Alderson Preaches Patience, Will Look To Add MLB Talent To Team In Next Six Months

This morning at Citi Field, Sandy Alderson, Terry Collins, and a few of the players, participated in a Q&A session with season ticket holders. We have John Delcos there and will file a full report later, but here’s a quick summary for you to chew on until then.

Alderson said that he believes the team has reached the stage where he can begin to add veteran major league talent to the roster now. He expects to add some players in the next six months.
Alderson cited that with some of the organization’s top young prospects either here already or coming soon, that now is the time to start filling in the gaps with seasoned major league talent.
“What I’d like to be able to do is maybe acquire a player or two who will not only be with us this year but into the future,” Alderson said. “That makes sense and is consistent with what we’ve been trying to do longer term. We’re going to keep working at it and I’m sure you’ll see some different faces between now and say the end of July or the All-Star break.”
Alderson described this new strategy as a shift in organizational planning, and they intend to seriously pursue major league talent from outside the organization within the next six months, and that fans should expect to see some new faces between now and the All Star break
“I do believe that over the next six months or so we will be in position to make some significant acquisitions, whether it’s through free agency or trade,” Alderson said. “We’re certainly looking forward to that possibility.”
Alderson said that while there will larger amounts of money on hand to to invest in these veterans for the short-term, and acknowledged that the team has not gotten the return they wanted on money invested in players in recent years.
“When I got here,” Alderson said, “I always understood that I was looking at some of these contracts, from which we were either going to get production, or simply have to wait for them to expire. Now we’re in a time frame where in another half-season, because the players didn’t perform for various reasons (injury to Santana, total ineptness from Bay), those contracts will expire.
“Listen: The reality of our situation is that we owe Bay and Johan a total of around $52 million, out of a payroll of about $107 million. One of them is hurt and one of them is gone. But we’re still paying them. When you take away that money, you are talking about a payroll that is in the bottom three or four. For now. That’s not an excuse, that’s the fact of our situation.”
Alderson wants to build a team that fans will be happy and proud of and urges just a little bit more patience.
“We’re working at it, The problem is, at some point, the best thing you can do is have a little patience and unfortunately I’ve been preaching that for two-and-a-half years and it’s wearing thin. But we’re almost there.”
“All I care about is happy Mets fans,” Alderson said Saturday morning, on his way to talk to season-ticket holders, whoever they are at this point. “That is my motive in life. And I know that’s not happening right now. And if they’re unhappy, believe me, I am even more unhappy.”
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