8/14/17

Mack’s Morning Report – 8-14 – Jay Bruce, Fig on Jay



Good morning.


Jay Bruce –

            I’m just going to try and help you, and I, make more sense out of this deal                  last week.

Sandy Alderson convinced the Wilpons to let him go all in by raising the 2017 salary above the $150mil/yr. total 

We thought we would never see  a level like this again. 

Staying on money issued, Alderson participated in a spending spree in this past International bonus baby day, which included dishing out $2.5mil to two top prospects, more than they ever have done before.

More money for now… more money for later.

For reasons not worth discussing again, it didn’t work. All the money spent on players like Neil Walker, Astrubel Cabrera, Yoenes Cespedes, David Wright, Curtis Granderson, and Juan Lagares didn’t give the all-star pitching staff the kind of bats needed to win the pennant. 

Oh, they hit, but the one thing no one expected happen. The pitching went south.

The dream was over. Alderson was not going to get his World Series and he had to return to doing the one thing General Managers are first paid to do… stop spending excess money to either eliminate debt or increase profit. That’s their job.

I have no idea if Alderson is coming back next season, but I’m sure he wouldn’t be invited back if he didn’t follow The Board of Directors desire to build a winning organization while, at the same time, operation within the confines of the budget approved.

Thus, the salary dump that is going on now.

Look, I know no one is happy at the return in the Bruce deal. Ryder Ryan is a 30th round pick with a 4.79 ERA in the minors. But, he’s a converted outfielder that hardly threw a pitch in school. Teach this kid how to control his 95+ fastball and you have an arm that has very little wear and tear on it.

And let’s remember that only two teams were interested in an August trade for Bruce… Cleveland and the Yankees, which was on Bruce’s no trade list.

No, this was a good deal for Alderson and the Mets. They got rid of the entire salary, made room for Juan Lagares to return to the 25-man, and get a chance to  play Brandon Nimmo more for the remainder of the year. 

Was it a good deal for the fan base? Definitely not. I don’t expect those of you that only follow the parent team to ever hear from Ryan again, but the team gets immediately younger, the draft picks will be done high up the calling order, and the decent prospects in the pipeline will have room to move up come spring.

Yes, it’s sad, but I was taught early on when I became a ‘workout’ General Manager given the task to create a resale of a radio property that had failed to meet its obligations to the bank… you have to stop losing money before you start making any.

I took over two radio stations that were operating at over one million dollars over their budget. They had defaulted on their payments to GE Capital and I was hired to clean it up. I asked the business manager to give be a copy of the monthly profit and loss statements for the past year and took them to my hotel room. Previous management was spending twice what that should be spending while, at the same time, the stations had ratings lower than Megyn Kelly.

This was an easy one.  I fired 22 native Texans and replaced them with five people that had worked for me in the past that weren’t afraid of doing double duty. Overnight, the stations were at the breakeven point.

What did the city of Austin think? Well, the media community actually threw a party for the fired employees (no, I wasn’t invited) and had my face on dart boards throughout the bar.

But… my bosses in Connecticut loved my ass. We sold the stations to Clear Channel Broadcasting (first stations they ever bought) and I got out of Dodge with my end of contract bonus.

I expect a similar exit for Sandy in the off-season. 


Fig on Jay -

Nelson Figueroa/SNY had this spin on the Bruce trade, in particular, and the Hot Stove season, in general - 

Over two years, the Mets got the equivalent of a full season from Bruce: 574-AB, .245-BA, 37-HR, 94-RBIs... for Dilson Herrera.

Cleveland gave up a power arm who hasn't pitched much and upside OK... plus five million dollars for 1.5 months of Bruce.

$5mil nearly pays for Conforto, deGrom and Syndergaard this year.

A qualifying offer is now a 3rd round pick who, if they ever make it, is 5-7 years away.

Three trades, five power arms, mostly relievers that hasn't proven much in their past organization and nearly $10 million dollars to use next year on three guys that could have signed elsewhere next season.


