Looks like there’s a lot of angst today over something Sandy Alderson said last night at an event for Mets season ticket holders.
Let me set the stage for you.
On Monday, Alderson was a guest of Chris Russo on MLB Network and said he had high expectations for this team as currently constructed and was basically ready to go to war with this team.
“We have quality players at every position. One of the reasons we’ve been fairly quiet is we’ve got players with the potential to improve us by 10 games, which is what we need. So we’re comfortable going into spring training and excited actually to see those players and see what kind of step forward they take, and whether that can translate into 10 or 12 more games for us in the win column.”
It was a perfectly reasonable thing for him to say. After all he’s the one who engineered the team, if he doesn’t reflect some pride and confidence in what he’s built, then why would any of us put our own hope and trust into this process and this team?
However, last night Alderson attempted to clarify his statement about this team – as is – having the potential to win 10-12 more games than last season.
“Let me clarify what I said. I didn’t say that we expect to improve by 10 games, I said that we have the capacity to improve by 10 games, and that I believe.”
“The question boils down to what the hell have you been doing the last two months and that’s a fair question. We signed Cuddyer almost immediately, and the timing on that was solely based on Colorado’s qualifying offer. We knew it was going to be a short-term contract and wanted an outfielder that could hit left-handed pitching.”
“The question became, will Wilmer Flores play shortstop for the Mets? The short answer is yes. In the last two months, we’ve considered a lot of things, but we aren’t in Miami’s position. They had obvious holes and third base and first base and filled them. Though we don’t have an All-Star at every position, we don’t have gaping holes either.”
“Travis d’Arnaud may not be an outstanding player right now, but it doesn’t mean we need to chase someone better. We admittedly looked into 8-10 shortstop possibilities but as far as what it would cost, in terms of prospects and money, we weren’t willing to make those deals. We spend a lot of time looking at things, and it isn’t because I’m overly cautious. I’m very comfortable with what we have.”
It was that first part of his response that seems to have a lot of people up in arms this morning.
“Though I don’t necessarily expect it.”
Since last night I’ve receive about 8-10 emails on this as well a phone call from one of the guys in my Strato league seeking an explanation from me.
Honestly, I have no idea why it was said or what was meant by it. Could it just be that he accidentally misspoke? Absolutely. This was a live event and he was fielding all sorts of questions, so yeah, he could have just misspoken.
I doubt very much that Alderson would seek to clarify something by making it even more bewildering and confounding. Especially when the topic happens to be about expectations for the team this season.
I would bet that in the next day or two one of the beat writers will get some clarification on Sandy’s clarification and that we can all move on from this. That is until the next controversy comes along. Damn we really need a winning season in the worst way…
