During Terry Collins’ pregame press conference on Sunday, MMO’s Clayton Collier asked the Mets manager what it means now that all the young pitchers are up with the team after the promotion of Steven Matz.
To which Collins responded, “It means the future is now.”
“Matz is the last of the organization’s young arms. We always like to get them here as quick as can be,” Collins continued.
“It sends the message to our fan base that the future is now. They’re here. They’re going to pitch. It’s going to be exciting to see them grow.”
Collins is right, the future is now, but starting pitching is only half of the equation. While finally having Steven Matz, Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom and Matt Harvey all here and pitching in the same rotation is incredibly exciting, where is the supporting cast? Where is the offense?
With Mets ownership not giving any indication that payroll will increase to keep all our pitching intact as they enter their arbitration seasons (remember all but one are Super Two), the fact is that we are only assured a window of three years that they will all remain together. Then what?
As I’ve been saying since last December, it’s incumbent on Sandy Alderson to provide the offense AND defense to maximize our window of contention with these promising young arms.
Of course this is also largely dependent on the Wilpons’ allowing their general manager the financial flexibility to make the kind of moves to add the best supporting talent to sustain a championship run.
There’s a lot of moving parts to this. Most media – quasi and real – would prefer you ignore the part about ownership because they’re in bed with them, but the non-ignorant and unbiased among us know better.
The point is, if not now then when?
If we’re not going to address the offense and instead wait out the debuts of Michael Conforto or Gavin Cecchini in 2016 or 2017, what happens if they come up and don’t hit the ground running? Now we find ourselves three years into this pitching paradise without no certainty that they can afford to keep the rotation intact.
In other words Sandy Alderson AND Mets ownership are on the clock and it’s now or never.
