The Mets Have Two Options

In recent weeks, more and more news pieces have come out criticizing the Wilpons for their lack of accountability and their poor organizational structure. The Wilpons have been meddling owners for quite some time but unlike in previous years, they no longer have a GM like Sandy Alderson to take the PR bullets for them.

This is not to say that guys like Alderson, Terry Collins, Mickey Callaway, and Omar Minaya did not have their faults. They did, but when this has been going on over the course of multiple regimes, there are two main culprits to look at.

Lately, the Mets poor handling of the Yoenis Cespedes heel injury, their inability to have their employees be on the same wavelength, and the lack of a stable presence in the front office has been garnering more national attention. Jeff Passan of Yahoo wrote about the Mets dysfunction that begins at the top of the pyramid. Tim Britton of The Athletic wrote about the the Wilpons constant inability to learn from their past mistakes, or even acknowledge them. Keith Law of ESPN essentially told the Mets to start acting like the big market team.

I would like to believe that while the Wilpons are not good at their jobs, they are also not naive. They know they have to address their public image and the way I see it, there are two possible ways to fix this mess.

Here is Option 1

Hire a well respected person around baseball to be the new president of baseball operations. Some names for this title include Jed Hoyer, Mike Chernoff, David Stearns, or Farhan Zaidi. Then, hire a proper GM like Ben Cherington, Josh Byrnes, or Jason McLeod.

Next, build a huge scouting department and analytics department. Former Senior Director of Baseball Operations, Adam Fisher, told Mike Petriello on his podcast that the Mets analytics department is only three people. Metsmerized Online has a larger analytics department than the Mets do.

To put this in perspective, the Dodgers have 20 people in their analytics department and they are well on their way to winning their sixth straight division. The Mets have won six division titles in their entire franchise. Overhauling the player development is part of this too but that is where guys like Cherington and McLeod specialize. Let these guys do their jobs as opposed to interfere with their work. Don’t push Jose Reyes on the new regime.

Finally, spend in free agency. This is a big one. No more middle of the road signings. Write Bryce Harper a check and make him your new franchise player. He is 26 and he’s been a MVP once already and would have been one in 2017 if not for a flukey knee injury. If the Mets also trade Wheeler and one of Syndergaard/deGrom, then sign Charlie Morton and Patrick Corbin to make up for it. Signing another Jason Vargas won’t do it. Want to overhaul the bullpen? Sign Adam Ottavino, Craig Kimbrel, or Zach Britton.

All these moves would make fans happy and they would make the Mets a good team in 2019. There is no reason for a team in New York not to go after these players and make the Mets competitive.