John Harper of the New York Daily News recently spoke to a few former General Managers about the Mets current situation involving Jay Bruce. He spoke to former Dodgers’ and Giants GM Ned Colletti, former Rockies GM Dan O’Dowd, and former Mets GM Steve Phillips.
Ned Colletti was certainly a good person to talk to on the subject, as he was manager of the Dodgers when their outfield was packed with Carl Crawford, Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, and Yasiel Puig from left to right. He opted to keep all four outfielders, all with high salaries, instead of dumping one for some salary relief.
“I lived in that situation,” he said. “And the season is so long, inevitably things happen. Is it worth making a trade when you can’t guarantee health and productivity from everybody else? With our outfield, there were far more days when only three of them were available than four. And there were a lot of days when only two were available… I can’t give you a black-and-white answer if payroll is part of it, but I just know that if you take away the safety net, are you sure of what you’re getting? Because if you’re not, a lot of times you will pay and pay and pay for that.”
The difference between the Mets and his Dodgers is that the Mets currently have five legitimate starting options, in Yoenis Cespedes, Juan Lagares, Michael Conforto, Curtis Granderson, and of course Bruce. You could even count Jose Reyes in that group to a lesser degree as he is learning to play outfield in spring training, plus Brandon Nimmo is waiting in the wings. So, in terms of keeping Bruce because he’s a safety net, I would have to disagree with Colletti.
Dan O’Dowd, the former Rockies GM, has a different take: “So if it’s me and I can’t get what I think he’s worth, I’m bringing him to spring training and it may work itself out. Worst-case scenario, Michael Conforto spends some more time in the minors. I know Scott Boras might have a coronary hearing me say that, but he’s a young player whose development program has been somewhat disjointed.”
I’m going to have to disagree with Mr. O’Dowd as well. Why would you keep a veteran in the Majors when you could have a youngling putting up as good if not better numbers, whilst providing better defense and not jeopardizing his development by shuttling him back to Triple-A?
The former Mets GM Steve Phillips had a very different take on the situation: “With all the corner outfielders, I would have tried to trade Bruce and Granderson, and I think you could have done that early in the offseason if you were just trying to free up money. From there I would have non-tendered Duda and signed Encarnacion to play first base.”
“Then, I would have tried to trade Conforto and Matz to get either Charlie Blackmon or Andrew McCutchen. I like Conforto but I don’t think he’s going to be as good as those guys. And I worry about the injuries with Matz. Blackmon is a great player and I’m convinced McCutchen will bounce back and play at an MVP level. With either of those guys you get a true center fielder.”
That is drastic to say the least. He suggests the Mets should have tried to dump his salary at any cost, and while I wholeheartedly disagree with his method, I do agree with his motivation: “The Mets need to sign a reliever. There are still some good lefties out there. Boone Logan. I like Travis Wood as a guy who can give you one inning or multiple innings. Or Blevins.”
If you’d like to read the much more comprehensive report from Harper which has the full quotes from all three former general managers, please read the original article from the New York Daily News.
