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.