Reese Kaplan -- Blame the MGR or the GM?

I remember reading the Leo Tolstoy novel, Anna Karenina, many years ago.  There is a famous opening line, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”  This philosophy came to mind when I read recently Jay Bruce’s comments, “I think that I pretty much went from what ended up being one of the least fun situations in baseball to the most fun,” Bruce volunteered.  “That’s no slight to the Mets at all. But to have the opportunity to come to a team like this is something that doesn’t happen very often.”

Everyone is in agreement that things have gone off the rails for the Mets.  The question is how did this unhappy family arrive to its sad state?  Some say the blame should fall on the beleaguered manager, Terry Collins.  Other say the architect of this mess, Sandy Alderson, is responsible for it happening.  For more than a decade that preceded the current management team the fingers were pointed at the team owners, the Wilpon family.  Let’s take a look at each one. 

Terry Collins is a bad manager.  That’s not even worth arguing.  He has a career losing record, a Mets losing record and every day puts together lineups that have people muttering obscenities or talking to themselves.  He regularly burns out the bullpen, favors veterans ad nauseum over younger players and doesn’t seem to understand that the three-run homer is not the only way to try to win a game. 

To be fair, he hasn’t had much to work with.  However, unlike a Billy Martin who could get his team to play over its head by motivating players, Collins has a knack for getting the least out of his crew.  John McGraw himself couldn’t have put the current squad into contention given the spate of injuries, but even a Little League manager knows to ride the hot hand and to put the best team on the field from available options. 

Sandy Alderson was brought in to restore order and to transform a team that ended the 2010 season in public disgrace into one that was respectable once again.  Everyone knew it would not be an overnight affair, and the 2011, 2012 and 2013 seasons were pretty much lost.  2014 saw them finish in 2^nd place, emerging from the fight for the cellar, and in 2015 they made it to the World Series.  The following year they returned to the post-season despite a large number of injuries, but were gone after just a single game.

During this time period Sandy Alderson has had several ponderous drafts in which he bypassed the consensus best choices for people who have not developed as he had hoped.  He let good players walk away and failed to be aggressive when it came to signing quality free agents both domestically and internationally.  This season he traded away the core of his team for a collection of non-prospect relief pitchers, some of whom hit the Mets own top 30 which speaks volumes about how thin his talent pool is. 

The Wilpons have been in financial turmoil ever since the Madoff scandal took place.  We were told by Fred Wilpon himself during spring training in 2013 about his financial issues, "It's all in the rear-view mirror.”

Really?  Since 2013 the spending has included luminaries such as Aaron Harang, Dice-K, John Mayberry, Chris Young (OF), Frank Francisco, Jon Rauch and others while also cutting ties with Justin Turner, Daniel Murphy, Angel Pagan, Carlos Gomez and similarly productive players.  They foolishly approved the contract extension to David Wright while simultaneously crying poverty and then went on to sign Curtis Granderson and Michael Cuddyer as second tier options when better talents existed in the marketplace. 

This season Sandy Alderson frankly embarrassed his employers by selling off many pieces for a bunch of warm bodies with the justification that he could only get approval to spend as much as he did if he could recoup some of the payroll dollars should the team fall out of contention.  When did the bottom line finances become more important than winning?

I think there’s blame to go around but you can’t fire the owners.  I’m of the opinion that both Alderson and Collins need to go since someone needs to be accountable for this debacle.  Collins' ongoing disdain for younger players suggests he is ill equipped for a rebuilding team and Alderson’s decision making brought the team over the brink. 

However, if you had to pick one of the two to go, which would it be?  Forget the reality that the manager can’t fire the GM.  Have at it.  Me?  I could flip a coin just so long as at least one of them left.  It’s highly unlikely you could do worse.