Tony Plate - NY Mets Hire New General Manager

The New York Mets hired a new general manager and his name is Brodie Van Wagenen. The former agent was the co-head of the baseball division at CAA sports. He has experience in contract negotiation. He will meet the media at a 2:30 pm press conference which will be held at Citi Field. The Wilpons feel that Van Wagenen will be successful at this position due to his analytics and development ideas. One of the tasks as general manager for Van Wagenen will be a possible long-term contract for Jacob deGrom provided he receives the approval of the Wilpons. Zach Wheeler will be a free agent at the end of 2019. So, Van Wagenen will have to decide if he wants to keep the current starting rotation together which is the strength of the team.

In other Major League Baseball news, the Boston Red Sox won their fourth World Series title since 2004 as they defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-1. Former New York Yankee Steve Pearce was named most valuable player. He went 4-12 with three homeruns including two in the deciding game five and eight RBI’s. Another former New York Yankee contributed and that was Nathan Eovaldi who put on one of the greatest pitching performances in Major League Baseball playoff history. I think this feat will help him acquire a very good offer since he will be a free agent. He threw ninety-seven pitches over six relief innings in his team’s 3-2 extra-innings loss in game three of the World Series on only one day of rest. His fastball was clocked at 98 MPH which showed that he is basically back from his arm issue. He was praised by many people in the baseball world for the tremendous effort. Eovaldi had a 1.61 ERA throughout the course of six postseason games with two starts and four relief appearances. Also, David Price contributed by throwing seven-plus innings of one-run ball in the Red Sox 5-1 victory over the Dodgers in game five that clinched the World Series.

It must have been frustrating for New York Yankee fans to watch the Red Sox win the World Series and to watch two former Yankees help them win it. The Red Sox were the best team during the regular season and they put on a show during the post season by defeating three quality teams in the Yankees, Astros and Dodgers. The Yankees will have to come up with a plan to acquire some starting pitching which is what is needed for them to challenge the Red Sox in 2019.

Reese Kaplan -- Sandy Alderson Era -- 2014 in Review

During the off-season between 2013 and 2014 Fred Wilpon declared that the Madoff mess was in the rear view mirror and the Mets would once again be able to spend money to improve the team.  The first high profile acquisition was the former Yankee Curtis Granderson who had a reputation as an all-or-nothing swinger, whose home run totals were dwarfed by his number of strikeouts.  Still, as a mid-tier acquisition for $64 million over four years, he was not an awful addition to the roster (though his intial season in Queens was not very memorable). 

However, the first big acquisition for the Mets was the underwhelming Chris Young to play the outfield.  Young had hit as many as 27 HRs in a big league season but was coming off a lackluster .200/12/40 season for the Oakland A’s.  Obtaining him at the price of $7.25 million on a one-year deal typified the Alderson regime of looking for “value-priced” free agents who had the slim potential to outperform what they were paid.  Unfortunately Young’s output was about what you’d expect -- .205/8/28 and valued at 0.1 WAR (about 10% of what he was being paid).  He was cut loose midway through the year where he found a temporary home with the Yankees, then moved onto mediocrity with the Red Sox and now the Angels.  He’s a .235 hitter for his career. 

The next personnel flub which continually comes back to haunt the Mets was the decision to non-tender the barely-above-minimum-wage Justin Turner.  No one is quite sure what precipitated this boneheaded move (but to be fair no one could have anticipated the launch-angle swing revision that he later developed) but Turner had been a highly credible role player for the Mets whose perhaps only black mark was the undignified pie-in-the-face routine after Mets wins.  The official line was that he allegedly didn’t hustle.  That move is certainly one of the worst of Alderson’s Mets career.

One move that was greeted with derision certainly goes as a win in Alderson’s column, signing the seemingly ageless Bartolo Colon.  No one expected much from the portly hurler, but he won 15 games in 2 of his 3 Mets season, becoming an All Star during 2016. 

