5
2011
Things Sandy Alderson Says
An article by 
I just read the complete transcript of Sandy Alderson’s press conference last night courtesy of ESPN New York. I feel like I’ve been sandbagged. Although I have a problem with a lot of things he said last night, my biggest issues were with these two items…
What would be the message to Mets fans about 2012 if they watch what the Marlins are doing, what the Nationals are projected to do, and the strength of the Phillies and Braves?
“Well, I don’t believe Mets fans will be surprised if these reports are true, that Jose may not be back.”
This response really baffles me… Why shouldn’t Met fans be surprised? After all, for the last few months Sandy kept emphasizing that re-signing Jose Reyes was his top priority. He also told us that he understood the special bond between Reyes and the fans over and over and over again.
Alderson also opted NOT to trade Reyes for whom he would have gotten a boatload. Look at what Beltran netted? So when you consider all of that, why would Sandy Alderson think that the majority of fans wouldn’t be surprised that Jose Reyes is now a Marlin?
He sent out us all the right signals and then played us like a harp from hell.
Can you explain why you drew the line at less than the Marlins’ offer?
“Well, you have to draw a line somewhere. And based on our experience — not just with Jose, but with multi-year contracts generally — and not just with our multi-year contracts, but all multi-year contracts generally, we decided that there were some conceptual limitations to where we would go.”
If you’re hesitant to do big contracts to start with, can any of this be interpreted as being happy this player is leaving?
“No, I wouldn’t say that we’re happy that he may be leaving. But I think as a practical matter, one always has to look at these situations and these types of contracts and recognize there are constraints to be able to sign them and acquire or retain a player. But there’s a substantial amount of risk associated with that.”
Make no mistake that Sandy Alderson has an aversion to longterm contracts… ANY longterm contracts. In fact, even if Wilpon had given Alderson $145M to spend for 2012, the result would have been the same. Alderson still would have let Jose Reyes go.
I argued this point with three different people last night and they just couldn’t grasp it. This is not on Wilpon, it’s totally on Alderson. All the payroll budget in the world wouldn’t have changed Alderson’s philosophy one bit, and if it did than Alderson is nothing but a fraud in a cool sweater vest. Sandy Alderson is not a fraud. He has his principles, he has his ideas about things, and he has his way of doing business. Sandy Alderson does not do longterm contracts. This decision had nothing to do with Madoff, money or Wilpon.
I’ve lost a lot of confidence in the GM in the last 24 hours. I don’t know if I can take anything he says at face value. We have a conference call with him on Thursday night and everything is hunky dory, and then 72 hours later all hell breaks loose. He told me how Reyes was a franchise player and how every attempt would be made to re-sign him, and then last night he says he knew for 72 hours that he and Reyes were probably not going to get something done. I don’t know what to believe anymore.
Last night when Sandy Alderson was asked if this virtually assures that David Wright is as good as gone, he responded, “Right now we don’t contemplate trading David Wright”.
But why should any Mets fan believe anything that comes out of his mouth? I wouldn’t doubt that he’s already discussing the parameters of a Wright deal with 2-3 teams already.
On Thursday, Sandy said that payroll will be same with or without Reyes. Does anyone believe that?
What did I tell you guys two weeks ago after Sandy Alderson confirmed that payroll would be $100 to $110 million? I said payroll would probably be closer to $85 million. You believe me now?
About the Author: Joe DeCaro
I'm a lifelong Mets fan who loves writing and talking about the Amazins' 24/7. From the Miracle in 1969 to the magic of 1986, and even the near misses in '73 and '00, I've experienced it all - the highs and the lows. I started Mets Merized Online in 2005 to feed my addiction. Follow me on Twitter @metsmerized.
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Are you serious? You don’t pin any of this on the Wilpons?! Where do you think the GM gets his budget mandate from? He must risk sounding like a con artist in lieu of tarnishing the Wilpons’ goal of saving money, the team be damned! Why do we still insist on expecting ownership to change from what has been painfully clear at least to me: Making the team better is not a priority, it’s secondary to filling their pockets! Dude, come on!
This.
Alderson is a bull sh_t artist and it’s high time he realizes his sophisticated presentation has worn thin, that he’s as overexposed as Dillion Gee in the second half. Alderson should just do us a favor and step down. Better to keep Pelfrey, Carrasco and Pagan on the payroll, then extending an offer to Reyes, right?
