Perhaps Sandy Alderson Bashing has Begun?
John Harper’s column in the Daily News on Sunday contained something rare from the Mets media corps — criticism of Sandy Alderson. It was buried in the middle and it wasn’t particularly harsh because it appears people are still afraid to say bad things about the Mets GM, but it was there. Perhaps this will begin what should be a flood of criticism of the job Alderson has done thus far.
In commenting about how terrible the Mets are, Harper wrote:
Good thing for Sandy Alderson that he can hang his GM hat on his trades for top prospects Zack Wheeler and Travis d’Arnaud as centerpieces to his rebuilding plan, or he would be under siege by now in this, his third season on the job.
Alderson’s hands have been tied financially, but for someone who came in with a reputation of being able to find value in unheralded players, he sure hasn’t filled in the gaps at the major league level while waiting for the farm system to produce.
Despite the standard apology alleging that Alderson could have made more moves if he had the money, Harper hit the nail on the head. Where is the so-called evaluating genius who can find all-stars at the bottom of the barrel? All he’s given the Mets are the Collin Cowgills, Aaron Laffeys and Brad Emauses of the world.
Defenders of Alderson love to point out, like Harper did, that Alderson traded for Wheeler and d’Arnaud. Those were fine moves but they are the only two players of any significance that Alderson has managed to acquire. In three years he has acquired two players?! And we’re supposed to think that qualifies as doing a good job?
It takes 25 players to staff a team and as we’re seeing now, two good players (David Wright and Matt Harvey) cannot make up for the other mediocre 23. Okay, Bobby Parnell is doing very well, but you get my point.
I applaud Harper for finally standing up and suggesting that Sandy Alderson is not doing a good job as Mets GM. Perhaps other beat writers will join him and certain bloggers (okay, I mean me) who have been saying it all along — Sandy Alderson is just not a good general manager.
I doubt it will happen anytime soon. I think everyone is waiting for this off season, when the salaries of Johan Santana and Jason Bay come off the books, when the Mets claim they will spend money, when the time for excuses will be over. If Sandy Alderson continues his inaction, the chorus will grow. Until then, Alderson will be the teflon GM as we have to live with this team he has constructed.
Not only has Sandy Alderson not given us better players, but given us a manager who is supposedly a player developer who hasn’t fully developed one player yet, besides Matt Harvey of course, who after beginning his career winning the first game, he tried changing the way he pitched and backfired. The only position player with a little talent has an attitude problem. Supposedly. He probably just doesn’t like that it wasn’t Thole the one with the key hits. And what’s with the catcher playing every game? Give the guy some rest; he’s not 20 you know. Anyway David Wright did us a favor — he could have gotten more money somewhere else.
I don’t think it’s fair to judge Sandy this harshly yet. Without money or any depth in the farm system, the only other resource he has had is expiring contracts (Beltran, Dickey, Reyes, Hairston the only ones of value) and draft picks. Nobody wanted Jason Bay, but that wasn’t Sandy’s fault. Sure, he could have traded Ike, Murph, Duda, Turner or any of the other doubtful pieces we have on the team, but I’m not going to fault him for his decisions to take more time to figure out their worth. He drafted Nimmo and Plawecki, both of whom are performing well at Savannah. But it’s going to take time for them to develop – and those were his first draft picks, I believe. We also have Gavin Cecchini in the fold now and don’t forget about Noah Syndergaard, who looks like he is going to be a nice complement to D’Arnaud in that trade. Given what he’s had to work with, I am willing to give him another year to see how these players continue to develop. Meanwhile, we might see Lagares start to figure things out, Den Dekker tear up AAA pitching and force himself into the Citi outfield, Montero succeed at Vegas in Wheeler’s absence, Cory Vaughn elevate his game to AAA, and Flores become a major leaguer. If a few of those things happen, we have a few outfield pieces and maybe an expendable player (Murph/Flores/pitching) who could be traded for a need.