All throughout spring training the Mets were in a dilemma with two left handed slugging first baseman in Ike Davis and Lucas Duda.  Most were in the camp for Davis to get the nod but everyone assumed that the issue would be resolved prior to the season beginning.  It wasn't.  However, using the since ignored analytics of launch angle and exit velocity the Mets decided that Duda was the one to keep.  (At least that's the public story...it could be that there was no interest in him on the trade market).  In late April the Mets sent Davis to the Pirates for warm bodies Zach Thornton and Blake Taylor.  That's the very definition of a lose-lose trade.  

Once again we saw the quantity over quality approach to the bullpen as Jose Valverde, Kyle Farnsworth, Dana Eveland and Dice-K were paid to pitch for the NY Mets. 

The scrap heap picking resulted in one of the more embarrassing transactions when the Mets signed Bobby Abreu after a long and productive career hoping to hang on for a last gasp.  That pattern, unfortunately, repeated itself many more times over the subsequent years.

Others who played during that ill-fated 2014 season include Omar Quintanilla, Josh Satin, Andrew Brown and Taylor Teagarden.

Overall the team improved to a still-losing 79-83 record (4th consecutive sub-.500 record for manager Terry Collins) and this year they were looking up at the Washington Nationals, 17 games behind them for a third place finish out of the money.  

Open Thread - 6 Mets Became Free Agents Yesterday

-LHP Jerry Blevins
-OF Austin Jackson
-C Jose Lobaton
-C Devin Mesoraco
-RHP A.J. Ramos
-SS Jose Reyes

Mack - Position By Position Analysis: SS

Good morning.

We move on to shortstop. Remember… I project the following players at these levels.

AAA Syracuse

          Gavin Cecchini  (also plays 2B) –       

 

                   AAA -           .294/.342/.468/810    2-HR

          Christian Colon  (also plays 2B and 3B) -

                    AAA -           .304/.396/.459/855    6-HR

          Jack Reinheimer (also plays 2B and 3B)

                   MLB – (30 at-bats)          .167/.286/.167/453    0-HR

                   AAA – (435 at-bats)        .248/.317/.370/687    8-HR

AA Binghamton

          Andres Gimenez

                   AA -  (137 at-bats)          .277/.344/.358/702    0-HR

                   A+ -  (308-AB)                 .282/.348/.432/780    6-HR

          Levi Michael

                   AAA -  (9 at-bats)            .333/.400/.333/733    0-HR

                   AA -  (387 at-bats)          .305/.391/.470/861    10-HR 

             

A+ St. Lucie

          Hansel Romero

                   A – (319 at-bats)            .248/.307/.398/705    8-HR

A Columbia 

          Edgardo Fermin

                   A – (429 at-bats)            .210/.258/.343/601    8-HR

          Sheryren Newton

                   Rookie/K-Port – (207 at-bats)   .280/.411/.449/860

Low-A Brooklyn

          L.A. Woodard

                   Low-A -  (4 at bats)          .500/.600/.500/1.000    0-HR

                   Rookie/K-Port (71 at-bats)   .239/.379/.296/675    0-HR   

          Manny Rodriguez

                   Low-A   (174 at-bats)       .236/.293/.339/632    2-HR

Rookie Kingsport

          Ronny Mauricio

                   Rookie/K-Port  (30 at-bats)       .233/.286/.333/.619    0-HR

                    Rookie/GCL (197 at-bats)          .279/.307/.421/728    3-HR

GCL

          Gregory Guerrero

                   Rookie/GCL   (143 at bats)        .217/.257/.252/509    0-HR

Conclusion

1.    There is a lot of talent here at this position. I consider three players with prospect talent per pipeline heavy. The Mets have two solid red guys and another blue one that could eventually start in the majors.

2.    Amed Rosario is our current shortstop. He’s looking more like a keeper every game, both offensively and defensively. More important, he’s can be moved to either third base or short if someone better comes along.

