Is It Really About Re-Building?

I don’t know. To me, when I hear the word ‘rebuild’, I think of a team like the Washington Nationals or Pittsburgh Pirates, who have had little or no superstars in recent years, and whose only direction is up.

Our New York Mets are far from the Nationals and Pirates, and far from the basement in their division. They are jam-packed with superstars (at least on paper), even if most of them are on the DL. They have been in contention – or close to it – for the past three seasons. That is not a team that needs to ‘rebuild’.

Teams wish they had the roster we do. Wright, Reyes, Delgado, Beltran, Santana, K-Rod, etc. It all sounds good, but why isn’t it working? No matter how good your team sounds, if something is lacking, it’s not going to work.

You rebuild from nothing. And unless Omar and the Wilpons want to dismantle the entire team completely and start from scratch, there is no rebuilding here. I’d rather call it ‘tweeking’. It’s about getting rid of dead wood and bringing in guys who can protect those big name superstars in the lineup/rotation/bullpen.

Mike Francessa has been saying it for months now on his WFAN daily radio show, which also airs on the YES Network. You need to break up the core of the team. Split up Wright and Reyes. The problem is, who stays and who goes? I’m not saying I want to see either of them leave, but once players start to leave, and you no longer have that superstar lineup (or the highest payroll in the NL), then it becomes a rebuilding process.

If you really want to talk rebuilding, save that for the farm system. There is little to no depth in the minor leagues for the Mets, making the Major League club appear more helpless than they are. Much of that can be attributed to injuries, and the fact that many of our minor league players would actually be in Buffalo or Binghamton, if they weren’t so desperately needed in Flushing.

If the Mets organization were to decide to rebuild, in their case, it should also include a new GM and a new manager. And while we’re at it, how about an entirely new coaching staff as well?