Sandy Alderson

Sandy Alderson: Mets “Not Punting on 2013”

Sandy Alderson held a conference call with reporters Monday night to formally announce the R.A. Dickey trade to the Blue Jays. According to Alderson, there are more moves to be made for the Mets.

mets
Sandy Alderson said Mets “not punting” 2013. Sure.

“There’s a lot of time between now and when we report to spring training. So we do expect to do some other things. We do expect to acquire some other players,” Alderson said according to ESPNNewYork.com. “We recognize we have holes to fill — that we may have created a hole in our rotation, but we will address those. We certainly are not punting on 2013.”

Alderson admitted that Dickey needs to be replaced, and shock of shocks, it won’t be with an ace.

“We’re not going to replace him with a No. 1 starter in return, but we’re going to have to find someone who can give us some of those wins. We also have to hope the team improves in other areas to offset R.A.’s loss.”

Alderson said he will likely sign a free agent from the bargain bin and guarantee him a spot in the rotation. That means Jenrry Mejia and Jeurys Familia will not be competing for a spot in the rotation.

As far as the players the Mets got back, obviously Travis d’Arnaud was the key guy. He missed the second half of last season with a knee injury, so he might need some more time in Triple-A.

“I talked to Travis a little bit earlier today and I told him he would come to camp and we would see what happens,” Alderson said. “At the same time, we do expect Travis is very close to the major leagues. And if he doesn’t make it out of spring training, we would expect to see him at some point very soon thereafter — probably in 2013.”

If d’Arnaud is not ready, it looks like John Buck will be the starting catcher. Alderson said the Mets had to take him to even out the money in the deal; Buck will make $6 million next season to Dickey’s $5 million. Alderson said Toronto did not want to add payroll in the deal, which means reports that the Mets would get some cash in the deal to offset Buck’s salary were wrong.

Take everything Alderson said with a grain of salt, especially about acquiring more players. He has not proven to be particularly truthful in the past.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Why ask?