3.    ‘Better’ is Andres Gimenez. The 20-year old will return to Binghamton in the spring and will finish in Syracuse. Some want to rush him quicker, but why? We’re not going to compete in 2019 and this is as much of a sure lock as there is in prospect evaluation.

4.    Three seasons later comes another top five Mets prospect, Ronny Mauricio. He’s 17-years old and already playing in Kingsport.

5.    In between is a wild card. Shervyen Newton is a 19-year old that everyone needs to keep an eye on. I see both him and Mauricio as a trade chip in a multiple deal for a great catcher (cough J.T. cough).

6.    Needless to say, there seems to be enough talent in the pipeline at this position to take us through the end of the next decade.

Rating:  A +

Five Mets Elect Free Agency

OF Bryce Brentz, P Chris Beck, IF Ty Kelly, OF Matt den Dekker, and P Scott Copeland has elected free agency.

Players that elect free agency at this point in their careers do so because they feel they can find an easier path to the majors from a different team.

I will particularly miss Brentz and Copeland. I never thought that Brentz was given a proper shot by the Mets in 2018 and I had Copeland projected as being one of the members of the Syracuse rotation.

Reese Kaplan -- Sandy Alderson Era -- 2013 in Review

In the 2012/2013 off-season the Mets bumbled their contract with the AAA franchise in Buffalo and were left scrambling to find a new home for their top tier minor leaguers.  It was ironic that after departing New Orleans years earlier citing its many distractions being a negative influence on the young ballplayers that they would ink a deal in Sin City, Las Vegas, who not only had one of the worst stadiums in all of pro baseball, there surely couldn’t be anything THERE to take focus away from a 21 year old’s mind, huh?  Throw in the PCL effect on numbers and you can see Alderson booted this one, big time.

For perhaps the last time ever the Mets finally realized the error of their ways and cut ties with underperforming Jason Bay who was never the same after some concussion problems that seemed to permanently impact his ability to play the game.  Ever since then the Mets have been unwilling to admit mistakes or pay down contracts to dump players who needed to go.  The difference here is Bay was a Minaya pickup and thus Alderson not only didn’t lose face but actually gained some esteem by having the “courage” to wave bye-bye to this costly chapter in the club’s checkered personnel history.

Of course, the huge story of the winter Hot Stove season was what they were going to do with Cy Young Award winner, R.A. Dickey.  It was a rare opportunity for the Mets to sell high on a player who, at age 38, was likely not going to repeat that level of success.  After many rumored packages were offered, he was eventually sent north to Toronto along with catcher Josh Thole (and his knuckleball glove) and light hitting catcher Mike Nickeas in exchange for top catching prospect Travis d’Arnaud, veteran catcher John Buck, outfield prospect Wuilmer Becerra and a hard throwing pitcher named Noah somebody.  Best of all (in the Wilpons’ eyes) Toronto was the team on the hook to pay R.A. Dickey handsomely for what he accomplished for the Mets in 2012.  He wound up getting over $40 million in a contract extension.  Count that as a very rare win in Sandy Alderson’s checkered trading career for the Mets.

Speaking of wins, Sandy Alderson had one under-the-radar free agent acquisition that worked out for him, Carlos Torres,  Marlon Byrd was likely his biggest success story.  Of course, his keen eye for talent also obtained Aaron Laffey, Shaun Marcum and Rick Ankiel.  He sent Jeffry Marte to the coast for the immortal Collin Cowgill.  And let's not forget trading future quality pitcher Colin McHugh to Colorado for a man who would prove to be quite valuable if only he could figure out how to steal first base.  

In 2013 the Mets hosted the All-Star Game at CitiField, a rare opportunity for Mets fans to see how winning baseball was played. 

Another rare highlight of this season was the Mets’ first-ever sweep of the crosstown rival New York Yankees. 

