Mets fans are an unhappy bunch. The team teased with some near .500 performances
only to fall back to a battle for the cellar.
The glass half-full set will point out that as dismal as things are, the
team is still just five and a half games behind the Nationals and Braves who
are tied for the division lead. There’s
some merit to that optimism, considering the fact that on most nights the
lineup includes only 2 hitters with averages above .250 – David Wright and
Daniel Murphy.
The pessimists in the room will point out that the pitching
success is unsustainable, the ballpark is nightmare for hitters and the manager
is clueless when it comes to filling out a lineup card and making decisions
during the course of the game. This
point is equally valid.
Even the most Pollyannaish of the former group are quick
to point out you can’t make chicken soup out of chicken poop. So who’s responsible for the roster
composition? Why, it’s none other than
the “smartest guy in the room”, Sandy Alderson – the man Bud Selig foisted on the
Wilpons to right the sinking ship caused by the Madoff mess.
Unfortunately, if you look at Sandy Alderson’s track record
since coming on board on October 29th of 2010, he’s had WAY more
misses than hits when it comes to putting a team onto the field. Let’s review:
2010
In November of his first year Alderson released the
serviceable Hisanori Takahashi who worked both as a starter and reliever who
finished with a 3.61 ERA. He signed with
the Angels and the next year turned in a winning record with a 3.44 ERA,
appearing in 61 games.
The other free agents he allowed to leave didn’t amount to
much – Pedro Feliciano, Fernando Tatis, Henry Blanco, Kelvim Escobar, Sean
Green, John Maine (never the same after injuries) and Elmer Dessens.
His acquisitions were pretty lackluster – Brad Emaus,
Chin-lung Hu, Ronny Paulino and his first multi-year dip into the free agent
pool, D.J. Carrasco (who would later be released).
2011
The Chris Capuano signing turned out to be a good one which
he later parlayed into a multi-year deal with the Dodgers. Free agent pitcher Jason Isringhausen did
well and played his way onto the roster from a minor league contract.
Perhaps his best moves during the off-season were the
release of two pariahs held over from the Omar Minaya years – Luis Castillo and
Oliver Perez. Castillo quickly was out
of baseball, but Perez has reinvented himself as something of a LOOGY.
Big Chris Young (the pitcher) couldn’t stay healthy enough
to contribute much. Scott Hairston
provided a little bit of pop primarily off the bench in 2011 before breaking
through with 20 HRs in 2012 (when he was not traded at the All Star break and
then allowed to leave as a free agent).
During this year we saw the beginnings of the AAAA shuffle –
players aging out of their minor league careers and getting a spot on the major
league roster only to crash and burn.
Jason Pridie in the outfield and Pat Misch on the mound were two good
examples. In a virtual exchange of AAAA
players, the Mets released Nick Evans and welcomed Mike Baxter.
At the All Star break Alderson went into full salary dump
mode, trading Francisco Rodriguez to the Milwaukee Brewers for pint-sized and
sore armed Danny Herrera, then trading Carlos Beltran to the San Francisco
Giants for highly regarded prospect, Zack Wheeler. On the former, it pains Mets fans to see
F-Rod 2nd in the league in Saves while the Mets have nothing to show
for that deal except salary relief. On
the latter, the team desperately misses Beltran’s bat and the jury is still out
on what level of pitcher Wheeler will become.
He’s certainly shown flashes of
brilliance but thus far lacks consistency.
In what would be the only true solid major league talent for
solid major league talent trade of Alderson’s career, the Mets sent Angel Pagan
to the San Francisco Giants for heretofore solid reliever Ramon Ramirez and
defensive whiz Andres Torres who hit like the love child of Ruben Tejada and
Eric Young, Jr. Pagan, of course, went
on to become a lynch pin in the Giant’s offense while the Mets struggled to
solve the CF dilemma for the next few years until Juan Lagares arrived and
Terry Collins deigned to play him.
