Led by rookie Matt Harvey, the Mets are moving in the right direction and the future looks bright in Queens |
When the Mets hired Sandy Alderson in 2010, they had signaled a move in a direction the Mets hadn't made in years; they were going to restart the franchise and start from the ground up. No more ugly contracts for overrated superstars, no more Jason Bay's, no more K-Rod's. It was a move that didn't excite many fans, probably more because the Wilpon's financial situation appeared dire. Yet, it was also a shrewd move picking up one of the more underrated baseball guys around. Either way, the direction the Mets were trending in was one the city of New York is not fond of: rebuilding.
The process began last season when the Mets
With Wright locked in for the next eight years it was time for Alderson to build around him. First order of business, R.A. Dickey. The knuckler was coming off a sensational Cy Young season and he had become somewhat of a revelation. But at the unique age of 38 (still somewhat in his prime as knuckleballer) Dickey wasn't a part of the Mets future. Toronto immediately contacted Alderson about Dickey once it looked like the Mets weren't going to re-sign him and trade talks began. The Blue Jays original offer of top-75 starting pitching prospect Noah Snydergaard wasn't enough; Alderson wouldn't budge. With the deal hanging in limbo, the Mets GM stood his ground and finally forced the Jays to include the original prospect they wanted, catcher Travis d'Arnaud. Once again Alderson had forced a team's hand, this time bolstering the Mets farm system with arguably the best catching prospect in baseball.
There's been some backlash over this trade. The fans have the right to be angered because the trade immediately makes the team worse. But for a team that is in such a dire situation on the field, R.A. Dickey wasn't going to help enough. He wasn't a part of the future and when you have a chance to get a potential future All-Star in exchange for a 38-year-old pitcher, you do it. You do it especially when you've signaled a rebuilding process almost two years earlier. So while the major league product won't be pretty in 2013 for Citi Field, the future is becoming increasingly bright.
But here's the most important thing to look at if you're a Mets fan. Every move the franchise is making is moving them in a unified direction, a direction that has worked for several other teams. There has been no half-assing with the rebuilding process. There's been no "Wait, let's keep this really inconsistent superstar to sell seats." It's been a full on rebuilding process and it's turning into quite a good thing. Right now the future is bright with the addition of d'Arnaud (11th ranked prospect) and Syndergaard (83rd) to the pitching duo of Zack Wheeler (6th) and rookie Matt Harvey who showed last year that he is a strikeout machine (70 Ks in 59.1 innings). If the Mets rotation can be as good as it looks like it will in two or three years, this team could be back in the runnings in sooner rather than later. The key for the franchise is just to continue on this path, develop the prospects properly (by not rushing them to the show) and all will be gravy.
It's hard to be this bad at the MLB level and still be excited about some guarantee-less prospects down the road, but you saw what happened with the Rays. We're on that same path. Then again we are the Mets and our tendencies to turn great things into disasters are all too real. For now we can celebrate another prospect robbery. By June we'll be 15 games under .500 and wishing we had something to save us. Hopefully the future can be that savior.
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