Joe glad you are finally seeing Sandy for what he is, a hot air machine, everything he says you count on the opposite happening. He has more spin than a washing machine. I am starting to think Jessep and him are related or at least share the same mind.
that mind being anti-winning, anti world series.
this
It should have been obvious to anyone that there was no desire to keep Reyes when they kept pushing the BS line that they’ll get a last shot. They made it up. If Reyes wanted to give the Mets a last shot, or anyone, he’d have delayed signing to see if any offers came up at the Winter meetings. It team! looks like he want to be respected, something that Wilpon the crook didn’t do and Alderson certainly didn’t do. Alderson is a robot and doesn’t think you need to respect your players or your fans because this is a business. Well you failed Alderson…. Business or not people need to be respected to spend their money on your business. Now we can only hope you are the cause of an empty park and force the Wilpons to sell. You also failed Alderson by not trading Reyes as ylou don’t even get a Marlins first round pick, not their second. FAIL FAIL FAIL… Waiting for donal and any to tell us all how that third round pick will save the team.
One must believe that Sandy Alderson knew or had reason to know that he did not have the financial resources available to sign José Reyes this off-season. If that is the case, then it was incumbent upon him to leverage his position at the trading deadline and extract as much value as possible on the trade market, much as he did when he traded Carlos Beltran for Zack Wheeler.
Instead, the only residual value that we are left with is the Miami Marlins third round draft pick in the June 2012 amateur draft. Whether the Wilpons had the money or not, whether Sandy Alderson’s aversion to long-term contracts stood in the way, the bottom line is that we lost one of the best homegrown talents ever to wear a New York Met uniform to free agency and to a division rival with very little to show for it.
Whether José Reyes becomes a perennial MVP candidate or, God forbid, he blows out his hamstring and does not play another game, Alderson clearly dropped the ball and there is no amount of his smug intellectualism that will erase this fact.
In the long run, the New York Mets may be better off without having paid José Reyes $106 million over the next six years. He is not the most durable player, and his absence becomes that much more pronounced because of his superstar talent. We may be better off with a shortstop who is a notch lower in talent but two notches higher in reliability. I can deal with that.
What I have difficulty in accepting is that we did not leverage José Reyes value on the trade market when the likelihood of re-signing him now appears in retrospect to be so remote. What hurts most is to consider the deficits in our roster and how they might have been addressed by the inclusion of two blue-chip prospects that a trade involving José Reyes would have likely yielded.
Here’s an example: San Francisco Giants likely would have parted with centerfield prospect Gary Brown and one more pitching prospect for José Reyes. We would have successfully traded José Reyes outside of our division and collected handsome compensation in the form of young talent.
I am embarrassed for Sandy Alderson.
You know, after the news last night i came to the site and started reading most of the comments, and is amazing to me how pretty much everyone except one person in here don’t see this as disturbing as it is. but hey, soon we’ll see the article about how THIS was the right thing to do, how reyes is overpaid and how sandy still the genius he is, this is just part of the plan…
i must say, sandy alderson is a savvy man, he controls the media at will, last night after the news broke out he rapidly when to hurry up mode and what does he say? “well, when a team losses $70 million..” but funny, he hadn’t mention THAT ALL YEAR, up until last night that was his secret weapon, he unveiled it and most people deviate from the news at hand, now is not his fault but the wilpon, yet he made no push to even offer reyes a contract, there were just reports, he tried to play the “reyes’ agent didn’t call me at first, but that was quickly shut down as he knew reyes’ agent would’ve called him what i’ve been calling him, A LIAR.
with that being said, these are very tough times in NY, is amazing how selig can force Mccourty to sell the franchise and go away but allows the wilpon to stay afloat running this franchise to the ground… teams like the pirates, royals, A’s lose free agents due to lack of money, this is not supposed to happened to a franchise in the largest market, today is truly a sad day.. even more than when strawberry left NY… for those of you who basically were kissing alderson’s ass, i hope you wake up and smell the coffee..
Joe, after all your heartfelt warnings about what the Mets were going to do, I’m surprised that you’re still surprised. Let’s see what happens if the Wilpons and the Katz’s send Picard the Fleecer packing.
