– The Mets are done dealing so don’t expect any last minuted deals at the buzzer before the trade deadline expires on Sunday night at midnight. Alderson is fully aware that by trading Beltran, he’s made it a little tougher on the remaining players to try and compete, but he says they are a “pretty tough group” and still have “lots of motivated players”. It’s for their sake that he will not trade away anymore players unless he is blown away.
– Zack Wheeler will be assigned to Class A St. Lucie, the same level he pitched while in the San Francisco system. He does not foresee Wheeler being ready to contribute in 2012, and maybe there’s an outside shot at 2013, but he would rather just let Wheeler develop at his own pace.
– Alderson admitted that his primary target was Wheeler all along, and that the Giants left the table, but came back because they were really motivated to add Beltran. Once he and Giants GM Brian Sabean started talking again, everything happened quickly and fell into place.
– They love Wheeler’s potential and love his high ceiling. They admit his lack of control is a problem, but they expect it’s nothing serious and that it will eventually correct itself. They were looking for “big upside” and they feel they got that with Zack Wheeler.
“What made Zack stand out to us was his overall potential, certainly reflected in his draft status in ’09 (sixth overall). But more important, since that time, during the course of the last 10 days or so, we have had our professional scouting staff all over the United States watching players in individual organizations. As a result of that process, we felt you don’t get access to a player like Wheeler very often.”
– Not that it really matters anymore, but the American League teams that did have interest in Beltran, all wanted him as a right fielder and not as a designated hitter. Also, Alderson was considering other packages that included as many as three lesser prospects, but in the end they opted to go with who he felt was the pick of the litter.
– Alderson said that the K-Rod and Beltran deals combined, saved the Mets about $5 million, which he hopes to reinvest in the team. He thanked ownership for absorbing most of Beltran’s remaining contract so that they were able to make a deal for a better level of prospects.
– Jose Reyes is now a top priority and the team will begin negotiations with the All Star shortstop as soon as this season concludes, as per the wishes of Reyes and his agent.
Thoughts
I’m happy to see that Alderson is considering the fact that his team is playing hard and I applaud him for taking a stand not to trade anymore players while the team is competing as well as it has.
Essentially, he did what he felt he had to do for the longterm prosperity of the team in dealing K-Rod and Beltran, but he did so while trying not to totally undermine a team that isn’t ready to give up.
Balancing those two things isn’t very easy and that’s why teams are either described as buyers or sellers. The Mets right now are probably smack dab in the middle.
That said, I would like to see the Mets pick up a small piece that can potentially help the team as a show of supporting their efforts to keep fighting for that wild card. It would be a good move as well as a vote of confidence for all of them.
Video courtesy of SNY