13 comments:

Mike Maar said...

Good points all Mack.. Sometimes fans forget that a GM's job is to maximize talent, while also spending his bosses money wisely. The market would only bear so much for Bruce, who is a FA in 1.5 months. Alderson had to find the best deal overall, meaning that if he ate some salary, it had to mean that he was bringing back talent that made it worth the $$. Apparently in his judgement, there was no such deal available, so he took a flier on a kid with a big arm and freed up the $$. He then did show willingness to eat salary in the Walker deal. Who knows WO that PTBNL will be, but Alderson apparently felt acquiring that player was worth the $$.

Tom Brennan said...

Sandy got the point when he walked into the Wilpons' conference room in early July and the Kinks' song "I'm on a LOW Budget" was blaring.

But kidding aside, this team just got too far away from the division title and wild card, and too far from the return of Thor and Familia, to make it worthwhile to keep the veterans. They've saved themselves $10 million or thereabouts that can be used to sign talent this off-season.

Mack wanted to cut me, and then remembered it would have no bottom line impact, so he let me stick around :)

Let's enjoy what we got right here, right now. Like Flexen going to 2-1 on the season following his big leap from AA.

One question - do we think the player to be named later in the Walker deal (a good trade by Brewers, BTW) will be better or worse than one we might have gotten immediately?

Mack Ade said...

Tom -

Usually a PTBNL in a deal like this is a draft pick from the last draft

Reese Kaplan said...

While I"m of the opinion that Sandy Alderson got skunked in every 2017 salary dump deal, if what you say is true -- "I expect a similar exit for Sandy in the off-season" -- then it was worth it.

Viper said...

I can't help to remember what the other GM in town was able to get vs our resident Genius. Its fine for other organizations to say they want to pay salary in order to give the Mets lesser prospects. But it is also fine for the Mets to turn it down and stick to getting better prospects back.

History has shown us time and time again that the Wilpons won't re-invest all of the money saved to put out a better in 2018. They will invest some and then tell us they have the "flexibility" to take on more salary if needed. But that will never happen.

If the Mets want to re-energized this team and base, they need to go out and sign a pitcher like Darvish and get a real catcher at the very least.

We are going to hear how the Mets will be aggressive in the winter and end up picking the dumpsters again.

What can I say? I miss Omar, at least he had an eye for talent.

Mack Ade said...

It is my guess that he is clearing all the contracts and setting up an operation that can be targeted at new FA purchases for key positions like SP, 2B, 3B, OF, C.

And... I do not think he will be in charge then.

Hobie said...

Nailed it, Mack.

Charles said...

Last year, Brian Cashman got a King's haul while selling off. The other teams also paid the salary of the players they were getting.

BUT. Chapman was an actual difference maker going to a team that already knew they had the playoffs in hand AFTER already being swept in the NLCS the previous year. The cubbies were all in.

And Miller was signed for TWO MORE additional years beyond 2016, while also being a difference maker.

The Mets had no such players they were willing to trade. They had good but not great players. No difference makers. Nobody signed for next year as well.

Sandy did good by saving money for next season while adding 5 arms that are young and throw hard.

bgreg98180 said...

Mets fans can only hope.

But keep in mind... so many disappointments and curious decisions by this organization.

Would anybody really be surprised if the Wilkins EXTEND Alderson's contract?

Hobie said...

Off topic: Anybody know if TJR has TJS?

Viper said...

Mack, is it 7 years of Sandy and the team still has all these needs and nothing really to get excited left in Vegas?

I hope you're right about what Sandy is thinking otherwise is going to be a long winter. Lets not forget that it is 2018-19 free agency where all the stud players will be available so hopefully there is money left then.

Tom Brennan said...

No TJS for TJR yet, as I understand it. Hopefully, at the news desks, there won't be a TJI (this just in...) as breaking news is usually not good news.

bgreg98180 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.