The Mets could be buyers at the trade deadline according to what Sandy Alderson told reporters before yesterday’s game against the Yankees.
Alderson would not discuss specific players or scenarios, but confirmed that his team is open to adding big leaguers this time, rather than restocking the farm system.
“We will see how the market develops, but yes,” the GM told the Daily News. “It’s a possibility. It depends on what is available. I have been involved in deals in the past whose first consideration was not the current season but the following season…The possibility of making an acquisition that has implications not just for the second half of this season? Yes.”
I’m not sure I’m buying any of this. It sounds more like a ploy to keep hope on the upswing than any kind of strategy the team has seriously discussed.
Despite glaring needs in the outfield and no help on the way internally, I doubt the front office will pay trade deadline prices to remedy the situation. This is a mindset of needing to feel every addition has to be an obvious bargain or they’d rather pass even if it’s what the team needs to improve. They have no intention of paying market prices and that’s why all of their additions are for players whose demand was zero to none.
I wish it were true and I could tell you that the Mets have their sights set on top outfielders like Giancarlo Stanton or Carlos Gonzalez, but I’ll leave those fairytale scenarios for sites like MetsBlog where everything is bliss.
I’m sure you’ll hear the Mets rumored to be interested in some of the top available players, but that’s where the seriousness ends and the pretense begins. It’s something we’ve seen played out many times in the last three offseasons and deadlines and I expect the future to be no different.
As most of you are aware, the Mets front office is pretty big on sabermetrics and using historical advanced metrics to predict future outcomes. You can use the same exact methodology to predict how the front office will navigate moving forward. They are as consistent as can be when it comes to player valuation.
So if you start hearing big names associated with the Mets in the coming days, just remember how the Justin Upton and Michael Bourn scenarios played out.
If there is another team interested and a bidding war ensues, bank on the same “No Mas” strategy we have already seen employed to great use over the last three seasons. That is the “we’re out” and “no more” strategy for those of you who are behind in Spanish class.
This whole rebuilding the farm dream – built largely on swapping established stars for prospects and not through an ambitious sign and develop strategy – is about to get played out once Zack Wheeler and Travis d’Arnaud make their debuts at some point this season. Those two names alone have lifted the Mets temporarily up the Baseball America Organizational Rankings. Once they’re gone from the farm, Brandon Nimmo and Gavin Cecchini won’t keep them from slipping back into the twenties.
Or maybe this is not a true rebuild as many of you have thought… Maybe it’s what I’ve said all along and this is just a cover for slashing payroll and continued penny-pinching to keep payroll below $100 million and the Wilpons entrenched? What makes more sense? Are you familiar with the concept behind Occam’s Razor?
