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10/2/21

Reese Kaplan -- Chomping at the Bit for Mets Changes to Occur


Everyone who is old enough to have suffered through that ignominious night of June 15th in 1977 when the Mets made the Dick Young influenced decision to trade away The Franchise, Tom Seaver, to the Cincinnati Reds for a package that included Rookie of the Year Pat Zachry, utility infielder Doug Flynn and two rookies, Steve Henderson and Dan Norman.  The gut punch that Mets fans felt still hasn't gone away completely, even after the club reacquired Seaver several years later and then foolishly allowed him to slip away again by leaving him unprotected where he was selected by the White Sox in 1984.  He made two more full seasons of Major League Baseball before retiring at the end of the 1986 season playing for the World Series losing Boston Red Sox.

While that level of strong emotion cannot be expected nowadays where free agency, player and front office Twitter accounts make the fragility of the contracts quite public.  As a result, people are more prepared for player movement and salary demands as well as inklings of what the team is willing to pay.  That increased visibility probably removes some layers of loyalty to the player and instead translates into loyalty to the uniform any given player is wearing.  If a hated player from another team was headed to the Mets, all would be forgiven if he produced successfully for his new team.  

It's interesting nowadays to hold conversations about how folks feel regarding extending or waving goodbye to the potential free agents.  The hitters and pitchers who came up through the Mets farm system probably engender a greater loyalty from the fan base than those folks who were acquired via trade or short term free agent contracts.  Consequently there is a lot more emotion about Noah Syndergaard and Michael Conforto than there appears to be about Aaron Loup and Marcus Stroman.  Jeurys Familia is sort of an in-between as he was home grown, did not do very well his second time around, but you still occasionally feel the "it's better the devil you know" kind of rationale for keeping a familiar player around.  

Interestingly, external players are often put up on pedestals which is the polar opposite of "it's better the devil you know" viewpoint.  People assume when you bring in a player from another organization via trade or free agency that he will replicate for the Mets what he's done on average throughout his career.  Sometimes that's true such as the case of Asdrubal Cabrera who performed as expected when he signed here.  Sometimes the player exceeds what is written on the back of his baseball card (like Aaron Loup).  Sometimes he falters significantly like Francisco Lindor.  

It's going to be difficult to plan the roster for the upcoming season until the front office structure is settled.  Sandy Alderson's recent press conference seemed to echo much of what we'd concluded already.  He needs to find a President of Baseball Operations and a GM.  While he didn't come right out and say Zack Scott was toast, he surely wasn't baking him cupcakes to welcome him back.  Similarly, Luis Rojas' future will likely be a joint opinion of the front office folks that are hired with a termination being put squarely on the shoulders of the new GM if indeed that happens.  


Behind the scenes analysis is surely being done to identify existing employed personnel who they want to bring in to interview, but traditionally those kinds of meetings don't start until after the final out of the World Series is recorded.  It would indeed seem that time is of the essence, as a POBO and GM are needed in order to identify on-the-field decisions regarding not just the manager in charge but also the players to retain or pursue.  

All of us have pet favorites for each of the roles the Mets need to fill in the front office, filling out the lineup card and taking the field.  Saying you want to target a Freddie Freeman doesn't mean anything until you know who is going to be in charge of the plan building and the negotiations.  Right now all we can do is wait.  

16 comments:

  1. I agree.

    In fact, I would not make a decision on Rojas until my POBO is in place

    However...

    They need to giddy-up here before FA and the world of QOs passes them by.

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  2. Be bold, spend big,dang the torpedoes, full speed ahead.

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  3. Trouble is I really don't think any of us have any more faith in this regime than the last one and that HAS to change to have any chance going forward. Seeing the Braves last night and realizing how deep they are in outstanding young players and seeing our "A" team barely win against their mostly "B" gives you pause. Now I realize we are 9 and 8 against them this year but it just seems we're sadly lagging behind in quality talent. Your thought's guys?

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    1. Mets do not match up well to the Braves. Their starting eight are far superior to any lineup we produce.

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  4. The Braves have the proper mix of free agents, draft picks, and International signs.

    We have drafted very well over the past 5 years.

    The problem is we have traded away a fair share of the good players that we drafted.

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  5. Gary, the Mets badly need for Alvarez, Ginn, Vientos, Mauricio, Baty, Lee, Ramirez, and Cortes to mostly all become the real deals. Or Cohen May spend himself into oblivion trying to plug holes. That said, I like the soon-coming new crop.

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  6. The Wilponian approach of not starting the service time clocks ticking has carried over to Mr. Cohen. Granted, most of the players people wanted to see were not in AAA but in AA and it's not been the Mets' philosophy of moving folks up early like that. Still, the old practice of seeing what you have in September somewhat fell by the wayside when the 40-man September roster went away. Still, you could have seen 2-3 folks with potential for the future and less of folks who have helped you lose all year.

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    1. Do not understand what they are doing this week.

      Using old players is like the Clemson offense.

      Going nowhere.

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  7. I wish they would not allow the clock to start for Sept call ups, and raise the roster size for Sept from 28 to 32.

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  8. Whats the reason for not bringing up Lee because he was already up?

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    Replies
    1. We've already seen more of Lee than I want.

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  9. Ray, you might be right…but they probably said the same about Amos Otis back when he floundered as a Met.

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  10. One thing you want from a player is consistent performance. In May, June, July, August, and Sept, his LOWEST month’s on base % was .423. Soto is the only qualifying major leaguer who is higher than Lee’s lowest month.

    It’s all just numbers until he does it in Queens, though.

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  11. The are caught between a rock and a hard place with the roster constraints for the young guys. For everyone coming up, somebody has to go. You can't randomly place guys on the IL for no reason, you can't DFA them, and you can't send them to Syracuse. SOOO... no Lee, or anybody else.

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  12. I am hoping that Sandy already has his POBO all picked out and is just waiting for the end of the season to announce it. I am also hoping they have had discussions with potential GM candidates. These positions need to be filled sooner rather than later.

    Also the changes I am most interested in will not be visible until we see them play 30 or 40 games next year to see what kind of a team they are going to be on the field.

    I actually believe that IF they change the type of baseball they play by crisping up the fundamentals, playing a little more small ball, moving runners over, making their outs more productive, stealing more bags at more opportune times, and figuring out how to hit with runners in scoring position, they can win big with the players they have. In fact, in many ways, this team as constructed is built for that type of play already. While Lindor and Baez can hit for some power, guys like Nimmmo, McNeil, and Smith should be trying to hit for average and doubles with the home runs coming as "mistakes".

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