I don’t mind the guy having his own philosophy in regards to the proper way to build a winning team. But this bull-shitting and outright lies he is spewing to us, the fan-base, is very disturbing to say the least. Now, Steve Phillips was a chronic liar, when he was Mets GM. He was completely full of crap and you could never believe what he had to say. But Alderson seems to be even worse. While Phillips rarely smiled, Sandy is always smiling, while he is looking you in the eye and lying through his teeth. What a despicable creep this guy is.
I’m in Tulsa on Business and only have phone access but just wanted to ask Jessup and Donal if its ok to say Jose Reyes is gone now or do we still have to wait Because Alderson said Reyes is his priority.
You people really believe what comes out of a GM’s mouth? LOL!!! Bunch of suckers. Sandy will NEVER tell the press or anyone what their real plans or motives are. They will do what they think is best to have a competitve team that can make the Wilpons a little bit of cash or build the value of the team. They dont care what any fan or writer has to say or thinks.
Stop thinking a coach or a GM or owner will ever tell fans anything remotely close to the truth.
agreed 100%. When a GM starts giving out the plan in advance is when they should be fired.
IMO, fans have to wait until the product is finished, and decide for themselves if they like it (and want to spend money on it). A GM needs to do what he thinks is best for the short and long term health of the franchise.
When a GM starts giving out the plan in advance is when they should be fired”
you mean like waiting AFTER REYES had been signed to tell us mets fans a “when a team loses $70 million” speech to avoid getting hammered for being an incompetent GM?
What plan? Only plan I see is wait till everyone leaves or their contract expires then hire a 2mil POS coming off injury or adversity to replace them
I am with the fans who said we should have traded both Wright and Reyes during the season to start building a new team but I remember the posters coming back with the “you are nuts” comments and throwing all these statistics out. Well Merry Christmas for that lump of coal in my Christmas stocking!
Even if the FO plan was to try and trade reyes for some boatload of players back, that was off the table as soon as he hit the DL in early July. At that point, the Mets pretty much had to run out the string with him
Wright with his back must have been pretty much in the same boat.
as always, wanting to do something and being able to do it are 2 different things.
You make good points but they weren’t on the disabled list all season. They both came back. Would you trade David Wright now if you could get value. I would, YES I would.
It is a sad day that we all knew was coming. Jose’ is the second greatest homegrown player in Mets history and it is just that now – all history! What a travesty that he is gone (to a better place) without even an offer from trhe Mets. WHAT A DISGRACE! No Mets games for me for at least several years. When in Florida, I will try to catch some Marlins games to root for Jose’. Citifield can burn down as much as I care.
Our self-appointed genius GM labeled Jose’ as eyewash for a team that is not good enough to obtain value from his talents. What an insult! That alone should have convinced Jose’ to walk. Thanks SA for nothing. Why don’t you take a hike off a cliff. I will drive you there personally if you wish.
Next up – David. SA should be starting his campaign shortly to insult him so he can sign with an aggressive team somewhere outside of NY. Let’s continue to flush out the eyewash and see how far into the cellar we can bury ourselves.
My prediction stands, it will be at least 2020 before the rebuilding begins. We are still in self-destruction mode now and rebuilding is far off in the future.
There is no crying in BB, but this brings you pretty darn close!
Come on folks! The handwriting was on the wall, especially when the hypocirtie GM labeled our best player as “eyewash”. That’s a great way to encourage a player to sign. What would anyone expect Jose’ to do after that insult? Would you work for an employer who openly insulted you as opposed to one who offered you wonderful employment opportunities? There was no question on the outcome. Jose’ did not give the Mets the time of day on HIS decision and rightfully so considering his treatment here. This is all on our conceited GM. He expected a chance to match the Marlins’ offer. Ha Ha, that’s funny. Sorry, offer accepted, kiss my you know what.
Conratulations to Jose’. I wish him a wonderful career and success the rest of the way as he will eventually go to the HOF with a Marlins hat on his head.
The downward spiral continues and accelerates as the Mets find destiny in the cellar. It will be 2020 before we begin to rebuild. A very long cold winter ahead for Mets fans over the next 10 plus years.
