It’s Now Time for Mets to Go for it

Sandy Alderson is a lucky man. He was able to obtain such top-flight prospects as Zack Wheeler, Travis d’Arnaud, Noah Syndergaard, Vic Black and Dilson Herrera because he was dealing with teams who decided to go for it. They made huge sacrifices in order to obtain players they thought would put them over the top. Now is the time for Sandy Alderson to take such risks and go for it with the Mets.

Think about the Mets team for a moment. d’Arnaud looks like he is fulfilling his promise. Lucas Duda just had a breakout year. Daniel Murphy is solid. David Wright and Curtis Granderson are big money All-Stars. Juan Lagares is a star in the making. The young starting pitching is all about to blossom at the same time. And the bullpen has strong young arms.

Of course, you could argue with everything written above. You could say d’Arnaud is anything but a sure thing. Duda is just as likely to revert in 2015 as he is to repeat his 2014. Wright and Granderson will continue their downward slide. As is the nature of young pitching, they all might not take that big stride. And bullpen arms are fickle; they could flop, too. You can’t argue on Murphy and Lagares, though.

But since Alderson built this team, you have to assume he agrees with the positive paragraph. And if that is the case, all the team really needs is a power hitting outfielder and a shortstop. And Wilmer Flores might be better than anyone else out there who is available at short. Which means the Mets are one bat away from being a real contender.

So it is finally time for Alderson to roll the dice like his previous trading partners and give up some young talent for the one piece that could put the Mets over the top. If Alderson does not do it, it means he is not confident in the team that he himself built.

The Mets have to go for it sometime. And that means taking a risk. It might not work, but they have to try. If not now, when?