Good Morning to all of you. As I sit here enjoying a fresh brewed cup of coffee I can’t believe that in 14 days and most likely less than that, pitchers and catchers will start reporting to Mets camp at Tradition Field in Port St. Lucie and a new season will suddenly be upon us.
It’s pretty exciting to say the least, but there’s still a lingering sense of some unfinished business that we need to take care of before we can head into a new season.
Some of the mainstream outlets have graded the Mets offseason at a C or D even though they they handed out the largest contract of the offseason to outfielder Yoenis Cespedes. And just this morning, Ken Davidoff of the New York Post tabbed the Mets as Losers this offseason:
“You reluctantly could swallow the Jay Bruce resolution, though Michael Conforto’s ceiling stands higher than Bruce’s, if that didn’t also handcuff the Mets’ payroll flexibility to strengthen their bullpen. And don’t forget their 2016 leader in innings pitched, Bartolo Colon, left for Atlanta, and the team is counting on its young (and talented, yes) arms to stay healthy and make up the difference.”
If you think Davidoff is off his rocker, Ben Berkon of Forbes definitely takes the cake with his insanely aggressive ignorance, saying:
“If anything, the Mets’ sudden faith in Bruce as a starter only upholds the organization’s questionable commitment to winning.”
Wow… I really don’t know where to begin…
Look, I totally get the fact that Sandy Alderson may have misread the market for power hitting outfielders. But what general manager, agent or player didn’t misread this market? It was a freak thing that nobody saw coming. But let’s not get all butt hurt just because we’re stuck with a 30+ homer, 100+ RBI bat in the middle of our lineup.
I love Michael Conforto more than just about anyone on this planet and I do realize how keeping Bruce will impact his playing time. So what. That’s life. The fact of the matter is that if Conforto didn’t go all Jekyll and Hyde on us the Mets never would have traded for Bruce in the first place. He’s young and starting the season off in Las Vegas isn’t going to hurt him. Let’s see what happens.
In the meantime, the best thing that could happen is that Bruce busts out with a huge April and May and together with Cespedes propels the Mets to the top of the NL East.
Now as for this prevailing narrative that the Bruce situation has the Mets in a financial stranglehold, none of all this doom and gloom is measuring up to what I’m hearing.
On Thursday, I had a very good source tell me that the Mets were not out on Jerry Blevins and that the two sides were still very much engaged. Then on Friday, I heard that the Mets were one of the most aggressive suitors for Craig Breslow and that they also reached out to Joe Blanton.
Forgive me, but if the Mets were at their financial limit and at a spending freeze why would they be so active in the free agent market for these relievers?
Don’t believe everything Sandy Alderson says about staying internally to fill out the bullpen, this is how he always operates, it’s just GM-speak. The Mets are definitely working the market and trying to find the right fits for the pen. They are one of the most active teams in the relief market right now.
Don’t believe what guys like Ken Davidoff have to say about the state of the Mets. And let me just say that Ben Berkon is an idiot, plain and simple. I can’t believe he said what he did.
The Mets are going to be fine. By the time pitchers and catchers report I’m certain they’ll have at least one if not two solid additions to their bullpen. And however the Jay Bruce situation shakes out, either way it will not impact our ability to win 90+ games in 2017… And with a little bit of luck we will go on to win the World Series… It’s going to be a fun and exciting season! LGM