I doubt that Alderson could have gotten a boatload for Reyes, judging by the level of interest teams have in him now. Plus Jose very inconsiderately get hurt before the deadline, making that point moot. The Marlins bid against themselves. A very good job ny Jose’s agents to bring the previously rejected Brewers back into the argument. Does anyone in their right mind think Jose would ever consent to playing in Milwaukee? So they bid against themseves, always a dumb move. But it is their money. Right now everyone in the East has money except for the Mets. That’s life.
Joe Decaro – I totally agree. Only I stopped believing Alderson was believable within a short time after he got here. People got overly consumed with his sophisticated delivery, prompting them to overlook his rampant contradiction and hypocrisy.
Didn’t another party involved in this debacle say how much he loved playing in New York and loved being a Met?
Yeah, but one that party gets insulted by the owner (He has everything going wrong with him), the GM (he’s just an eyewash) and his goons (i just don’t like depodesta or ricciardi), one must move on wouldn’t you think?? or what, as a man one must have pride and some self respect. unless is someone like you…
So, you are mad at Alderson for what Wilpon said and mad at the other 2 for no reason other than they were in a book you won’t read and can’t understand?
Ya, that is about what we expect of you.
And I love how you have no idea what the eyewash comment was about. You are priceless.
Please donal, enlighten us with the eyewash comment… please do.. the reason why i don’t like the other 2 is because they’re here it seems to just occupy space. they haven’t apported nothing to the franchise. 3 gm’s and can’t even do the job of one!!! PATHETIC
As far as self respect goes, if Jose had self respect he would have taken 3 or 4 more ABs in the season finale.
There will be a strong out cry from Met fans for the Wilpons to sell the team. An $85 mil payroll in NY. Crazy.
I think there has een a pretty strong outcry from fans on this topic for several years. It would be an improvement but it ain;’t happening.
This team lost about as much money as a team can lose WITH Jose as a drawing card. So I am not buying the gate attraction argument. Fans come when teams win. llAnd the mets did not win.
Yup this is on the old regime. All those terrible baseball decisions and contracts put the team in a terrible position and it had to stop somewhere. Luckily it was here.
I agree this is all on Sandy and bravo Sandy for not falling into a terrible contract because of fan pressure.
Fan Pressure? he didn’t even offered a contract and you’re defending him?? ohhh, i forgot, you like alderson for what he is….
Jose signs with another team and the sun still comes up.The mets will be crap in 2012.The good news is that anyone who has nothing to do and actually goes to a game will be able to get great seats on the cheap.Jose will be coming in with the marlins for 9 games.I would advise if you want to see him, buy the tickets for early in the year.Before he goes on the DL.I will also predict he will never finish this contract with the marlins.Remember the hubbub over Delgado when he signed a 4 year deal with the marlins in 2005.One year later he was traded to the mets.Who’s to say he can’t be re acquired in a trade in 2 years, if (please lord) the Wilpons are gone?Not likely, but you never know
“Well, I don’t believe Mets fans will be surprised if these reports are true, that Jose may not be back.”
I am pretty sure most fans have had a good idea for sometime now that if a team offered Reyes 6 or 7 years the Mets would most likely not match that so in that framework I believe the not surprised comment was intended. I mean I’ve seen posts going back a month discussing who to blame if Reyes didn’t resign.
I do agree though that it was not about the money in my opinion but rather the years.
Most already felt Reyes was not resigning so now that it’s official the next thing is to watch to see how this team for 2012 is put together.
The amount of spontaneous editorializing on this website is awful, I just wanted to read some quotes from the press conference, however, Alderson is not averse to long term contracts, just ones to late 20s players who have shown they can’t stay healthy and they rely on their pure athleticism, which won’t be there anymore in 3 or 4 years, when his payroll hit will be highest. Give Sandy more than a year before we decide whether hes a success or not, I think we all remember how great we thought Minaya was 2 years in.
of course it had to do with money. if money was basically unlimited like the yankees you can sign long term deals and just eat the last half of them.
also you dont seem to understand the nature of free agency. you really have a one in 30 chance of re-signing the player. also, the mets were the only team that had anything to gain by not signing him. he has less value to the mets than any other team because signing him means you lose the compensation picks.
I wouldn’t say it is 1 in 30. Not all teams are equal to all players.
true, some players wont play in kansas city. but for the most part a free agent is a free agent and has no reason to sign with his former team. complaining about the mets not signing reyes is like complaining about not signing pujols.