According to Adam Rubin of ESPN New York, Baseball America is set to name New York Mets general manager Sandy Alderson as Major League Baseball’s executive of the year. Nothing yet on the BA site, but Rubin has close to ties to them so it should be officially announced shortly.
** Scratch that lest sentence, here is the full announcement from Baseball America which went live two minutes after I posted this. **
A couple of weeks ago, ESPN’s Jim Bowden recommended Alderson for the award and said:
“The Mets had a quiet offseason; the signing of outfielder Michael Cuddyer was their only significant move. In this case, Alderson’s best moves were the ones he didn’t make, including trading one of the team’s good young starting pitchers to get a hitter.”
“That said, once it was evident that the team could win the division in 2015, Alderson went to work, making multiple deals to transform one of the league’s worst offenses into one of its best.”
Terry Collins also spoke highly of Alderson and believes he is deserving of the award as well.
“When Kelly Johnson and Juan Uribe walked into our clubhouse, the attitude changed. He knew we needed a big bat and added Cespedes. I think there is no question he is the Executive of the Year.’’
“He is the guy who was the architect of this rotation,’’ Collins told The Post. “He timed all these guys coming up here at the right time, he didn’t rush any of them.”
In his fifth season as the Mets GM, Alderson’s Mets produced a 90-72 record, won the National League pennant, and were a heartbeat away from being World Series champs.
“Sandy is the best leader I’ve ever been around,” Mets special assistant J.P. Ricciardi said. “He lets you do your job. He respects you. And he wants your input. In the world today, his ‘yes’ means yes and his ‘no’ means no. That’s one of the best things about him. He’s always in the forefront. He’s not afraid to take arrows. He’s just a great leader.”
Congrats to Sandy, and I hope he’s doing okay wherever he is. I haven’t heard a peep from him ever since the team announced he would miss the GM Meetings due to a medical procedure. I reached out to Jay Horwitz and asked about him before the Thanksgiving holiday and was only told that he’d pass along my well wishes.
