29
2012
Mets Had The 27th Best Offseason Ahead of A’s, Padres, Astros
An article by 
Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe, ranked which teams had the best offseason and had the Angels ranked first followed by the Yankees, Rangers, Cardinals and Tigers rounding out the top five. The Mets were ranked 27th.
27. METS – They lost their most exciting player (Reyes) and their best hitter (Beltran), so established players like David Wright and Jason Bay have to bounce back. They dealt Pagan to the Giants for outfielder Andres Torres, and added bullpen pieces in Frank Francisco, Jon Rauch, and Ramon Ramirez. Johan Santana returns from a major shoulder injury, but what are you getting?
Cafardo had the Padres, Athletics and Astros as the only teams ranked worse than the Mets.
The Mets are banking on healthy returns from key players such as Johan Santana and Ike Davis, and comeback seasons from Mike Pelfrey, Jason Bay and David Wright who are each coming off the worst seasons of their careers.
As far as new additions go, they have replaced Frankie Rodriguez and Jason Isringhausen with Frank Francisco and Ramon Ramirez, and Andres Torres will replace Angel Pagan in centerfield and most likely Jose Reyes in the leadoff spot. Jon Rauch was also added to the bullpen, while Ronny Cedeno, Omar Quintanilla and a few other minor league signings will help fill bench roles.
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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Am I surprised? No…I actually thought we would be lower!
Talk about being with Crappy Company!
We are the Astro’s of the NL East
Maybe the Astros are the Mets of the NL Central.
Aren’t the Astros in the AL league now?
No, not yet. Starting 2013.
Ah…my bad. Thanks.
Not sure why I thought that move was for the upcoming season.
That’s pretty disrespectful towards The Astros. You must have some real hatred toward the ‘stros.
Well placed, I’d say. Remember those jerseys from the 70′s?
They wore them in the 80′s as well.
While the Mets themselves have proven over and over again that winning the off season means nothing come October, it is interesting to see how having disposable income affects the landscape of baseball. The top four and bottom four teams on this list (and probably every list) all have the same thing in common……..bank accounts.
Maybe in 2014 we’ll understand what the Mets are doing now.
Nope, not a prayer.
I don’t get this? According to jessep the A’s had a great offseason. Cafardo or jessep? Cafardo or jessep?
I think the media has an ax to grind with Alderson, everyone knows he had a tremendous offseason. :-/
I realize thinking doesn’t often come first when you are foaming at the mouth to mention my name but this list is based on the idea of 2012 on the field performance…. the prospects the A’s acquired will not help them win in 2012.
Every team has a different plan. I’m sorry you don’t understand this
[...] just because we had the 27th best offseason (or 4th worst, depending on how you look at things), it doesn’t mean we don’t [...]
What stands out the most in Cafardo’s article is where he says “We know from last year – when the Red Sox acquired Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez – that “winning’’ December and January doesn’t mean you win when it counts.”
That is it in a nutshell.
The Mets have also proven the inverse to that which is “not winning” in December or January does not equate to winning when it counts either.
Hmmm….Padres, A’s and Mets…what’s the connection?
I didn’t even catch that till you pointed it out.
good catch, i didn’t make the connection either.
Years ago they ran the Padres and the A’s. I guess they left their legacy over there and set the standard, now it’s the Mets turn.
Very clever. I thought the answer was Mike Piazza and Ricky Henderson.
Don’t give Bayonne Mets Fan any more ammo!!
But in all seriousness this was a plain and simple AWFUL list by Cafadro.
He has the Cardinals 4th they lost the best player and manager in baseball (IMO) and added Beltran who can’t stay healthy. No way that is 4th best.
The Phillies overpaid for Papelbon and replaced by Ryan Howard with Ty Wigginton and that is a better offseason than the A’s completely revamping their farm system, which he failed to ignore?
The A’s and Pads both actually had good offsasons (Pads made a great trade with Latos and A’s as I said got great value on Gio as well as getting nice pieces for Bailey and no way they were the 2nd and 3rd worst.
Pretty much everything this guy wrote was completely off base so that connection really doesn’t matter.
value and prospects – there goes those 2 words again.
So that’s what’s going to determine the best off season for you? Value & prospects. Too bad the best offseason has to do with who has done the best to put their teams in a position to WIN.
