The Mets officially announced that they signed Sandy Alderson to a four-year deal with a club option for 2015 and there's no question that the new GM definitely has his backers. Commissioner Bud Selig told Chris Russo of SIRIUS XM Radio that “the fans of the Mets ought to be very happy” with the team's choice. J.P. Ricciardi and Kevin Towers tell Joel Sherman of the New York Post that Alderson has earned their admiration and respect over the years. So what is Alderson himself saying about the Mets? Matt Cerrone of MetsBlog has the latest from this afternoon's news conference:
- It doesn't seem like the Mets will spend big on free agents, as they have in recent offseasons. “Will we be aggressive in the free agent market this year? Not likely,” Alderson said.
- Alderson says “the manager is a critical part of the overall leadership structure” who has to be analytical. That doesn't mean Alderson will hire someone bland, though. He pointed out that he has worked with fiery skippers like Billy Martin before.
- The manager he selects may or may not have previous managerial experience in the majors.
- Alderson sidestepped a question about the future of Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo, saying the team must "be careful about writing off any player or any asset … without thinking about it carefully.”
Alderson sidestepped a question about the future of Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo, saying the team must “be careful about writing off any player or any asset … without thinking about it carefully.”
aka “I know they suck but I can’t say that publically because I’ll kill any shot I’ll have at trying to move those bags of dump”
Wow…are we sharing a brain?
😉
Alderson sidestepped a question about the future of Oliver Perez …the team must “be careful about writing off any player or any asset…without thinking about it carefully.”
Commendable, but the beauty of getting rid of Ollie is that you don’t HAVE to think about it. It’s a no-brainer.
That’s IF the wilpons are willing to cut him loose. Thats a lot of money for nothing. But then so is the 100million plus that will be spent on a losing season if they keep them on the team
True dat…but in the end it’s been a lot of money for nothing anyway. Might as well suck it up and liberate a roster spot. Mets could use it.
What is the positive in keeping Ollie & Looie and the roster. Yes, I know the Wilpons will feel that they substantiated their investment. However, they will be negative influences and if the Wilpons really are invested in winning, they will be able to let go of both. As the hackneyed Kenny Rogers (no, not the pitcher) tune goes, “You Got To Know When To Hold Them, And Know When To Fold Them”.
If Sandy publicly called it a no-brainer, he’d lack the class that’s made him so successful.
I really am excited about the Sandy Era. I’m really encouraged by his confidence and knowledge…
Three things that I thought about after reading this:
Not signing many free agents doesn’t mean that the team wont rebuild or make some trades.
Ted Simmons should be the Manager…
Carlos Beltran needs to get his act together big time.
SPANdemonium, you are absolutely the bomb! You are quite correct. I have been touting Ted Simmons for the past two weeks. He fits everything that Sandy wants in a manager and has had GM experience as well. So Ted will be astute in understanding and attempting to implement Sandy’s global plan for winning.
The fans would also take to Ted’s gamesmanship and fiery desire to win rather quickly. I also heard that he was very high on the Wilpons’ list even before they hired Sandy.
I am very excited for the first time since 2006.
Thanks Roy. You are the bomb yourself, way to hit the light in the movie buddy…
But yeah, Simmons would not only bring fans to the ballpark, but would bring the players to the ballpark as well. He has the desire to to encourage a 0-100 team or a 100-0 team with the same attitude and moxy.
Some of the younger guys would really look up to Ted as well and I am still shocked that he is still out there. The Marlins might as well give him a call but regardless, he should definetly be in the mix.
We’ll see.
excellent pts… and bay
Castillo and Perez will be off the books after next season, Mets fans have that to look forward to. Doubtful they’re going to get rid of them without either eating their salary or taking back something just as undesirable, so hopefully talk of moving them will just die down (haha, not likely). $18 million will be freed up next offseason, two dead weights will be off the team and Alderson will be a year into his tenure trying to turn things around. Maybe by this time next year Mets fans will be in a little better mood.
The thing is, just eating their salary would be an improvement at this point.
They’re not just bad players, they’re bad players who have gotten way more playing time then they deserve due to their contract situations, and once the Mets finally wised up in the 2nd half of the season, they quickly became players so untrusted that the manager would flat out refuse to use them unless he had literally no other options, so they were essentially playing with a 23 man roster for a while.
