand-written apology to Mets fans for a very disappointing offseason.
Alderson Gets Our Hopes Up
While you can blame the bloggers, columnists and beat writers for setting expectations too high, Alderson himself said a few things at the end of last season that gave us all hope for a big offseason.
“”Without sounding evasive, we have to improve the team by 10 wins, 12 wins. There are a number of ways to do that. I don’t feel that we will necessarily be constrained by the payroll next year,” he told reporters after a September game. “We’re going to explore all of the options and see where it takes us.”
When the season ended, he shed more light on his offseason blueprint. “We’ll have some flexibility. We’ll be able to do some things. We just have to see what’s there,” he said.
In his typically diplomatic fashion, Alderson cautioned, “Improving a team isn’t always a function of just dollars spent.” However, he fueled our hope for a big offseason splash when he detailed his plans. “In addition to the young players that are coming through, we need to add maybe one or two veterans next year,” Alderson said. “We need more offense than we’ve had this year. There’ve been two or three players who didn’t produce the way we would’ve liked.”
In November, prior to GM meetings, Alderson ignited speculation about upgrading shortstop. “At this point we’re not looking for somebody who is strictly a defensive player,” Alderson said. “We’d like it to be somebody who is good on both ends. But right now we’re not l thinking about settling for somebody who is defense only.”
“We all know what’s available in the free-agent market. And there are a few teams that have middle infielders to trade,” Alderson said at the GM Meetings.
Back Pedaling
At the start of the winter meetings, Alderson had fans wringing their hands in excitement. “We’re comfortable that we’ll be doing something,” the GM said. “Things can happen quickly here.” Then he softened his stance a bit, adding, “But, at the same time, you look at the free-agent market — not a lot has happened on the pitching side. Some of that activity may have to take place before we’re able to really have serious discussions with anyone on a possible trade.”
After Arizona’s Didi Gregorious, one of the shortstops mentioned among Mets rumors, went to the Yankees, Alderson had some explaining to do. “We’ve looked at all the shortstop possibilities,” he said. “We knew Arizona was looking for young pitching. There’s some young pitching we weren’t prepared to trade, but I can’t say we had a lot of extensive conversations with Arizona.”
With top free agent shortstops Ramirez, Jimmy Rollins, and Jed Lowrie all off the board and trade targets either taken off the table or traded elsewhere, Alderson then suggested he might be looking at international players.
“There’s still lots of different possibilities — again, all weighed against what we have both as a front line at that position and as a backup at that position,” Alderson said. “It’s always difficult to gauge the potential impact of an international player. But there seem to be clubs willing to spend $60 million to $70 million to find out. We haven’t been in that category. I expect we will be in that category soon. ”
This also proved to be hooey as Takashi Toritani, Jung-Ho Kang and Joan Mocada all slipped off the Mets’ radar the second money was discussed.
By the end of winter meetings, Alderson switched up his strategy, or at least how he was presenting it. The Mets were no longer seeking a shortstop, but were now suddenly high on Wilmer Flores, who previously seemed like a fallback plan. They were no longer buyers, but sellers, looking to offload an extra pitcher to save salary.
Hesitant to trade any of their young , controllable pitchers that could fetch a quality player in return, Alderson instead focused on trading one of his veteran pitchers – Dillon Gee, Jon Niese or Bartolo Colon. He quickly found out there wasn’t much of a market for average pitchers with veteran salaries.
“I’ve refrained from making predictions, because you never know how these things are going to go,” Alderson said at the time. “There really wasn’t any point during the week that we felt we were going to do something. You always work toward something and we’ll continue to do that. We’ll see what develops over the next couple of weeks. It’s a long time between now and spring training.”
Then Alderson left us with our mouths agape when he all but admitted he misjudged the market. “We anticipated a crowded market. That’s what exists. It did exist at the beginning of the meetings. It continues to exist, really, with the bulk of the pitching.”
