By - Jarod Alley
In a perfect world the New York Mets would be annual competitors in the playoff picture, harvesting young talent and spending their free agent dollars on the most premier talent. Reality though has held a different fate for our lovable losers. We’ve been through multiple questionable trades, reckless free agent spending, a sapped farm system, over exaggerated major league rosters, seasons filled with injuries, an ongoing financial dispute and three different coaches. All of this happened within the last 10 years.
In a perfect world the New York Mets would be annual competitors in the playoff picture, harvesting young talent and spending their free agent dollars on the most premier talent. Reality though has held a different fate for our lovable losers. We’ve been through multiple questionable trades, reckless free agent spending, a sapped farm system, over exaggerated major league rosters, seasons filled with injuries, an ongoing financial dispute and three different coaches. All of this happened within the last 10 years.
Yeah,
it is tough being a Met fan sometimes, but it’s also tough not to like the
Wilpons decision in hiring Sandy Alderson to reign in a team that was looking
like it was going to take a very long downward spiral. Even if he were forced
upon Fred and Jeff by Bud Selig and Major League Baseball, Sandy has been very
efficient in re-structuring the seemingly fractured parts and pieces of this
team. True, he did let Jose Reyes walk almost without much dialogue but how
many of you would have guaranteed Jose…Jose, Jose, Jose that kind of contract? I know I wouldn’t. Without
a solid pitching staff the retention of Reyes combined with Wright, Davis,
Murphy and question marks at other positions would seem like a major gamble to
put together a World Series caliber team.
One can hardly argue with some of the other decisions he has made too. He’s been signing guys that are very much low risk high reward guys to stitch up vacancies on the team. Last year we saw the resurgent Isringhausen and durable Capuano perform above and beyond expectations both on salaries that amounted to roughly 2.5 million, combined. Also, for the first time in as long as I can remember our Rule 5 draft pick ended up being a very serviceable arm in our bullpen. While Pedro Beato wasn’t a complete success he still proved to be a useful piece out of the bullpen and will be back with the organization since they were able to keep him on the roster all of last year.
In
regards to the minors he’s been active to shape it to his liking as well.
Trading Carlos Beltran mid-year for a top pitching prospect in Zack Wheeler
helped to gain favor with fans by adding a young phenom arm to go along with Matt
Harvey. In years past the Omar Minaya regime
would have clung to their expiring contracts with little hope of making a push into
the playoffs thus leaving the club without any return on investment. Instead
last year Sandy let Reyes walk saving major cash and gaining an additional draft
pick along with the midseason acquisition of Wheeler; two moves that should h
elp strengthen a middling minor league system.
While
many of his decisions won’t be known to be truly successful until the next 5-10
years, he has created an environment where competence is not as easily questioned.
I for one hope his disinfecting, stitching, splinting and overall medication
proves to be the elixir the Mets have been looking for to make this team successful
not just in the now but for the foreseeable future as well.
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