Q and A - If You Had One Job

Reese Kaplan asks –

What would be the one dramatic move the front office could make to jumpstart the team?

Mack says –

Consider the fanbase here.

They would not accept any moves unless it came from the summit of the mountain. Only then would they accept a complete reload and a 3-4 year plan to get this team’s act together again.

Every team that rebuilt their organization correctly did so after changing the person sitting in the biggest office in the corner of the executive portion of the stadium.

As General Manager, Sandy Alderson has only produced a winning percentage team two seasons. This is unacceptable at so many levels.

We need a new, young, General Manager who can rebuild the front office, revamp the scouting department both domestically and internationally, and serve notice that this team will operate differently in the future.

Tom Brennan says –

One dramatic move? 

New owners and upper management tomorrow.  

The current fools sign the likes of Vargas and Swarzak when they could sign Arrieta and Reed.  They are "interested", but don't pursue, in a "win at all costs, Steinbrenner style", Vlad Jr, who is hitting an insane .431 as a 19 year old in AA, with huge power.  Likely a superstar for the next 10-15 years. 

We are "interested" in Ohtani, Abreu, and Moncada, but not really, because the only real interest results in getting the player.    And we never really tried at all, did we?

The Yankees boldly sign Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller in a rebuilding period, with the clear intent of flipping them at mid-season for super prospects.  They get superstar Gleyber Torres and then re-sign Chapman after his rental to the Cubs.

For Miller, they got back Clint Frazier and Justus Sheffield.  The Mets could clearly use both.

That is sheer Yankee brilliance.

The cheap Mets assume their pen will get by, don't go after Miller and Chapman, but the Mets' pen gets torched in both 2017 and 2018.

They sign older guys who are prone to decline in hopes of saving a few bucks and getting lucky, and the results indicate the team should be renamed the New York Albatrosses.

The Mets draft hitters who mostly lack the hitting and power skills to ultimately make the majors, and few pitchers, based on recent results, that get called up display that this organization is turning out major league caliber talent.  I'd prefer to be positive, but the minors' players numbers bear that out.   Who makes those decisions?  Current owners and upper management, ultimately.

Don't get me started.

But one more thing:

The amazing thing for the Mets owners and upper management is that in most baseball markets, there is no competition, so most teams are shielded from the full brunt of bad decisions by their local area monopoly - only the Bay Area out west, LA, and Chicago have two teams in the same market, other than the Yanks and Mets.

Bad decisions, when your Yankees crosstown rivals make brilliant, successful ones, have huge consequences. 

First, a percentage of adult Mets fans will switch allegiance. 

Second, many/most kids who are choosing which team to root for will pick the exciting successful team.  That team is the Yanks.  My nephew's son is 10 and he started his son out as a Mets fan.  The youngster is now a Yankee fan, probably for life.  How many lifetime customers are the Mets letting slip away?  My guess is hundreds of thousands.

Let's go Mets.  As in let's go sell the team and let's go get new management.

Mike Friere says –

Not to sound overly pessimistic, but I don't think there is one "dramatic move" that could change the fortunes of the entire team for the rest of this year due to the fact that there are multiple areas that need attention (starting pitching depth, bullpen depth, defensive issues, lack of team speed and inconsistent offensive production).

If we could reincarnate Babe Ruth, maybe?

There are no free agents to obtain right now and the International market will not yield an impact player for this year, either.  So, any upgrades would have to come from within (prospect promotions) OR via the trade market.    Since the farm system is pretty barren in the upper levels, any meaningful trades will cost A LOT and would come at the cost of our short term future (2019, 2020).  So, my vote would be to promote a potential "impact" player from our minor leagues at the expense of an under performing "veteran" and hope for the best.

So, let's dump Adrian Gonzalez and promote "The Pounder" (Peter Alonso)!

Reese Kaplan says –

Wow, there are so many possible answers to this question.  Promote Peter Alonso to replace Adrian Gonzalez…promote Tim Peterson to replace AJ Ramos…move Jay Bruce to 1B when Yoenis Cespedes returns to keep Brandon Nimmo in the lineup…

However, the one connective thread for the past eight years of mostly misery has been General Manager Sandy Alderson.  In all that time he’s picked a bunch of loser free agents in the second and third tier, drafted so badly that when the myriad of injuries occurs there is no depth in the farm system to help keep the team competitive and he has demonstrated (with very rare exception) the ability to execute an equitable trade.  He seemingly waits forever to make decisions to change things when they’re obviously long overdue.  He stubbornly stuck with Terry Collins and various players (Jose Reyes, for example) when they were clearly hurting the team’s chances to win.

Let’s get the Wilpons to declare an “End of an Error” and show Sandy the door as well.  His pattern of finding all-or-nothing hitters, eschewing speed and defense, never going for the brass ring and the inability to identify talent have once again made the club a laughingstock and rendered them irrelevant.

This single change will signify an honest desire to win and perhaps start 

bringing in the right kind of players who can once again make the team competitive.

Gary McDonald says –

Release Reyes, and Ramos.  If they really want to make an impact include Vargas with the other.

David Rubin says –

Sell the team to a group who will invest more money in every aspect of the organization and will treat it like the biggest market in the country for a change.