Photo Credit: AP Photo/Kathy Willens
The 2017 Winter Meetings are over and all the New York Mets have to show for it is reliever Anthony Swarzak, cash from the Kansas Royals and a Double-A defensive specialist.
Still, Mets general manager Sandy Alderson told reporters on Thursday before leaving Orlando, “we’re relatively happy going home.”
As Mets fans grew restless on Wednesday after seeing Giancarlo Stanton traded to the New York Yankees, Shohei Ohtani choose the Los Angeles Angels, Dee Gordon shipped to Seattle and numerous relievers that the Mets were “interested” in fly off the board, Alderson finally made a move by inking Swarzak.
Look, signing Swarzak was a good move, he was awesome in 2017 with a 2.33 ERA and 1.03 WHIP, but when the second biggest move you made during the meetings was selling a Rule 5 pick fans are going to be upset.
Wednesday night another player the Mets showed interest in, Ian Kinsler, was traded to the Angels. Leaving the Mets with one less option at second base which seems to be the current focus.
Mets assistant GM John Ricco was on WOR on Wednesday night saying that the team was changing their focus to offense now and would revisit the pitching market in January.
Sandy has made a point all offseason of talking about how the Mets need to build up their bullpen and that they were likely to add more than one reliever to the current crop. Brandon Kintzler re-signed with the Nationals, then Steve Cishek went to the Cubs, Fernando Rodney to the Twins, and all of a sudden the relief market doesn’t look that strong.
Sure there is still Wade Davis, Greg Holland and Addison Reed though there is no way you can expect guys of their talent to be left in January or February.
“As I’ve said before, we’ve done a lot in January and February,’’ Alderson told reporters. “That doesn’t mean you have the same selection that necessarily you would have in say November and December.”
If the Mets were serious about putting together a shutdown bullpen they should have been more aggressive on guys like Bryan Shaw, Cishek and Tommy Hunter. You can certainly find a few value arms in January-February but it’s tough to imagine any of them being big difference makers.
Earlier this week Sandy also told us that we shouldn’t focus so much on payroll despite it being obvious the Mets are shopping closer to the Dollar General than at Nordstrom.
Ricco went on to answer more questions during his radio appearance and when asked about payroll he gave us this gem, “Jeff and Fred (Wilpon) are huge baseball fans and want this team to win.”
Maybe Sandy did build some groundwork for a trade to help the infield. It’s possible the Mets are confident they have a player in mind to back-up first and right field. Perhaps Sandy was just playing possum and signs a big name like Lorenzo Cain.
The one thing I’m sure of though is that Sandy and the ownership hasn’t earned the benefit of the doubt to make us believe they will do what’s necessary to turn this faulty Mets team into a 2018 contender.
