Sandy Alderson: The Man With the Plan

 

Omar Minaya, the deposed GM of the New York Mets, once said towards the end of his tenure that New York's "not a market where you can go young. You have to bring in players." Meaning- you can't rebuild in New York. Just can't happen. Fans won't accept it, ownership wouldn't allow it. So the Mets fired Minaya at the end of the year and started rebuilding.

To steer their rebuilding effort, the Mets brought in Sandy Alderson. Sandy Alderson is very different from the last GM of the Mets. Alderson is very erudite, and when you hear him speak, he reminds you very much of the Harvard lawyer that he is. Alderson always seems like he's the smartest person in the room. Nothing seems to stick to Alderson, a good trait to have in the New York market. 

Alderson is an icon of Money Ball (ironically barely mentioned in the move adaptation) and analytics. Sandy Alderson is not the Met's answer to the appropriately named Brian Cashman, he's the Met's Billy Beane or Andrew Friedman. He's has been stockpiling years of cost controllability, and only spending on short term deals (minus the Wright extension). Sound familiar? 

The New York Mets are rebuilding like a small market team. They haven't taken on salary since 2009, and have a lot of money coming off the books this year. Jason Bay, Johan Santana, Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, and Francisco Rodriguez have all shipped off. The Mets 2010 opening day payroll was over $132 Million. Last season it was under $90 million, and the Mets 2014 payroll obligations for next year are a mere (roughly) $56 million. This an Oakland or Tampa Bay payroll, not the payroll of the biggest market in the US. The Phillies, who finished behind the Mets in the standings, already owe over $120 million for 2014. 

But since the start of the Alderson Era, 2014 was sold as a fulcrum point for the Mets. The 2014 Mets was suppose to be the most talented Mets team since 2008. This was the year money comes off the books, young talent starts producing while free agents are brought to Queens. But now rumors are swirling that Alderson has payroll constraints. The Wilpons are supposedly suffering sticker shock. They're surprised by free agent prices, and it seems a little too convenient. The Mets need to spend to appease their fan base, while Alderson is averse to large contracts. It's clear Jacoby Ellsbury and Robison Cano aren't arriving in Flushing any time soon. So the only way to avoid an uprising in Queens is to win. Soon. 

Future Met Noah Syndergaard

The Mets 2014 rotation was supposed to future and already aces  Zack Wheeler and Matt Harvey. Now with Harvey on the shelf, the pitching depth of the Mets will be tested. Jon Niese and Dillon Gee are already effective starters, but Neise has always underperformed his peripheral numbers. Jenrry Mejia, a once-former-prospect, has now regained promise with a string of good starts.

In double AA is 6 foot 6 Noah Syndergaard, who profiles as an ace at the major league level. Rafael Montero is also in Alderson's farm system, and while he might not be a future ace he could be a solid innings eater (or the next Greg Maddux, you never know). Notably, both prospects were the starters in the futures game, which fittingly took place at Citi Field, home of the Mets. And the next day, Matt Harvey started the All-Star game. 

It's not like there's no hope for the Mets. The All-Star game was an embodiment of that. Alderson has done as good a job as can be expected rebuilding the farm system through trades. It's just going to take awhile (small market, remember?). The Boston Red Sox going from 69 wins to World Series champs is probably the worst thing that could happen for the Mets front office. Since Alderson took over, it was clear handing out huge contracts would not be a regular occurrence. But the Red Sox were able to reload in a season, hand out responsible free agent deals, and improve by 28 wins.

Now there are expectations, however unreasonable, of the Mets to do something similar. But just because the Red Sox didn't hand out one large contract doesn't mean they didn't spend money. They handed out multiple multi year offers - including Victorino, Napoli, and Dempster- and essentially acquired half of their lineup via free agency, not to mention resigning Pedroia and Ortiz to big money. The Mets don't have money to burn anymore. 

So it's up to Alderson to get creative and try to build a contender. There are several free agents that could be fits for the Mets, and likely had at low enough cost. Chris Young was a start. Short stop Stephen Drew would be a good fit. The Mets still need another outfielder. Trades need to go down. This will be the offseason to see if Alderson really is the right man for the job. He won't have any shortage of work.