During the latter half swoon the selloff began, with the Mets trading surprisingly successful Marlon Byrd and John Buck to the Pirates for a prospect named Dilson Herrera who never amounted to anything and sore-armed Vic Black.  Once again Alderson demonstrated his lack of skill identifying talent the way Minaya had.

On September 1^st things had gotten so bad that Sandy Alderson had to call a press conference to announce that the club did not intend to fire embattled Skipper Terry Collins despite his third straight losing season for the Metropolitans.  It was not as much a show of loyalty as it was an unwillingness to eat the option year and the admission that he, like the Angels and Astros before him, realized that they had the wrong man at the helm. 

The identical season-ending record of 74-88 was good enough this time for 3^rd place, a mere 22 games off the division winning pace set by the Atlanta Braves.

Open Thread - New Mets General Manager: Brodie Van Wagenen

Going to try something we've never done here on Mack's Mets.

I'm going to have an 'open thread' on certain subjects during the off-season, rather than just asking the writers here to participate to a 'Q and A' weekly post. This way we can all discuss the matters at hand.

Today's is our new General Manager.

Any thoughts?

From The Desk… Ben Aybar, Baseball Comeback, Kim Ng, Sleepy Fan, Meteorology Of A Fly Ball

Good morning.

Meet the New York Teenager Who Created the 'Mets Are a Good Team' Super PAC –

The FEC’s paperwork made it appear like the work of one person, someone named Ben Aybar. He’d listed himself as the chairman, treasurer, and custodian of records. The headquarters was a residential address in the suburbs of New York City, and the organization’s listed preferred bank was nearby. There weren’t any of the typical signs of organized activity—there weren’t multiple people involved, there weren’t any office buildings or P.O. Boxes, the headquarters and bank were in the same state. Instead, it seemed like… well, it seemed like it might actually be one person who thinks the Mets Are A Good Team. I reached out to the email listed on the form, asking if he’d be willing to talk. Sure, he said. The next day at 10 a.m.?

Can baseball make a comeback?

      

     With strikeouts piling up, scoring plummeting, attendance falling and games often descending into all-or-nothing bores, it's no wonder that some people are calling for radical change to baseball.

The sport faced a similar challenge 50 years ago, dogged by a scoring depression and lagging fan interest. In response, baseball's rules committee lowered the pitcher's mound 5 inches and tightened the strike zone, making it harder for pitchers to dominate the game. That sparked more scoring the next season — and more exciting games for fans.

Joel - @JoelMetsNY

 I can’t take any Mets fan seriously who would say no to Machado. Sorry, I don’t want to spend an entire summer watching Todd Frazier hit .220

Mack – I don’t know why we keep talking about this guy. It’s not like he’s going to sign with the Wilpons.

Mets historic GM candidate Kim Ng has a big fan in Joe Torre –

        

   “She’s very well prepared in whatever she does,” Torre said at Miller Park on Saturday. “She’s way over my head when it comes to all the knowledge she has about a lot of aspects about the game.

She’s very bright. She knows her baseball. And she’s, how do you put it? I don’t want to say sure of herself, but s  he’s very bright and a very brave woman. She knows baseball and she doesn’t hedge on stuff. She attacks things head on. That’s the best way to put it.”

J.D. McNugent - @JDMcNugentMets

 A 70 year old corpse who has waited his whole life for a GM opportunity turned down the Mets job.  If that is not the clearest sign that MLB needs to force a sale I don’t know what is.

Confessions of a Very Sleepy Baseball Fan -

      

     It is October, which is to say it is playoff baseball season. This is a cause for joy, if you enjoy the national pastime, which you should; this is a cause for debilitating fatigue, if you live on the East Coast, which increasingly I would not recommend. Because this is not just October and not just the opening day of the World Series: This is the era of the never-ending postseason game, and if it’s not 1 a.m. Eastern then it’s 2 a.m. Eastern, and the baseball is so good and the hour is so late and maybe a position player will pitch soon and no one has any backup catchers and oh Jesus Christ is that Clayton Kershaw and please, oh please, Los Angeles and Boston, I say this with love: Make your games snappy.

