I have seen many tweets and some articles on how disappointed the Mets off-season has been and all I can say is those people either need to take a course in Baseball 101 or perhaps get their eyes checked because this Met roster is pure and simple a 90 Plus Win team.
Entering the off-season I told all of you that despite new ownership do not expect Mets to overspend and they have not. But what they have done is lift the payroll and address the issues that needed to be addressed and if any team deserves criticism this off-season it is the team across town.
The thing I keep hearing is the Mets did not land any of the Big 3 free agents-Trevor Bauer, JT Realmuto or George Springer and while that is true they did land the best available offensive player in Francisco Lindor, get a catcher who fits all their needs in James McCann, add depth to the bullpen with the addition of Trevor May and Aaron Loup, get three excellent starting pitchers in Carlos Carrasco, Marcus Stroman and Taijuan Walker plus add overall roster depth . They also addressed defense as McCann, Lindor, McNeil and either Almora or Pillar give them strongest defense up the middle in years.
Meanwhile that team across the river still has big time defensive issues at short and catcher and added injury-laden pitchers to a rotation that can pretty much be summed up as Gerit Cole and a bunch of question marks. But only the Mets get criticized in this town. Where were the Yankees in the Realmuto Bauer or Lindor sweepstakes as each of those players would have dramatically improved their team?
Instead people take potshots at Sandy who is by the way in the ONLY general manager to win a pennant in this town in the last 12 years and did it while the team was suffering through the Madoff saga. Sandy knows how to be patient but also knows how to pounce. He does not need me to defend him as his resume speaks for itself.
The Mets are in the elite of squads in baseball as the join the Dodgers, Padres and Braves as the best quartet of teams in the league. This lineup has a chance to be unrelenting and the rotation houses the best quintet of hurlers in the sport. The bullpen is a bit of a question mark but they do possess a wide assortment of hurlers in that pen and the staff will get Lugo and Syndergaard back in mid-season making that group even stronger.
But all I hear is criticism and I just consider that click bait and noise pollution. I have been around Sandy for close to a decade covering this team and he takes accountability very seriously. He is never afraid to execute plans that he believes in no matter what the so called experts say.
There is pennant posted at CitiField that is due in large part to how he added personnel in 2015 and another pennant is in the near future. And yes the new ownership has money but will simply not spend it unless it makes sense from a baseball perspective. Extensions for Conforto and Lindor are next on the docket and the Syndergaard issue will be tackled once we see him pitch. In the meantime both the 25 man and 40 man rosters are lights years better than they were a year ago with so many players under financial control for the next few years.
The improvement I see in this Met team is obvious to me. Of course in this sport injuries and other factors can always change the final score. But Sandy Alderson has put all the pieces in place and I can’t say I am surprised. When I heard he was re-joining the team I knew that would happen because his resume has illustrated that ability on numerous occasions in different organizations.
He has put the proper ingredients in the 2021 Mets making this a 90+ win team. Those of you who can’t see that, I have a great eye doctor I can send you to that will clear up your vision problems.