Sandy Alderson said on Wednesday that while there’s been no trades made at the Winter Meetings, he and his staff have had many conversations with various teams about a number of different opportunities. He reiterated that this afternoon before he and his staff departed the Winter Meetings and headed back to New York.
Alderson maintains that his primary focus continues to be acquiring a shortstop but admitted that finding a good fit could last well into January, and even then the Mets could just as well decide to roll with Wilmer Flores.
The trade market for shortstops has completely dried up and it’s difficult to argue that the reaming few free agents are as good offensively as Flores.
“At shortstop we have to be realistic,” Alderson said. “There just aren’t a lot of options or attractive options. So the idea of waiting is nice, but I think you have to be realistic about what we’re waiting for. Options are limited. ”
Alderson regretted taking such a huge hit in the Rule 5 Draft. “We’re a little leaner as an organization than we were a few minutes ago,” he said.
The biggest losses were Logan Verrett and New York native Cam Maron who was a big MMO favorite. But the alternative would have been losing Akeel Morris whom the Mets wisely protected as I predicted they would despite being in Single-A. That would have been a greater loss in my opinion.
The Mets came into San Diego looking for a left-handed reliever and go home with Sean Gilmartin who we highlighted on MMO as one of our most wanted players, and they signed Scott Rice back to a minor league deal as a fallback option. Consider Gilmartin your second lefty and trust us, he’s an excellent crossover reliever. On this front, mission accomplished.
Then there’s the search for a right-handed bat for the bench.Pencil in John Mayberry Jr. who the Mets signed to a $1.45 million deal. If the goal was acquiring a hitter who can mash left-handed pitching, the Mets got one in Mayberry. He’s a fine addition to the bench.
“The reason we’ve been looking for a right-handed bat is to try to be more effective against left-handed pitching,” Alderson said. “It would give us another option, if we had a solid right-handed bat, and a guy who could come off the bench as well.”
Trading a starting pitcher has been a real grind for Alderson. Despite lots of conversations over the last few days, nothing ever materialized. “We’ll see what develops over the next few days, couple of weeks,” Alderson said as he left.
It’s really all about Dillon Gee. Just when it appeared the Mets were closing in on a deal with the Rangers they suddenly pulled back and went in another direction.
“We’ve been having conversations that I think have been independent of Lester,” general manager Sandy Alderson said. “I don’t really think Lester has impacted any of our discussions.”
“We’ll see what develops over the next few days, couple of weeks. It’s a long time between now and spring training. We anticipated a crowded market.”
The Mets have made it known that Gee is available, while Niese and Colon were to a much lesser degree. Noah Syndergaard was off limits and teams got that message loud and clear.
So all in all, the Mets got to check a couple of items off their to-do list. “It’s nice to get one or two scratched off the list. I think we’re comfortable that we’ll be doing something else in the future.”
Winter Meetings Grade: I give Alderson and company a solid B- for what they were able to accomplish. Of course, keep in mind that my expectations are different than yours. As I said going into San Diego, the Mets already made their big move when they signed Cuddyer, and that I also predicted Flores would be at shortstop come Opening Day.
