Here’s a fascinating article by Mike Rosenbaum of MLB.com who spoke to Mets general manager Sandy Alderson about a variety of topics including how his rebuild centered around high-upside pitching prospects.
“The strategy in building the team focused on the pitching, primarily the starting pitching, and that’s where the enthusiasm for our franchise’s future began to develop, even while those players were in the Minor Leagues,” said Alderson.
“I think it started with Matt Harvey, and even though Zack Wheeler didn’t pitch for us this year, he was part of what created an interest in the future of the team among our fans. Once Jacob deGrom arrived last year, he sort of added to that mythology, and Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz gradually came to mean the same thing.”
Alderson also touched on something he discussed with us when we interviewed him in August and that is the motivation for the series of moves he made at this season’s deadline.
“There was a sense on our part that we needed to upgrade our overall roster and give us some options player-wise, we need to improve the bullpen, and we wanted a bat if we could get one,” said Alderson. “Most of those deals were made out of opportunity — opportunities arose and we subsequently evaluated.”
He gives major props to Jeurys Familia and how he essentially locked down what had for years been a huge area of concern.
“He’s been extraordinary and extraordinarily important,” noted Alderson. “My five years here we really hadn’t had a consistent, dependable closer — somebody capable of going out there night after night and close it down like he’s done.”
Sandy also credits David Wright not only for how he returned and hit the ground running, but what he called “the inspiration it provided in the clubhouse” and the “lift he provided to the lineup” which got exponentially better with him in it.
I hope you get a chance to read the full article which provides a wonderful glimpse into what his strategy has been and while there were some slight detours and variations it all came together because the guiding light was always to build a sustained era of championship caliber baseball in Flushing.
