Mets GM Sandy Alderson made his first appearance with the media in quite some time today, and it was certainly good to see him back in the swing of things after the revelation that he had been diagnosed with cancer. The club’s top baseball decisionmaker told reporters that he’s back to full speed. (Via the Associated Press, on ESPN.com.) “I’ve been working 100 percent since really just after the winter meetings,” Alderson said. “I just couldn’t travel to Nashville that particular Sunday and Monday. Otherwise I would have been there. But since that time I’ve been in the office and fully participating.”
Here’s more from that appearance and some other notes from around the National League East:
- Alderson added that the Mets are not shying away from spending, despite that perception in some quarters. As he put it, in rather interesting fashion: “The idea that we’re not investing in the team I think is really misplaced and sort of tied up in the populism involving [Yoenis] Cespedes.” Alderson went on to explain that the club’s payroll in 2016 could end up rising by as much as $35MM over its 2014 figure of about $93MM. (The club sat at about $110MM last year.)
- Generally, said Alderson, the Mets acknowledge the importance of Cespedes and outgoing infielder Daniel Murphy to last year’s run, but he explained there was more to it than simply keeping the band together. “I think along the way we learned a few things about ourselves and about the team, and I think the way we’ve approached the offseason puts some of those lessons into play,” Alderson explained. “It’s not as if we’re not looking to improve the team, and, if possible, in significant ways. But it has to make some sense in terms of how these pieces all fit.”
- Signing Murphy wasn’t the Nationals’ first choice, writes Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post, but the team believes that he makes for a good fit and addresses an important need. Boswell paints a fascinating picture of Nats’ GM Mike Rizzo’s negotiations with Murphy — conducted while laid up after back surgery — and notes that the organization feels it has largely done what it needed to this winter. While further moves could take place, it seems increasingly likely that a big trade involving the back end of the bullpen may not be forthcoming. And other roster spots — such as a fourth outfielder — could be filled with relatively minor moves, unless high-value opportunities arise. As for Murphy, Rizzo explained the signing thusly: “We were looking for the best left-handed value we could get, and this guy really plays the game the way I like: gritty, hard-nosed, but with a smart baseball mind. He can steal you a base. Situational hits. And the brighter the lights, the more he steps up.”
- Bringing back left-handed-hitting utilityman Kelly Johnson could spell the end of Nick Swisher’s brief tenure with the Braves, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman writes. The most likely scenario, he suggests, is for Atlanta to showcase Swisher during Spring Training in hopes that he’ll do enough to draw interest from another team. If not other club is willing to pick up some of Swisher’s $15MM in remaining obligations, says Bowman, he could end up just being released.
I’d rather have Swisher than Bourn.
Wouldn’t swisher only cost an acquiring team 10MM at most since Cleveland is paying for 5MM of his salary?
That’s correct. Still way too much for Swish. Born is much more valuable. Especially with Mallex Smith coming up whether we keep Inciarte or not. If that’s the scenario and Inciarte is the CF of the future then Bourn can mentor Smith throughout spring training and through some of the season this year, make a young Bourn out of him and have a great trade chip next offseason.
I love it when people say so and so is going to mentor a player to be just like him.
If it was that easy then why didn’t the Bulls have Jordan mentor every young kid on the bench so when he retired they would have 5 Jordans to replace him with?
It’s much more complex than that. Mallex Smith has a similar game and style to Michael Bourn so it makes sense for Bourn and Smith to be around each other. I’m sure if the Bulls had Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan would’ve been right there on him. There are some guys like a Jonny Gomes, Mike Napoli, or a David Ross who are just guys you want in the clubhouse because they know how to get through a 162 game season that younger guys just aren’t used too by means of the length, pressures, talents, and how you carry yourself. To even use your MJ comparison: Michael was a ‘mentor’ to a young Kwame Brown but by all accounts their personalities were polar opposites which made neither of them wrong but it prevented Kwame from having any true mentor type or comfortability factor in pro basketball.
Well, the salary offset was — as I understand it — sort of just $15MM tossed Atlanta’s way to cover both guys. Regardless, it doesn’t really matter, b/c no team is going to come close to taking on whatever it is Atlanta precisely owes him.
Looking back at the Mets roster in May and June shows exactly why they should make signing Cespedes a priority. They have 35 ish million to spend and he won’t cost a pick or lose them the chance at a pick. I know it wasn’t all Cespedes but it sure looked like it. Check out fangraphs and you can see that even after his slow start he still finished as one of the top 10 players in all of baseball last season. I really don’t understand why teams aren’t knocking down his door with 150 million dollar offers especially when it seems like the first legit offer might get him signed. I know he has been traded a bunch but it seems more coincidence based on needs and his contract.
I think it’s because of his position as much as monetary demands. If the Mets had a hole in a corner OF instead of CF to fill, things might be different. They are trying to plug him into CF though, because that’s where they need him, and it’s just not a very good fit. It worked in the short term, for a few months last season, but it’s not a great long term solution.
As Mike Rizzo just said about Murphy, you sign the whole player. Cespedes in CF doesn’t look like a fruitful experiment.