Understanding The Meteorology Of A Fly Ball May Help Baseball Teams –

           

You may recall that Tim Tebow hit a home run in his first at bat with the Fireflies. That day the weather helped carry that ball by roughly 15-18 feet and it cleared the fence by a few feet. So. without the weather, it would probably have been a warning track out. Last June we installed our technology in an MLB park and we are now in the final stages of completing an agreement with them for the 2019 season.

Tom Brennan - ARIZONA EARLY REPORT CARDS

Tom Brennan - ARIZONA EARLY REPORT CARDS

How are our Arizona prospects doing?

Largely pretty good in the early going.

HOMERS:

Through Thursday, only a handful of guys in the AFL had 2 or more HRs.

Of them, only one had 4 – Peter Alonso.

Only two others had 3 – one being our own Desmond Lindsay, and in only 21 PAs.  Encouraging.

RBIs:

Peter Alonso is # 2 - 13 RBIs in 13 games.  Continuing his RBI machine ways.

And in limited play, Andres Gimenez has 5 RBIs, and 6 runs, too.

SLUG %:

Peter Alonso is # 1 in guys over 40 ABs with a .640 %.  BOOM!

AVG:

Alonso is at .320; Lindsay in 20 BAs is at .350.  Gimenez is at .150 (3 for 20), but his 6 walks in limited play time give him a solid OBP of .346.

Ali Sanchez?  Just 1 for 12, but also 2 walks.  

• Hit more, play more, I always say.

PITCHING:

Steve Nogosek – 4.2 IP, 1 hit, 2 walks 4 Ks, 0.00 – nice to see.

Matt Blackham – decent so far, but 6 walks in 4.1 IP. Oh, dem bases on balls.

Gerson Bautista – 5 outings, 3.86 ERA, 7 Ks, just 3 walks.  GERSON THE PERSON!

Joe Zanghi – walkless 5.1 innings, but 9 hits and 5 runs.  Control TOO good?

My overall take?   So far, so good for the Mets’ cadre of Arizonians.

Reese Kaplan -- Sandy Alderson Era -- 2012 in Review

  
Well, after a disappointing 2011 season you would think there was nowhere to go but up.  Still, the Mets were unwilling and unable to find a way to finance top tier talent (and it showed).  The season began with the ceremonial firing of coaches (otherwise known as shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic) with just pitching coach Dan Warthen and hitting coach Dave Hudgens surviving the purge. 

Alderson executed his first important major-league-talent for major-league-talent trade, again with the Giants.  This time he sent talented by medically troubled outfielder Angel Pagan to obtain setup man extraordinaire Ramon Ramirez and throw-in defensive specialist Andres Torres.  While the bullpen woes were a major Achilles heel of the 2011 squad, the general consensus at the time was somewhat negative.  After all, Pagan was coming off a campaign in which he delivered .262/7/56 with 32 stolen bases while playing a strong centerfield. 

Now to be fair, Ramirez had been good as the 8^th inning guy to San Francisco’s Sergio Romo.  From 2008 through 2011 save for a brief blip in Boston he kept his ERA under 3.00.   He looked like a quality piece in what was to be a revamped bullpen for the Mets.

The real headscratcher of the deal was Andres Torres who had never put together much of anything with the bat.  Think of him as a latter day Matt den Dekker – capable when out in the field but pretty much lost when standing at the plate.  In 2010 he had an outlier year in which he delivered .262/16/63 with 26 SBs, but never before (or since then) did he ever get out of single digits with power nor did he ever steal 20 bases.  He was coming off a .221 season with the Giants and the Mets’ manager chose to keep trotting him out there day after day, resulting in a .230/3/35 season instead of giving up.  At the time I was hoping they would do like they once did with catcher they obtained in a trade simply to get out from under the departing player’s salary. 

