Assembling the New York Mets

[dbminn]

After six straight losing years, the New York Mets have punched their ticket to the World Series. The Mets GM, Sandy Alderson, built the team by drafting and acquiring key prospects. He kept the team's budget near or under $100 million for several years, waiting for the prospects to arrive.

 

New York Times reporter Tyler Kepner has posted an interesting article about the progression from the Bernie Madoff scandal and bloated budgets to the World Series:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/23/sports/baseball/after-madoff-fraud-mets-altered-approach-for-pennant.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=mini-moth&region=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below

 

The Twins are at a crossroads this Winter: Do we trade established players like Gibson, Dozier and Plouffe, fortifying our stable of young players? This strategy might delay the Twins competitive rise but create a better chance at a World Series title. Do the Twins trade or sign older, established veterans?  We might improve at a quicker pace, with the risk of being saddled with a high payroll and a rapidly declining roster. What do you think?

 

However the Twins proceed, nothing is guaranteed. As Alderson says about putting together a team:

 

“Process is designed to enhance probabilities,” Alderson said. “It’s not designed to insure anything. So a lot of things have to go right. There’s a lot of luck involved.”

[ashbury]

As Alderson says about putting together a team:

 

“Process is designed to enhance probabilities,” Alderson said. “It’s not designed to insure anything. So a lot of things have to go right. There’s a lot of luck involved.”

Weasel words from a guy who doesn't want to be judged by how many World Series titles he wins.

[bluechipper]

They certainly maximized RA Dickey's value. That trade looks like robbery in hindsight, although it is hard to knock the Jays too much for going after a Cy Young pitcher.

[gunnarthor]

 

The Twins are at a crossroads this Winter: Do we trade established players like Gibson, Dozier and Plouffe, fortifying our stable of young players? This strategy might delay the Twins competitive rise but create a better chance at a World Series title. Do the Twins trade or sign older, established veterans?  We might improve at a quicker pace, with the risk of being saddled with a high payroll and a rapidly declining roster. What do you think?

 

I think it would be tough for the Twins to pass on 2016 by trading those three, unless the return was amazing.  Dozier, I think, can be replaced by Polanco but I don't know if Sano can handle third and, if he can't, then we have someone like Nunez there.  

 

The AL central next year should be open for us.  Detroit and Chicago suck and, while Cleveland has some supporters, they always seem to underachieve.  The Royals are losing a lot of important parts (Cueto, Gordon, Zobrist, Morales, Madson, Young) and have options on a few more that might not be picked up.  The Twins can reasonably expect better years from a lot of their players and still have some good minor league depth behind them.  I wouldn't trade Dozier for someone who isn't going to immediately help (unless the Nats wanted to give us Gioltio or something crazy like that).

[biggentleben]

That offseason, the Blue Jays made two major trades, both viewed as huge prospect hauls for the team they partnered with:

 

The Mets acquired Syndegaard and D'Arnaud, both with significant risk, for Dickey. That has worked out perfectly.

 

The Marlins acquired Yunel Escobar, Adeiny Hechavarria, Henderson Alvarez, Justin Nicolino, Jake Marisnick, Jeff Mathis, and Anthony DeSclafani for Josh Johnson, Mark Buehrle, Jose Reyes, Emilio Bonifacio, and John Buck. That trade has really backfired hard on the Marlins, and even the subsequent trades of Marisnick, Escobar, and DeSclafani haven't really worked out either.

[biggentleben]

 

I think it would be tough for the Twins to pass on 2016 by trading those three, unless the return was amazing.  Dozier, I think, can be replaced by Polanco but I don't know if Sano can handle third and, if he can't, then we have someone like Nunez there.  

 

The big thing not mentioned here is that the Mets still kept David Wright, Johan Santana, and many others as they were trading away other pieces. They did get overwhelmed for some pieces, and they picked up guys along the way to fill in like Granderson and Cuddyer. The big thing that the Mets have to be thankful on is the surprising development of guys like Lucas Duda and Juan Lagares, guys who had one major league skill, but seemingly not enough around that one skill to stay in the majors. Instead, they've developed enough to be not only viable major leaguers, but valuable ones as well.

[gunnarthor]

 

The big thing not mentioned here is that the Mets still kept David Wright, Johan Santana, and many others as they were trading away other pieces. They did get overwhelmed for some pieces, and they picked up guys along the way to fill in like Granderson and Cuddyer. The big thing that the Mets have to be thankful on is the surprising development of guys like Lucas Duda and Juan Lagares, guys who had one major league skill, but seemingly not enough around that one skill to stay in the majors. Instead, they've developed enough to be not only viable major leaguers, but valuable ones as well.

Yeah, and the Twins got that out of guys like Dozier and Plouffe.

[Vanimal46]

I'm okay with either option; those options being trading our established players and going with a full youth movement, or signing/trading for established players to make the next step of being a playoff club. What I don't want is to remain stagnate and assume that there will be improvements from the current crop of players we have.

 

The article that was linked focuses on shedding inflated salaries and not signing FA's to enormous contracts. The article forgets to mention that they were also very aggressive at the trade deadline, with the acquisitions of Cespedes (.942 OPS as a Met!) Clippard, Uribe, and Johnson..... They may have been patient over the last couple of years, but showed they can be aggressive when they see an opportunity to punch their ticket to the playoffs.  

[nicksaviking]

I am so jealous of the DeGrom, Harvey, Syndergaard, Matz and Wheeler rotation. 

 

To have just one young power arm is so rare in Minnesota.  I don't know what the Mets did to evaluate these guys in trades and drafts, and I don't know what they did to make sure they all developed properly, but I'd sure be open to hiring someone from their front office or scouting department if only to get any inside information. 

[Mike Sixel]

They didn't move any of them to the bullpen, for one thing.....