John Harper of the Daily News wonders if Sandy Alderson could learn a few things from San Diego GM A.J. Preller, who took over a franchise with a similar losing history and a weak-hitting roster with depth in young pitching and transformed the team in about five minutes.
“I’m thinking the majority of Mets fans would have been willing to take some risk to add firepower to an offense that has been nothing short of anemic in recent years.”
Alderson, he says, moved quickly to sign Michael Cuddyer, who will be 36 next season, is injury-prone, and cost a first round draft pick.
“In any case, weren’t the trades the Padres made exactly the type of deals Alderson was expected to make at some point, utilizing his surplus of young pitching to obtain a big bat?”
“Instead it seems that Alderson at some point became more cautious about the idea of trading the likes of Noah Syndergaard, the type of high-end arm that other teams want if they’re giving up an impact hitter.”
It looks like the Matt Kemp deal finally became official. In the second half of the season he hit .309 with 17 home runs and a .971 OPS. The deal for Wil Myers is still pending physicals.
Harper says that for most of the last two years, people in the Mets’ front office have admitted that with payroll more of an issue than they expected, they were going to be “creative’’ in upgrading this team’s offense. He wonders where that creativity is and if we’ll ever get to see any of it.
He concludes that for the second offseason in a row Sandy Alderson preferred to hold onto all of his young, power pitchers rather than take the risk of making a trade for a potentially difference-making hitter.
Do you agree or disagree with Harper?