2012
In January the Astros claimed former uber-prospect Fernando
Martinez off waivers from the Mets, while the hometown team was busy inking
illustrious free agents like Miguel Batista, Scott Hairston (the sequel) and
inexplicably Ronny Cedeño – a good glove/no-hit veteran who could have been
replaced on the roster by any number of minimum wage alternatives. Two relievers that Toronto decided were not
good enough for them made their way onto the Mets’ payroll – big Jon Rauch and
a two-year deal for Frank Francisco. Late
in the year veteran catcher Kelly Shoppach was obtained from the Red Sox but
didn’t show much to convince the team he was going to be a part of the
future. As the season ended the Mets
would claim Anthony Recker off waivers from the Cubs.
When the season mercifully ended, all of the following fled
the Mets for greener pastures: Scott
Hairston, Ramon Ramirez, Jon Rauch, Kelly Shoppach, Chris Young (P), Ronny
Cedeño, Manny Acosta, Mike Pelfrey and Andres Torres.
All was not lost on Sandy Alderson’s watch, however. He did sign sidearmer Greg Burke and career
minor leaguer Scott Rice (currently pitching to a 5.93 ERA).
Once again Alderson operated in full salary dump mode and
traded reigning Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey along with catchers Josh
Thole and Mike Nickeas to Toronto for recently demoted Travis d’Arnaud,
currently injured Noah Syndergaard, catcher John buck and 18 year old Wulimer
Becerra. Thus far Syndergaard has shown
flashes of dominance tempered by command issues. Catcher d’Arnaud’s struggles are well
documented. Buck was a huge win for the
Mets as he started out like an All-Star for the first 2 months of the 2013
season before his June swoon. For the
remainder of his Mets career he hit a Recker-like .204, striking out in over ¼ of
his at-bats. I haven’t seen word one
about Becerra and he has no stats listed for 2014. I’m thinking serious injury.
His other notable acquisition of the year was Collin “More” Cowgill
for fringe prospect Jeffry Marte. That
move ended rather quickly (though not as fast as his reign as centerfielder
after manager Terry Collins declared him the starter and benched him two days
later).
2013
In January the Mets
signed injured pitcher Shaun Marcum to a free agent contract (why?) and invited
assorted stragglers to spring training.
One of them acquitted himself quite well – LaTroy Hawkins – but was
denied a contract at the end of the year for the piddling sum of $2.25
million.
In February disgraced outfielder Marlon Byrd was signed to a
minor league deal, but he confounded his critics by turning in his best season
ever at age 35 and later would be parlayed along with ice cold catcher John
Buck to the Pirates for their stretch run.
That deal netted the Mets 2nd baseman Dilson Herrera
currently hitting .302 for Port St. Lucie as well as Vic Black who is on the
major league roster with a very tidy 1.13 ERA.
That’s a home run for Alderson.
Other “highlights” of 2013 include the signing of Rick
Ankiel, the seemingly always injured David Aardsma, the umpteenth signing of
Omar Quintanilla, the forever injured Scott Atchison, and the first appearance
of right handed bench warmer Andrew Brown (who had more HRs and RBIs playing in
Las Vegas than about 2-3 current hitters combined).
By June the Collin Cowgill era officially ended when he was
dispatched for a warm body to the Los Angeles Angels where he currently sports
a .279 average which would lead all Mets outfielders at this point in
time.
In July the Mets righted two talent-evaluation mistakes by
releasing free agent reliever Brandon Lyon and starter Shaun Marcum. Late in the year they put both Daisuke
Matsuzaka and Aaron Harang in the rotation.
Both had rough starts but turned in some strong performances to end the
year. They let Harang walk away, of
course, where he’s one of division leading Atlanta’s top pitchers. Dice-K is currently in the rotation after
being relegated to the bullpen upon promotion from Las Vegas earlier this
season.
The trading of Collin McHugh for the injured but .200
hitting Eric Young, Jr. looks doubly bad now that he’s apparently flourishing
for Houston.
To close out the year the Mets signed the OTHER Chris Young
for reasons unclear at the time and increasingly difficult to comprehend. They also secured the services of Bartolo
Colon for 2 years after the age of 41 which is ironic since LaTroy Hawkins was
around the same age and not offered a deal.
Hawkins is, of course, closing successfully for the Colorado
Rockies.