Remember WINNING? I think that’s what Cafadro was thinking about (as he should) when he gave his opinion on this. It also doesn’t matter if The Phillies overpaid (in your opinion) for Papelbon. It’s their budget and they work with what they have. What if he has a great season and helps the Phils in the post season? Then did they overpay. Overpaying is relative so I suggest not worrying about what other people pay for players, like Sandy publicly did – meanwhile his judgement is terrible.
Yeah getting value in for a product in a BUSINESS is a really bad thing….
For starters if you actually read the whole article the author said, “General manager Ruben Amaro gets some heat for giving Jonathan Papelbon such a large contract (four years, $50 million)”. So it is not just me making that assertion and he pretty much admits they paid too much. And yeah I would still say it is a bad move because they let Ryan Madson go who was just as good as Papelbon last year and he only got one year $8.5 mill. That’s not smart business.
Okay if you want to play that way the Padres got Volquez (former All-Star) to replace Latos in the deal, granted he has had trouble staying healthy but that is why he was just one piece in the deal, AND still gained at least one, if not two, hitters who should contribute this year (and at the latest next year) so if that is not putting your team in a better place to win than having just one pitcher I don’t know what is.
Shall we take a look into the A’s two biggest moves?
They sold high on Gio, replaced him in the rotation with Tom Millone for this year, and it looks like Peacock could and should make the team as well so that’s two arms in the rotation for one THIS year. Then at the same time they got pieces to build for the future with A.J. Cole who’s still far away and Derek Norris who could contribute late THIS year or early next. Yeah definitely didn’t help make them better at winning now. As a Mets fan you should know how important depth is.
Then with Bailey the A’s probably produce closers better than any other team and already have Brian Fuentes so it is not like he was needed on the team and Josh Reddick will be their starting right fielder THIS year and he had a pretty good half a year with the Sox last year, while also getting a pitcher and hitter with extremely high ceilings. So they don’t lose all that much at closer while gaining a guy in the starting nine. Explain how that doesn’t help them win either?
You just make assumption that anything/anyone that can be connected to Alderson/DePodesta or their style is a bad move without anything to back up your claims. You need to lay of the haterade and take a look at things before you make statements like that.
Alderson is not purely about value. If he were he would have had a fire sale last July. Alderson came with the 25 million dollar loan from MLB. Baseball needs the Mets to be competitive. New York is a huge market. Sandy is putting togeather a team that will be around till September.
By taking the Mets out of the bidding wars. The players salaries will drop. Good for the owners. Not letting the Mets sell off players…good for the owners.
Alderson looked into Latin performance enhancing drugs. Sandy let Reyas and FMart go.
You can throw all this right out. Who can forget a few years back when the Mets were the consensus pick for having the best offseason after signing Frankie and trading for Putz…No denying however Mets lost both their best and most exciting player, but Beltran was gone before the off season began and Reyes was the best player left on the roster…2 draft picks for Reyes; what a waste since it wasn’t even a # 1 pick…Sometimes winning the off season does equate to winning and reaching the playoffs, other times it doesn’t…in the case of the A’s and Padres, they may be happy with their offseasons this year, but it won’t help them win NOW. In the Mets case, if shedding payroll and getting their finances in order while addressing some specific needs in the bullpen were what they wanted to do, then they probably feel they did what they wanted, but personally I just don’t see how it helps them now or in the future…either way, i’m not happy with this off season. Not that they could have made any moves that would’ve helped them to win right now amyway short of resigning Reyes, getting Pujols, trading Ike for prospects and signing Wilson and Buerle, plus the arms in the pen…If they didn’t have the cash, they didn’t have it.
Only 4th worst????? Once again, the WORST GM in the history of the new york mets outdoes himself.. this team is now getting any better any time soon, buit of course, mr genius STILL gets the benefit of the doubt by the sabergooners and moneyballer lovers out there, then of course, he’ll leave the mets in shambles for the next GM to pick up the pieces, and try to rebuild this team AGAIN, but hey, he got zack wheeler and brandon nimmo so… ok..
First of all Beltran was gopne last year so how does that qualigy as an off season move, secondly these writers spent 3 years telling us how bad Pagan was ,now getting rid of him is a bad move. Which is it
Itwas HENDU’S 3 run homer not grandslam