Sandy Alderson wasn’t done, starting a pattern that became all too familiar when it comes to building a bullpen – go after quantity instead of quality.  In this case it was the later released Frank Francisco and the big tattooed Jon Rausch.  Neither were wanted by the Blue Jays where they formed a healthy but ineffective tandem.  Unfortunately, the only thing that changed when they came to New York was the healthy part.  They were joined by the likes of Manny Acosta, Tim Byrdak and Pedro Beato.  Only Bobby Parnell emerged looking like someone worth keeping around (before, of course, arm troubles derailed his career).  Once again it was someone Omar Minaya had found and developed exhibiting quality while the players identified and obtained by Sandy Alderson failing to deliver.

On June 1^st Johan Santana delivered what great pitchers like Tom Seaver, Doc Gooden, Pedro Martinez, Jon Matlack and others could never do for the Mets.  He completed the team’s first ever no-hitter. 

Later that month the Mets did something never before done in the history of the game when they hit a home-run cycle – Daniel Murphy connecting for a solo and two-run homer, Ike Davis slamming a three-run shot and Scott Hairston delivering the Grand Salami. 

Of course, the aforementioned Ike Davis had his greatest season, notching 32 home runs en route to what was a short-lived career in which he later had to try his hand at pitching to get back up to the big leagues.

However, the biggest story of all was the season for the ages by Minaya scrap heap pickup, 37 year old knuckleballer R.A. Dickey.  Overcoming an abdominal tear early in the season, Dickey went on to have a 20-6 season with a 2.73 ERA and a tiny 1.053 WHIP which is doubly impressive considering he was throwing the floater up there the majority of the time. 

When the season mercifully ended with a record of just 74-88, the second straight inferior season from Skipper Terry Collins, many were hopeful that they would allow him to leave as his 2-year contract was now over.  Unfortunately, in this case we also saw another pattern with Sandy Alderson – someone unable or unwilling to admit his mistakes. 

Tony Plate - NY Mets into second round of GM search

The New York Mets general manager search has reached the second round of interviews. The two favorites for the position are agent Brodie Van Wagenen who held preliminary talks with the Mets this past week and Doug Melvin the senior adviser of the Milwaukee Brewers. Van Wagenen who has experience in contract negotiation is the co-head of the baseball division at CAA sports. Two of his clients are Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard. Melvin who has baseball operations experience was the Brewer’s general manager from 2002-15. The Brewers made the playoffs in 2008 and 2011. He was also a former general manager of the Texas Rangers who made the playoffs several times in the 1990’s under his guidance.

As for the Major League Baseball Championship Series the Boston Red Sox eliminated the Houston Astros 4-1 and the Los Angeles Dodgers eliminated the Milwaukee Brewers 4-3 setting up a Boston vs Los Angeles World Series. The Brewer- Dodger series could have gone either way, but in the end the playoff experience of the Dodgers prevailed over the Brewers. Even though the Astros had injuries to a few key players I was still surprised that the defending world champion Astros did not put up much of a fight against the Red Sox. I thought the series would go seven games especially since the Astros had an easy time defeating the Cleveland Indians and their brilliant starting pitching staff.  In my opinion that controversial non-home run call in which the two-run homer was taken away from the Astros really took the fire out of the them.

David Price was brilliant in game five and pitched six scoreless innings, striking out nine to pick up his first career postseason win as a starter. This is a matchup that does not thrill New York Yankee fans since the Red Sox are their arch rivals and the Dodgers used to play in the New York area. The two cities have a long NBA history between each other and their teams have been great rivals. Both cities have good knowledgeable sports fans. The last time these two teams met in the world series was back in 1916 when the Dodgers were known as the Brooklyn Robins and the Red Sox won that series 4-1. The great Babe Ruth was the winning pitcher in game two and that fact makes a great trivia question. Both the Dodgers and Red Sox are very competitive teams. I think it will be a good world series and may the better team win.

