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One of the reasons Brodie Van Wagenen is now the former New York Mets general manager is how poorly he performed in free agency. Jed Lowrie, Wilson Ramos, Dellin Betances, Rick Porcello and Michael Wacha represent a costly punchline for the now defunct regime.
But one of the reasons Van Wagenen won the job was because of his predecessor’s sadness in free agency, especially at the start of the 2018 season – so badly that Sandy Alderson even admitted: “We signed, I don’t know, five, six free agents. during the off season. And really none of them lived up to their expectations, nor probably ours. “
Alderson said that in June 2018, while taking time off work due to a recurrence of his cancer. When asked if he should be successful, Alderson conceded, “If I had to look at it on the merits, I’m not sure returning is warranted.”
Alderson was not brought back – until he was the first major employee of Steve Cohen’s regime. And really, with all of the big plans the two voiced during their Tuesday introductory Zoom talk, much of the near future will revolve around Alderson and the person he hires to run baseball operations in. picking players – namely free agents – better than the last two GM Mets one of which was Alderson.
As GM with the three-time AL 1988-90 A and 2011-18 Mets, Alderson was much better at recruiting talent through draft and trades than in free agency. In Oakland, players such as Dave Henderson, Rickey Henderson, Carney Lansford, Dennis Eckersley, Dave Stewart and Bob Welch came to the A Championship via one-sided trades favorable to Alderson; and Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, Terry Steinbach and Walt Weiss are from his drafts.
The Mets could have been a playoff team the past two years if Van Wagenen had done better to increase around acquired core (Noah Syndergaard, Zack Wheeler) or drafted (Pete Alonso, Michael Conforto, Jeff McNeill, Brandon Nimmo, Dom Smith) during Alderson’s first term.
So perhaps the most vital quote in the nearly two hours that Cohen and his team president spoke to reporters on Tuesday was when Alderson said, “I don’t want to make it sound like we’re let’s just go out and sign a bunch of players. . But I think we can now focus on acquisition rather than cost. Does that make sense? “
This is the case if Alderson cast a shadow over the Wilpons, if he made a subliminal reference that you can’t buy the best ingredients without the money to do so. Alderson’s final free agent class were Jay Bruce, Todd Frazier, Jason Vargas, Anthony Swarzak, Jose Reyes and Adrian Gonzalez. The total guarantee was $ 88 million, or I guess what it will cost to sign DJ LeMahieu on his own.
One of the lures Van Wagenen found in getting Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz from the Mariners in a trade that currently looks miserable is that he was able to dump the rest of Bruce and Swarzak’s contracts as some sort of financial compensation against Cano ( it also cost two of Alderson’s first-round picks (Justin Dunn and Jarred Kelenic).
Perhaps nothing exemplifies Alderson’s skills with the Mets like his relationship with Yoenis Cespedes. Trading for him in 2015 was a godsend (and the smaller additions of Tyler Clippard, Addison Reed, Kelly Johnson and Juan Uribe also helped the Mets win the NL title). The retention of Cespedes on a three-year contract with a one-year absence was good. Maintaining Cespedes for four years at $ 110 million a disaster.
The next time Alderson shopped, he was down the aisles of Bruce, Frazier, and Vargas. Cohen will clearly allow the Mets to restock in luxury areas. Alderson and his baseball department will therefore have to properly judge George Springer’s association with a sign theft scandal, JT Realmuto’s demanding workload as a catcher, and whether an iconoclast like Trevor Bauer will pair well with the Mets and New York.
But not all purchases are made in the fancy categories. The Mets need to improve their enclosure. If they, for example, buy Springer, that may mean focusing on a cheaper receiver and / or starting to pitch.
Alderson and his handpicked lieutenants will be given keys to be daring. Now for the historically difficult part – making those right choices.
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