Reese Kaplan -- NOW the New Mets World Begins

Yesterday, November 6th, became a red letter day for the future of the New York Mets as Steve Cohen quickly funded his purchase and officially took over as the sole honcho in charge of rebuilding the franchise.  

The other big corresponding move that day is it signifies the official transfer of upper management responsibilities to include former GM Sandy Alderson.  There's been a lot of discourse back and forth about whether Alderson will act as the GM, allow Brodie Van Wagenen to be the GM or to treat Van Wagenen like the Wilpon cast-off he is and he too will be given the door-hitting-backside treatment as well.

 

A lot of names have been bandied about as to who Sandy would want to bring into the Mets organization.  Some are greatly familiar like J.P. Ricciardi and current employee John Ricco.  Others are people who have crossed paths in Oakland and other places where Alderson has had a greater introduction to the candidates' capabilities than how well they keep people entertained with banter on the golf course.  

 

Apparently the skills on the greens didn't transfer to the Cohen/Alderson clubhouse as late in the day Friday Brodie Van Wagenen and a slew of other front office types were told to find their new paychecks elsewhere.  Wow.  That was swift and thorough.  Word filtered out that Alderson told Cohen he wasn't coming back to the mess that was there and he needed to bring in his own folks.  Cohen respected that condition and gave Sandy what he wanted. 

Now most folks are on the "Dump Brodie" bandwagon given that he was brought in to make the team competitive, yet in his two seasons in charge he finished with a record of 112 and 110.  That's not exactly what folks had in mind from the odd selection of the super agent turning into a GM.  Anyone who is attuned to minor league prospects knows that BVW viewed them as trading chips and not future members of the organization.  Consequently, even if he is retained, I wouldn't expect to see much of the youngster sell off as happened in the past two seasons because frankly there isn't much left there that would appeal to other teams.  More importantly, with players on the latter part of their careers like Robinson Cano, Dellin Betances and Brad Brach, it's important for the Mets to think a little deeper than one season at a time.  

 

There is another important date upcoming on Wednesday which plays a major part in the Mets' future (though it's in the player's hand if it gets resolved sooner than that).  Right now they have indeed extended the $18.9 million qualifying offer to Marcus Stroman to remain with the club for 2021, but the general consensus is that he's off to try to land a multi-year deal from the highest bidder. 

 

In 2019-2020 the Mets were faced with a similar prospect with oft-injured Zack Wheeler.  He decided to try his luck on the open market and got the Phillies to pony up $118 million for five years of service.  He was coming off a season with a winning record -- 11-8 -- with a decent but not exceptional 3.96 ERA.  The Phillies have to be pleased with the immediate returns during the 2020 trial season during which Wheeler finished 4-2 with a 2.92 ERA over 11 starts.  His strikeouts were down a bit but you can't argue with success.

 

Stroman figures to be looking for a similar deal. They have very similar career profiles with Wheeler having a slight edge of a 3.70 ERA (including his fine 2020 season) vs. 3.76 ERA for Stroman.  Both have marginally positive winning records.  Stroman has a greater track record of health, but the depressed market this off-season could work against him as teams all lost huge amounts of money without any gate revenue.  Some feel he might be smarter taking the $18.9 million for the upcoming season then reevaluate the free agency for next year when teams likely will have more money to spend.  

 

Of course, as mentioned here previously, the Mets win either way.  They are desperate for starting pitching and a decent arm like Stroman would be most welcome.  If he does leave, the Mets get to look to the future by gaining another draft pick from the signing team.  

 

Whomever it is with GM responsibilities is going to have his work cut out for him as the many holes in the starting rotation, bullpen, outfield, infield and catcher all need to be addressed.