Reese Kaplan -- Sandy Alderson Era -- 2011 in Review

As I will be out of town on vacation I put together a retrospective look at the career and decisions of Sandy Alderson on a year-by-year basis.  Part one looks at his introduction as the Mets new GM.

Back in the off-season months of 2010/2011 the Mets were last in the same situation in which they find themselves now, needing to find a new General Manager after Omar Minaya was fired following a disappointing 2010 season in which the club went 79-83 to finish 18 games behind the first place Philadelphia Phillies.  It wasn’t the results in the won-loss column that led to Minaya’s demise so much as his approved contracts to a few lackluster performers and the whole Tony Bernazard incident that led the team to feel they needed a new adult voice in the room.

Of course, at that same time the Mets were in the midst of the whole Bernie Madoff scandal which hamstrung their ability to pay their bills and whose after effects are still being felt to this day.  Major League Baseball stepped in and insisted the Mets take Sandy Alderson from their front office to be the new GM in the hopes that the former Oakland A’s and San Diego Padres executive could help right the Wilpons’ listing ship.

At the time most of the reaction was positive in that fans had turned on Minaya and Alderson had a track record of success.  More important to the Mets and to the MLB front office is that he did so while keeping payrolls suppressed.  With the Madoff lawsuit hanging over their heads the Mets were not going to be in the running for any big ticket free agents. 

Alderson’s first order of business was finding a replacement for the fired Jerry Manuel to lead the team on the field.  After a myriad of external possibilities surfaced as contenders for this slot, they instead went internal and promoted their minor league coordinator, Terry Collins, to become the next manager.  The reaction at the time was some head scratching and a collective, “Meh!” from the fans and the media.  Collins was known for alienating teams in both Anaheim and Houston, both of whom flourished after he departed. 

While that move may not have given the warm and fuzzies to the fans, Alderson quickly made up for it by releasing Minaya mistakes Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo.  The former took several years to reinvent himself as a situational reliever and the latter never amounted again to much of anything.  The addition by subtraction had people smiling. 

Of course, a few of the expensive talent acquisitions that remained – Johan Santana and Jason Bay – both started the year on the DL (with Santana missing the entire season).  Terry Collins had the dubious honor of having the third worst start of any Mets club after 15 games with a 4-11 record. 

As the year progressed it became quite clear that the club was going nowhere under Collins’ leadership.  After the incident in which he punched out his girlfriend’s father in the clubhouse, Alderson gave away Frankie Rodriguez (and his expensive contract) in exchange for warm bodies Danny Herrera and Adrian Rosario. 

The next big move came in the Carlos Beltran sweepstakes and apparently the San Francisco Giants held the winning ticket on their way to the World Series, obtaining the hired gun for their post-season push.  You can’t fault them for what they did as they eventually emerged the 2011 World Champions, but they gave up a highly regarded pitching prospect (and great salary relief) when they sent Zack Wheeler to the Mets.  It took 7 more years for him to put it altogether and remain healthy, and despite Beltran’s career lasting far longer than many anticipated everyone would do that deal again in a heartbeat. 

The highlight of the season for the Mets was Jose Reyes winning the club’s first ever homegrown batting title, but the good feelings were rapidly dashed when the speedy Reyes hightailed it Miami to grab their $105 million offer.  Depending on whose version you choose to believe, the fact remains the Mets never made a firm offer to Reyes, citing concerns about his hamstring woes as the reason for not making a long term investment. 

The season ended worse than 2010 ended, with a 77-85 record, 25 games out of first place once again trailing the division winning Philadelphia Phillies.  All in all, it was a season to forget beyond Reyes quest for the batting title which, if you recall, he secured by taking himself out of the game at the end of the season to preserve his average.  It was a sour footnote to a weak season.