Right. If Granderson only had one year remaining on his contract, I’d probably support signing Cespedes to a reasonable deal, which is probably what he’ll get at this point. They could probably stand having him in CF for 2016, and juggle the lineups around to push him to RF or LF as much as possible. Then you could move him to RF in 2017, have Conforto in LF, and platoon Nimmo and Lagares in CF.
But Granderson is signed for two more, and I don’t know how you stick Cespedes out in CF for two more seasons. Having a 31 year Cespedes in CF along with a 36 year old Granderson in RF wouldn’t be good.
Their roster in May was a product of d’Arnaud, Wright, and for 4-5 weeks, Murphy all being injured at the same time. Also at this point Conforto was not recalled yet. Cespedes was indeed amazing but a large part of their offensive resurgence was simply getting their healthy players back. They went from having 2 legit major legue hitters (Duda and Granderson) in their lineup to having 6 when Murphy, d’Arnaud and Wright got healthy and Conforto was ready to be called up. Cespedes was the icing on the cake. I’d love to have him back but only at a fair price because I think he will be devalued by having to play a lot of CF.
Playoff revenue had to come in about 50 million Only spending 35% of that is rather cheap, although maybe its 50% when you count revenue sharing, which is more reasonable. Revenue projections for 2016 should be substantial though, so I think they can do more
Problem is Wilpon still owes investors 175 million. I’m sure he’s pinching every penny right now. It’s funny how mlb pushed the dodgers owners out due to financial concerns, but have been fairly quiet with regards to the mets.
MLB put WIlpon on the FINANCE Committee. It’s like a bad joke…but real.
How did you make up that $50mm number? MLB gets the $ from the first 4 games each series- before the teams get any; the Mets only had 1 home game of ticket revenue (WS 5). So it was 7 home games of revenue x 45,000 people = 315,000 beverage and food customers; do you really think they made $160 PROFIT per person? Cause I only spent $35 total at my game…and if you figure even a 40% profit margin, then they didn’t come close!
Public estimates put the Mets take for their postseason run at $20 million.
If the Braves need to get rid of Swisher bad enough, they should package him with Inciente. Their is enough interest in him that if they took a little less in return and eat about $3 of the remaining $10 mm of his contract, they could probably unload Swisher.
I’m sure that their is someone out there willing to eat $7 mm and 1 year of Swisher to get a bargain on a young controllable, quality asset like Inciente.
They’d rather just drop swisher than give up Ender
Braves don’t need the money, they need the roster space
Why would they willingly reduce their return on a valuable trade asset when they don’t have to? They’re not in a bad financial situation now, so they have no need to do deals like this. It’s much more likely they’d just release him and eat the loss.
I don’t understand why Sandoval would change agents now. His old agent got him a deal that is turning out to be for much more than he is worth.
Agents do a lot more than show up every 3-4 years for contract talks. I’m guessing it had more to do w. day-t0-day considerations than his contract.
Why don’t the Mets use Bobby Bonilla? After all they are still paying him? He’s only 53. Just another example of the Wilpon’s folly. The Wilpon’s are the worst owners in baseball. Can you imagine that pitching staff now in their prime with their two best hitters gone and absolutely no one to replace them. I hope no one thinks that the Wilpon’s are going to resign any of their pitchers. They’ll trade them all for prospects.
Jeffrey loria is the worst owner in baseball there are no questions that he is the worse, I would hate to be a fan of the
Marlins he is so bad let alone play for them. The guy just needs to stick to his art collection and get away from baseball. The front office for the Marlins from Loria all the way through the front office sucks.
Loria is #1…..but the Wilpons are a close #2.
Cespedes was awesome, but Murphy was not one of the “best hitters on the Mets” last year, despite his heroic playoff efforts. Matter of fact he was like the sixth best hitter on the Mets. The best hitters on the Mets were Duda (132 OPS+) Granderson (129 OPS+) d’Arnaud (128 OPS+) and of course Wright (128 OPS+) and Conforto (132 OPS+) who had similar sample sizes to Cespedes because of injury. Murphy had an OPS+ of 113.
And not only did they replace Murphy, they actually upgraded because Neil Walker is a better player than Murphy. Better defender, better hitter. (Higher lifetime OPS and OPS+)
Plus, Murphy enjoyed a career-best contact rate last year (92 percent, up from 88.2 in ’14, 88.5 in ’13, and 88.3 in ’12), with a career-low swinging strike swinging strike percentage (3.9 percent, down from 5.7 percent in ’14), all while pulling the ball with more power. At 30 years old, it doesn’t exactly strike me as a sustainable adjustment.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Murphy a lot as a guy, and enjoyed watching him play for the Mets. But I think New York wins out on this one.
The goal is to “tank” one more year, then start contending in 2017. Might as well keep both Bourn/Swisher decent bench players at the very least. I hope they keep Ender too. Looking forward to another high draft pick next year, and the youngsters to start cracking the roster.
Alderson is nothing but a puppet. Time for him to go