If you are a Mets fan, you have grown plenty weary of the half-measures taken by the soon-to-be-former front office in building a competitive team.
You have seen the club always staying out of the top free agent bidding except for their own players, you've seen them allow soon-to-be-expensive players depart rather than pay them market rate, you've seen them trade away just about every good prospect for poor returns on the deals, and you've seen them hiring far from the best available options for field and general management.
Is it any wonder when they perpetually stay out of October baseball?
Yesterday we examined a bit of the pros and cons of a follow up full-season tenure for Luis Rojas. My conclusion is that he's had less of a chance to fail than has Brodie Van Wagenen, so if you're going to choose to keep one of them, give the little guy one more shot. He's not yet a Hall of Fame manager, but then there are not any of those types knocking on your door looking for a job. In that respect, he's no worse than a proven loser whose greatest claim to fame was losing more games than has Rojas.
A lot of conversation has taken place regarding Cohen's desire to expand the use of analytics by working on growing that department. Towards that end he's also bringing back Sandy Alderson who, despite the Wilpons' handcuffs, genuinely seemed to try to build a winning ballclub (with the exception of his long term infatuation with a losing and clueless manager).
I've stated before and I will repeat that I'm much more interested in the Mets cultivating long term success than I am in a one-year quick fix that may or may not work.
Sure, if I could see George Springer in centerfield, Trevor Bauer in the rotation, J.T. Realmuto behind the plate and Liam Hendricks working out of the bullpen, that would be a great step towards filling holes in 26-man roster, but at what cost now and for the future?
If you are dumping $85 million or more on those players in that fantasy scenario, what happens when you need to secure Michael Conforto or Dom Smith or Pete Alonso or Jeff McNeil or Edwin Diaz? What about the $20+ million you're paying for a soon-to-be age 38 Robinson Cano? Let's not forget what two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom is earning, too.
Think about how competitive teams have built their success. Most are looking to groom young players who give them five years of inexpensive productivity. Couple that approach with the cost of supplementing the roster with free agents and trade acquisitions. Starting with only the over-30 crowd is good for one to three years, but rarely longer than that yet you are still obligated to pay the remaining salaries.
I would applaud a front office that spends as much time trying to build from within as it does dragging players kicking and screaming to the heretofore freak show of Citifield. The club achieved success with some of their internal players but there has been a definite paucity of prospects at the upper levels to keep this trend moving.
It is critically important for the scouting and analytics to take a huge step forward to make success more than just a one-year spend-a-thon.
3 comments:
I don't personally want slow and steady - I want a lot to be spent SMARTLY, and continue to develop your top retained players and shrewdly trade those with value that aren't bringing about the right mix.
Time to replicate the Dodgers.
I agree again fella's Smartly has been missing for a very long time and you only have to look at the Yankee Rays series to see 2 very different approach's to building a winning team. It's just very surprising with our limited payroll their method wasn't adopted sooner. Also the new ownership has to decide after losing 3 great years of Jake is he a better trade option at this point as he'll be 33 next season?
I would normally agree with you Reese with the Slow and Steady recipe, but not this winter.
If Cohen takes over control I feel so many things are in our favor to speed up the process.
1) Cohen taking over the team and his wallet. Yes we will have the richest owner in Baseball and even though he is spending a whole lot to purchase the team he has the extra bankroll to take advantage of what I believe will be a light spending offseason by the other owners because of the 2020 covid season. So you might be able to get these top players at a little bit more of a discounted rate as to years passed?
2) The pieces we most need are C, CF and SP. that trio is right there for the taking Realmuto, Springer and Bauer. That solidifies our up the middle for the next 4-5 years and then when they come off the books you hopefully have young home grown cheap talent to take over in Francisco Alvarez and Peter Crow Armstrong. You can also maybe trade them or move them to other positions if need be in 3 years. Realmuto (1B or DH) and Springer to (LF). Bauer on the on the other hand will surely fit the need as our number 1A starter and give us a better option when in the playoffs for that second game. Even though some may say he is a head case, you gotta love that arm
of his as it seems to get better year after year.
3) this is the year to lose draft choices and still have a strong draft. Like you said Reese buildup the scouting system big time. If we got all 3 of these players we will lose our 2nd 3rd and 4th draft picks, but this years draft will be stacked and unpredictable. Unpredictable because of Covid and so many players not entering the last draft. So many talented players may slip further back in the draft because no one has seen them play in 2020 and we still don’t know how 2021 college or high school seasons will look? So build up that scouting department and find some diamonds in the rough. I am also the believer to go all in on a draft every 5 or 6 years because when you pick up a player that is draft pick protected you’ll lose a 2nd round pick every year you sign one, with my method you lose 3rd and 4th founders and keep 2 more 2nd founders in other drafts.
4) Reese you also mentioned if we sign these players this year how will you be able to sign our younger players in the future? I think we use them while they are still cheap. I would try and trade Nimmo and Rosario either this winter or next. Alonso and JD in 3 years. I would keep Dom Smith and McNeil And sign them in 4 years to extensions and Conforto this winter as well. When you trade these guys you will be replenishing your farm system and also we have young guys ( Maurcio, Batty and Vientos) that will be able to take over for them on the cheap. So that way you keep the payroll at a moderate level and hopefully bring up 2 way players that will make our team even better and more sustainable for the future.
So that’s my GM moves for this winter, lol. Also some say to follow the Dodgers model of building a franchise. I think they did something as well by making that big trade with the Red Sox in August 2012. They took in some extra money on their payroll and didn’t damage their farm system. Did the trade work in their favor? I believe it did even though they didn’t win a championship because they got to keep their top prospects in their farm system while building a winning club on the major league level and being in playoff contention year after year. So this would be my model of how to build like the Dodgers.
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