Simply having those guys on the roster continues to put the rest of the team at a disadvantage.
The thing is, that’s obviously easy to say…But you have to look at the big picture. I mean every team has had to go through this at some point and you can’t just cut everybody? A.J. Burnett comes to mind…They are paying him more money than Perez and granted he is a better pitcher, what are you going to do?
As Pageian said, Mets fans just need to wait another year. There isn’t going to be any bad contract swap or players getting cut loose for nothing because what good does that do you? You cut Luis Castillo to play Ruben Tejada and after 600 PA’s you find a line of .245/.300/.350 so how is that flatterring?
I say it’s just about being patient with Sandy’s moves and go from there. Might as well give them one last chance because quite frankly, I don’t think the Mets are a 85 win team come next season unless they raise their payroll substantially, and that includes cutting Perez and Castillo and signing and trading for a few big names, which likely will not happen.
That’s one of the better explanations I’ve heard of how addition by subtraction works.
“So what is Alderson himself saying about the Mets?”
Oh my god! What have I DONE???
He was the kid that would build a huge lego castle, smash it to bits, and put it back together again.
?????? cmon dude
What’s there to consider about dumping Perez & Castillo? You can’t trade them, except for a pile of donkey excrement. Even then, you would need to chip in some cash.
It’s good that they gave him 4 years. Ownership showed a long-term commitment here to turning around the team.
As much confidence I would like to have…I only fear the worst in something negative will happen…like always.
That’s a terrible attitude. Come Opening Day, get yourself a new Mets cap and think… Yes we can!!, yes we can !!… maybe
major gm upgrade
I agree. They have the money to spend, if not like the yankees, then like the red sox or angels. And really I don’t understand why teams will spend a couple of million on a on a below average reliever when they could that much on a late round drop who have the chance to be much, much better. You KNOW your going to get form a 2 million fill in for a year…. but if you put that in the draft you could get a player who’s excellent for 6
larry,
Not to defend Alderson, but I think that statement speaks for itself. He is going to hire a manager who does not have MLB experience at the managerial level. But he is keeping his options open just in case the Wilpons have other ideas as to his choice of manager.
Look, if you think that Jeff is going to relinquish control as of today, you’re kidding yourself. He may ultimately allow Sandy to run the team, but I think that Jeff has to see results, first.
Its going to take time for the Mets to turn things around but 2011 is mostly going to be a reloading year with emphasis on building a strong minor league system.
In his press confrerence Alderson distinguished between decisions and recommendations. What he said in his WFAN follow-up is that the choice of Manager will be a recommendation. That means the Wilpons will ultimately make the choice.Even so, the way I read the statement was similar to the way you read it – just not so absolute. I took him to mean he was as interested in new faces as a tried and true hand.So a little pro-Backman and a little anti-Valentine. But we’ll see what comes out of this after a day or two. It’s obvious he has to run his choices and why past the Wilpons before anything gets done.
You are probably right what you say about Jeff needing to see results before yielding any real control. But the joke of that is that he must yield some control and give Sandy room to maneuver if he really wants him to start getting those results.
Teddy,
We pretty much agree except that I do not think that Wally is going to be part of the equation. He’ll be in the discussion, but I doubt very seriously that Alderson will consider Backman in his top five as he has not had the preparation in the so-called “moneyball” philosophy that Sandy espouses.
One of the problems i think is how the media is going to take the rebuilding process. With the larger market it should go much faster then for a smaller market team starting from scratch. But with a large market comes a large market media. We’ll see how the newyork press takes another(probable) losing season.
How likely is it the Met’s go overslot in the draft given Sandy’s relationship with Selig, as well as the Wilpon’s history to abide by Bud’s wishes?
Reign Delay,
You are absolutely correct. That is the conundrum placed in front of Sandy in rebuilding this organization. Hopefully, Jeffy-Boy will be smart this time and let go gradually. The sooner Jeffy let’s go, the sooner the organization can turn around and be successful. But as we all know, Jeffy-Boy signs the checks!!!!
FOR SURE!
Clearly I’m not the ONLY “Reign Delay” in Flushing!! :-p