Today the comment selected is by our own Mack who, in commenting on his own post about his ideas for what he would do if he was in charge of the Mets, offered up some interesting insights into the man who would be the Mets' own version of Steinbrenner:
If what Mack found is indeed accurate, then this off-season becomes even more challenging. Brodie Van Wagenen needs to assert himself in a real big way or fade into oblivion. I can't see the half-measures of scrap heap pickups and 3rd tier free agents matching the new boss' vision.
The thing is its hard to separate out if any of the Mets GMs are good or not because we don't know how much meddling is being done by Jeff. How different would Sandys or BVWs approach have been with more payroll flexibility and front office decisions? BVW has been forced to be creative because the Mets have not operated like a small or big market team. They don't lock up young talent (Wheeler, Matz, Syndergaard, DeGrom, Conforto) before they get expensive or become free agents. They also don't sign big free agents. At the same time BVW did acquire redundant pieces in Lowrie and Cano spiking the payroll which he has to deal with now. I frankly don't think he has much of an option except scrap heaps with only $20 or so million to spend. The problem is they keep kicking the bucket down the road with this issue. They need to solve SP, RP and backup catcher still on limited budget with no room to extend and lockdown some of their guys. Next year they will free up 40 million but then need to pay raises to everyone and again be limited in upgrading or fixing holes. Replacing Stroman, Wheeler, Matz, and Syndergaard is going to be very expense. Hopefully Cohen can get them out of the cycle.
ReplyDelete