Sandy Alderson’s Puzzling Statement

Sandy Alderson made a very puzzling statement to reporters at Citi Field on Monday that I am still trying to decipher. Here’s what he said:

“The one thing I want to emphasize is we’re not that far away. We’re getting to the point where we can be in the mix. If you look at the fundamental composition of our team, it wouldn’t take more than a couple moves to change the whole perception of things.

“So I don’t want anyone to believe that this is a long-term project that has no possible realization anytime soon. We’re at the point where we can make significant improvement in a hurry, and we’ve been looking at ways that we can actually do that.”

Okay, my first reaction to this is that Sandy Alderson thinks the team is almost good enough to contend, that a couple of moves could put the Mets over the top. If that is the case, why didn’t Alderson makes those moves? He had all winter to do it, instead he basically stood pat.

He talks about  “looking at ways that we can actually do that,” which to me means he is waiting for Michael Bourn to fall into his lap. Lucking into players is not the way to build a team.

I think the portion “We’re at the point where we can make significant improvement in a hurry” is the key part of the statement. It says to me that Sandy Alderson does not think the Mets are close to contending, but if they get off to a surprising strong start like in 2012, he is in position to make a couple of deals to keep that momentum going.

That is a very passive approach — wait for something to possibly happen, then react to it. Why not go out and make it happen?

One reason Mets fans don’t understand Sandy Alderson’s strategy is because he hasn’t clearly defined it for us. There are two reasons for this — he doesn’t want to show his hand to the rest of the league, or he really doesn’t have a strategy. We’ll just have to wait and see.