In a response to all the criticism of Terry Collins in the past two weeks – and in particular this weekend – Adam Rubin of ESPN New York responded by saying the blame for the current state of the Mets belongs to Sandy Alderson and not the manager.
This regime has been peddling the future for four years now…
There ought to have been more competitiveness, at least by now, while fans await the future faces of the organization. And that requires better identification of talent by the front office.
Rubin contends that there should have been more competitiveness by now and the reason there hasn’t been a lack of identifying better talent by the front office.
He writes:
The painfully slow rebuilding, which eats at the fans, has to gnaw at the Wilpons, too, because their financial lifeblood is derived from revenue from attendance. I’ve covered this team for a dozen seasons as the beat writer, and I have never seen this level of combined anger, distrust, frustration and dismay directed collectively at the organization by its fans. By now, even if the Mets weren’t challenging the Washington Nationals and Atlanta Braves for the division, there ought to have been positive energy in the ballpark, like there was in 2005 with the “New Mets” — a palpable feeling something bigger was looming.
Rubin also took issue with Alderson’s “Moneyball” pedigree, which was supposed to identify low-cost players to keep the team competitive until the farm system started producing players.
With rare exceptions such as LaTroy Hawkins, there have been swings and misses and more swings and misses, particularly in the bullpen. To name a few: D.J. Carrasco, Frank Francisco, Ramon Ramirez (in a trade for Angel Pagan), Scott Atchison, Brandon Lyon and now Jose Valverde…
The Mets seem to always need to win the trade, or there is inaction.
He concludes:
There may come a day in the next few seasons that the Mets realize that 90-win goal. And then people might praise Alderson for leaving the organization in such good shape. But if the price was, say, six losing seasons under his watch first — plus the two from Minaya that preceded it — was that really great front-office work? Or if you fail enough seasons, is it simply inevitable that at some point you’ll accrue enough young talent to be competitive again?
As I wrote in a post last week, expect more heat for Alderson from the media who by and large have given him a free pass during until now.
Sandy went into this offseason with three years of his own acquisitions under his belt, plenty of time to evaluate the players and prospects he inherited, and $50 million to spend this Winter.
This current team and their results are finally all on Sandy, and this was the year he promised transformation when he took the job in the fall of 2010.
Still, it’s hard for me to be too critical of him or the previous GM as long as this current ownership remains in place. That’s where the real issue is.