December Turns To January
Just before the holidays, Alderson indicated that trade conversations had hit “a post-winter-meetings lull,” and that any deal involving a starting pitcher likely would occur in January. He also reiterated his intent to trade one of the excess starting pitchers – presumably, Niese, Gee or Colon – before spring training. “Spring-training trades don’t happen frequently,” Alderson reasoned.
After the holidays, Alderson backpedaled again. “We’ve had some conversations, but not specifically about pitching per se,” he said. “Just some general conversations, but not many. I’d say activity will pick up significantly in January across the board. That’s probably the likely time frame for us as well.”
He reiterated his sense of urgency. “There aren’t that many deals that are made in spring training,” Alderson said. “It’s not ideal going into spring training knowing you have to make a deal. So I think if we’re going to make a deal, we would probably be better off doing it sooner rather than later.”
As January turned to February, Ben Zobrist got traded, Asdrubal Cabrera and several other free agent shortstops got signed and we reportedly had a good shot at Ian Desmond. Meanwhile, the Mets still had an abundance of starting pitchers, an unproven shortstop and a number of players playing out of position.
That Was the Plan All Along
During a recent Q&A session with season ticket holders at Citi Field, Alderson was asked about why he hadn’t upgraded the shortstop position. His response was, “We simply were not going to trade Noah Syndergaard.” Several reports attributed to Mets insiders echoed these sentiments that apparently every team asked the Mets for Syndergaard and wouldn’t settle for less. But why is it that so many other teams were able to make trades that didn’t have to involve their number one prospect?
Alderson’s new explanation? The Mets don’t need any help. They’re all set.
“One of the reasons we’ve been quiet in the offseason is that we have quality players at every position,” he told WFAN’s Chris Russo. “We’ve got players with the potential to improve us by 10 games, which is what we need. We’re comfortable going into spring training, and excited actually, to see those players and see what kind of step forward they take and whether that can translate into 10 or 12 games for us in the ‘won’ column.”
As for trading Gee or another pitcher to clear roster space, save money and possibly add a lefty bullpen arm? “Things will probably work themselves out in spring training,” Alderson said. “Hopefully we don’t have an injury, but we do have some flexibility in the pen. So if somebody has to move to the pen for a period of time, I think that would be acceptable to us.”
This ridiculous offseason of overpromising, under-delivering and blowing smoke up Mets fans asses got an exclamation point when Alderson joked at an awards banquet where he introduced Cal Ripken, by saying, “Mets fans have been waiting all winter for me to introduce a shortstop.”
For this comment alone, Alderson owes Mets fans a hand-written, heart-felt apology.
Where was it ever guaranteed to be a “big offseason”? Not to mention that the Dodgers, Marlins, Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays have had “big offseasons” that equated to zilch in terms of guaranteeing a championship.
I saw the headline and did not bother to read the article. Gat a life…………..
Is Russo back on the FAN?
Like the red wheel barrow, so much depends upon the play of Wilmer Flores at SS. If Wilmer can play adequate defense at SS — without too many glaring loses at his slow feet — and if he hits .260 with fair power — then SA would be proven correct for passing on the flawed options available this winter.
We will see. I don’t believe an apology is necessary.
What I want to see, however, is for SA to react & respond quickly & decisively if the Flores experiment goes south. Historically, that’s been a real weakness of the Mets GM. He typically shrugs and seeks second-rate “internal solutions.”
OK, James wins the comments with the William Carlos Williams reference. Game over.
?
I don’t follow…
The first line in JP’s post is an allusion to a work by poet William Carlos Williams. I didn’t know the poem and the only reason I know WCW is his connection to Allen Ginsburg.
Thank you Brian. I guess hats off to James and Doug for that impressive bit of culture.
He didn’t see an upgrade at SS worth trading one of the young arms, so his calculated risk is to start with what he has. You disagree and want an apology? I’m confused
Matt, thanks for writing an article with quotes from Sandy Alderson. I sometimes question why I am so down on Sandy when he has positioned the team to be competitive for years to come. When I read the quotes I realized how he has misled the fanbase.
