Reese Kaplan -- Sandy Alderson Era -- 2018 in Review

The Mets went into the 2017/2018 off-season with a certain mix of enthusiasm and hostility.  Gone from the books were a great many free agent contracts and the embarrassment of 2017 certainly suggested that the club would make dramatic strides to improve its lot in life.

The first major change was the Mets decision to hire Indians pitching coach Mickey Callaway to be the club’s new manager.  His enthusiasm was infectious, his expressed desire to improve communications, his affinity for some of the more analytical aspects of player evaluation and his freshness suggested that this unexpected zig-zag was a good one.  Sure, there were people clamoring for other possibilities with more of a track record like Joe Girardi (as well as other newcomers like Alex Cora and Gabe Kapler). 

Callaway quickly showed he was green in making some rookie managerial mistakes with substitutions and lineup errors.  After getting off to a fast start, the annual injury parade began and it left the middle part of the season threatening to capsize Callaway’s ship before it even got on course.

As the year unfolded, he seemed to settle into the role and the questionable decisions became much fewer and further between.  He was able to extract better performances out of heretofore non-critical pieces of the attack, including Brandon Nimmo, Amed Rosario and others. 

Going into the season Sandy Alderson and the front office were quite busy trying to fortify the roster, but again took the second and third tier approach instead of going for the best available talents.  Additions to the Mets included Jason Vargas, Anthony Swarzak, Todd Frazier and Adrian Gonzalez.  They were joined by an option exercised on Asdrubal Cabrera, yet another reunion with Jose Reyes, and a new contract to Jay Bruce.  None of these moves worked out as expected with the exception of Asdrubal Cabrera.  It’s almost unfathomable to get everything so completely wrong.  I had not long ago outlined how they could have spent less and gotten more productivity instead of constantly trying to find treasures in the bargain bin.

When this season also quickly deteriorated the next purge began.  Matt Harvey was sent packing to Cincinnati in exchange for oft-injured Devin Mesoraco.  While he provided power and good skills behind the plate, Mesoraco once again missed significant stretches with injuries.  However, having lost both Travis d’Arnaud and Kevin Plawecki to injury, it was a necessary deal both to rid themselves of the persona non grata Harvey and also to get more production than was being provided by the emergency tandem of Jose Lobaton and Tomas Nido.

There were, of course, more scrap heap pickups like Jose Bautista, Chris Beck, Austin Jackson and Jack Reinheimer.  Many figured when the Red Sox DFA’d Hanley Ramirez he would be the next sure addition. 

Once again the Mets did what they always do – sending away departing free agent Jeurys Familia – and obtaining not much in return.  This time it was a sore-armed third baseman named Will Toffey and a sore-armed pitcher named Bobby Wahl.  The important part of the deal for the Mets was the international bonus pool money sent from Oakland to the New York. 

Asdrubal Cabrera was also sent packing as his option was up at year’s end.  He brought back Franklyn Kilome, a tall, skinny starting pitcher who doesn’t fan as many as you would think given his stuff, but who actually fared better in the Mets organization at year’s end than he did for the Philadelphia minor league squad.  He lowered his WHIP to just over 1.000 and delivered a better than 4:1 Strikeout to Walk ratio.  The jury is still out on that deal given his ERA over 4.00. 

By the end of the season people were starting to feel some optimism, something that’s been missing since the 2016 season.  Younger players were developing well, including the late promotion of Jeff McNeil, and they have slugger Pete Alonso tearing it up in the Arizona Fall League.  Going into this off-season once they finally find someone willing to take their GM job, the issues to address are far fewer than in the past – some bullpen improvements, a decision about catcher and perhaps a spare outfielder.  For once they have fairly set and improving positions on the rest of the squad.

So that’s a long look over the eight years of Sandy Alderson’s legacy as the Mets GM.  There were things he surely didn’t do well, between communicating, identifying talent, eschewing top tier free agents, avoiding trades as a way of improving the roster and spending ineffectively.  However, history will show his drafting was better than originally perceived and just as we saw the fruits of Omar Minaya’s labors, the next GM will benefit as players like Tyler Bashlor, Pete Alonso, Andres Gimenez and others help the club succeed.