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.