“There’ve been two or three players who didn’t produce the way we would’ve liked.” If he is referring to Granderson, Gee and Wright well he had an opportunity to move Gee for Escobar. He never shopped Granderson and I believe Wright is considered untouchable.
Sandy misjudged the market by his own admission just as he did the previous winter with the Duda/Davis debacle.
I agree with Sandy that this team has the potential to gain 10 wins just on improvement but he could have done a lot more to improve the team by maybe 12-14 games and have 10 as the floor instead of the ceiling.
Just an apology?
At this point, Mets fans deserve a confession, “I have no clue what i’ve been doing these past 4 years” and a self imposed punishment “and effectively immediately i will be resigning”
Right on Name!!
Priceless Name, priceless!!!!
Matt nice work nothing unmasks a bser like using his own words to reveal the truth!
When I was a kid we used to use the old saying:
“If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance,
Baffle them with bs.”
Alderson is the undisputed heavy weight champion of the latter.
I don’t see how anyone can be satisfied with this offseason. Yes, I’m glad we kept Syndergaard and Matz, but GMs all over baseball are able to pull off trades without giving up their top prospects. Look at what San Diego did – it may not work, but it has a chance to and they still have most of their top prospects. Look at the Nationals – Mike Rizzo last year somehow convinced the Tigers to trade them Fister for nothing, and this year jumped into the Wil Myers deal to get their SS of the future for an average OF.
The message we get from Sandy is, “other teams wanted Syndergaard.” OK, then put on your GM wizard hat and counter with something else they may accept. Be creative, pull in a third team. The public has seen no evidence of this.
I second.
I third.
Also, I don’t think Alderson has the savvy to be convincing and is too stuck on ripping everyone off.
As my buddy says: Semi-Retired GM!
I fourth.
Montero and Wheeler could have, and should have, commanded a hefty return.
As BK pointed out, I’m glad we stil have Syndergaard too. However, other teams got creative with package deals and 3-team trades. Despite all our spare parts and geniuses in the front office the best we could muster is one questionable FA signing. Not one trade? We have 10 starting pitchers, yet no leadoff hitter, no good 4th OF and only one solid loogy.
As Rob noted, the quotes are regurgitated to make a point. Otherwise I’m just speculating.
To quote the Breakfast Club, “I expected a little more from a varsity letterman.”
+ 1000
To the haters, I ask you, are you happy with the moves Sandy made this offseason? Is this what you were expecting? Do you see Cuddyer as the missing piece that propels us into the playoffs? Are you ok with having starting pitchers languishing and losing value in the bullpen and triple A while we have obvious needs on the field? Do you think this team can compete with the Nationals?
5 years in, and “….positioned to be competitive…” .
charge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Please note…that is a Shout, and therefore requires capitalization— I’m from the “e e cummings School”)
Editor’s Note – The exclamation points will have to do, old e.e.
what a shame…what a shame
Hey Matt, Joe D over at MMO referenced your post and actually highlighted it with multiple links back and quotes he added a poll with 4 choices the worst choice is running well over 50% of the three “better”choices combined. We are not alone in our disappointment as witnessed here and there.
Once again well done sir.
Thanks, Rob!
Great post. I agree completely. Sandy lies so much it’s a wonder people still take him seriously. I believe the Mets entered the off season with the intention of improving their team without increasing payroll or trading their young players. The chance of that happening is roughly the same chance as the Knicks winning the championship this year.
In short, they went into a Mercedes showroom with $5000 and wanted to walk out with a top of the line sedan.
Pure fantasy.
We’d see right through an apology letter. It’s disingenuous we know he doesn’t mean any of it. How bout a half price day on food and merchandise or something as an appreciation to fans and maybe a thank you for the support?
XPLR, I’m a Knicks fan too. Another reason I’m looking forward to baseball season.
Matt also a Knick fan here we still have 4 things to play for:
Lose more for Okafor
Play like Clowns for Karl Towns
Cede the day for Emmanuel Mudaiy
Show less hustle for D’Angelo Russell
Rob, I think James Dolan’s next email rant might use “cede the day” as a subject line.