2014
To “fix” the bullpen problems, Alderson reached out to
washed up relievers Kyle Farnsworth and Jose Valverde, signing them to minor
league deals but it turned out only to be a formality as they were in Queens
very quickly before being dumped. John
Lannan was added to the pen, too, and he was the first to get the ax. Bobby Abreu was signed as well, ensuring
there would be no age discrimination lawsuits filed against the Mets (unless it
was for relegating rookies to the bench).
Finally in late April Sandy pulled the trigger on a deal to
move struggling 1st baseman Ike Davis to the Pirates for non-roster
reliever Zack Thornton and a PTBNL.
Theoretically that unnamed player is the key to the deal.
So what do we have to show for Alderson’s reign? He’s hamstrung the Wilpons with the David
Wright contract. He has signed an
innumerable amount of has-beens and never wases. The only shining star at the moment is
signing Marlon Byrd who, with John Buck, turned into Black and Herrera. Wheeler looks like he could be very good, but
at this point in time the team probably needs a middle-of-the-order hitter
more. The R.A. Dickey trade is probably
still in that “Too Soon to Tell” stage.
Pretty much everything else he’s touched has been an unmitigated
disaster. For now we’ll leave the issue of the manager
he chose to hire (and EXTEND) off the table.
As a judge of talent he’s not been very good and as a business man
(allowing free agents to walk away for very little money), he’s not done well
either. As a trader – well, that’s
virtually non-existent unless he was dumping salary. For as much criticism as I heap upon Terry
Collins, the fault, it would appear, lies with his boss.
9 comments:
Actually, I praised the Capuano signing which worked out well (much like the Dice-K signing has done, too). The problem is the "batting average" on his deals is in the low .100s and that's not good enough.
Dean Barbella · Technology Sales Manager - Fusion Middleware at Oracle
If you criticize Sandy for Chicken Poop signings like Chris Capuano, Chris Young, then you're only contradicting yourself, because these guys were craptacular reclamation projects picked off the MLB trash-heap. The accountability starts and ends with the Wilpons, who handed Sandy a small market payroll and $30M in dead money. Sandy had no choice, but to stock the cupboards for 2015-16. Essentially, the Willpons are turning the Mets into the Miami Marlins.
Reese -
I praise you for your research on this (IMO)accurate post.
Wuilmer Becerra is on the GCL Mets roster. No stats because they haven't started play yet.
Hey Reese
Some compendium of info. Sandy's Dandies were many indeed.
I would not berate the Dickey deal - we'll still likely get the better of it. He has not been Cy Young-ish in Toronto - of course, if we kept him here with no change of scenery, and not signed Marcum last year, he may have pitched great for us and maybe the playoffs were achievable in 2013.
Can't fault him on McHugh for EY Jr, who was decent last year - McHugh is exceeding reasonable expectations....dear Mr. McHugh prior to this year was a rousing 0-8 with a 9.00 ERA in 2012 and 2013 in nearly 50 innings - not awe-inspiring.
Great Byrd trade - terrible Chris Young signing and Hawkins non-signing.
You messed out big time on this report because you forgot to say anything about JOSE REYES.
This is an awesome post. Very well done on the history of transactions. I agree somewhat with Dean in that he may have had his hand forced on some of these craptastic signings. He had his payroll come down close to 60 million over the last few years while the cost of the MLB player has continued to go up. Lets face it Omar made a lot of the same horrible moves but with a lot more money. It is disappointing that he has made so few good moves. You could at least see the logic in many of them. An interesting question might be what clubs are finding the right players on the scrap heap with the same sort of budget. With the Red Sox finding some good reclamation projects I feel like all 29 other teams are trying to do the same thing.
The article points out well how Alderson has built a crappy roster.
Given that, how can you simultaneously blame the manager for not making chicken soup out of it?
@Bill Metsiac: I blame the manager for getting worse performances out of his players than they have demonstrated in previous years, sticking with worn-out or underwhelming veterans at the expense of younger players who might develop into something, bullpen mismanagement and his infatuation with people who simply are not performing.
@Anonymous: I intentionally left out the whole Jose Reyes situation because, depending on who you choose to believe, he was told not to trade him. However, I should have at least mentioned it -- you're absolutely right.
@Pat Maruggi: How's that Jose Abreu doing for about the same deal as Curtis Granderson? And oh yeah, he's HOW MANY years younger, too?
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