By Brian Joura December 10, 2020
My opinion is that it’s a good thing that Steve Cohen brought Sandy Alderson back to the Mets. And while it’s frustrating that the Mets haven’t been able to assemble the front office they were hoping for, to me it’s a good thing that Alderson will be more heavily involved in baseball decisions. He’s smart and disciplined, which are two pretty good traits to have. We can feel pretty safe that he won’t get snookered on a deal.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that everything is just wonderful. No one has a monopoly on truth or correct decisions. If you gave me an exclusive interview with Alderson, here are some of the things that would come up in that discussion:
1. In an environment where you gave Sam McWilliams, who’s never pitched in the majors and had an 8.18 ERA in Triple-A, $750,000 and you tendered an offer to Robert Gsellman (MLBTR estimates it to cost around $1.4 million) despite a 5.03 ERA the past four years and you signed Steven Matz to a $5.2 million deal after a 4.83 ERA the past four years, including an ERA over 9 last season, why did you cut loose Chasen Shreve after a season where he had an ERA a half of a run better than league average (and that was blown up by two outings at the end of the season, he had a 1.99 ERA before those) and his MLBTR estimate was only $1.1 million? Do you expect to add five relievers better than Shreve to make his lack of available options, like Gsellman has, to make a difference? Or do you still believe, despite all evidence to the contrary, that Gsellman can make it as a SP?
2. In your introductory press conference, you indicated that Luis Rojas would be back as the team’s manager. You acknowledged that there were tactical errors but indicated that these were relatively easy to fix. Why is it more important to be good with the press than it is to be good in the dugout? You can never win a game in the clubhouse or in front of a microphone that you lost on the field. And if it’s so easy to fix those dugout errors – what are you doing to help Rojas improve?
3. Reporting yesterday had the Mets deep in discussions with James McCann to be the team’s new catcher. What made you pick McCann over J.T. Realmuto? What’s the level of concern with McCann’s shorter track level of success, especially as compared to Realmuto? Given that McCann has just two years of good production – and one of those came last year in a shortened season when he split time behind the plate with Yasmani Grandal – is he a good bet to hold up over the proposed four-year deal as a full-time backstop?
4. Whether it’s because of the players or management, the Mets have had a relatively good clubhouse the last decade. It hasn’t been perfect but it seems the few incidents that have come to light have not lingered. On top of that, the players from last year’s team seem especially to like one another. With those thoughts in mind, do you have any worries about how the team will embrace Marcus Stroman after he opted out last season once he had enough service time to qualify for free agency? And does this have any influence on whether to add Trevor Bauer, who has certainly rubbed some former teammates the wrong way?
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