We love our Mets so much we can’t wait to replace as many as of them as is viable. Sandy Alderson apparently feels the same way.
No complaints here.
After patching together a roster with masking tape, postage stamp hinges and remainders from fractions homework, the GM has stayed busier than a jaded observer would have expected. Add to Michael Conforto, Kelly Johnson, Juan Uribe and Yutz the Wonder Buffalo (just seeing if you’re paying attention) the notorious T.L.C., a.k.a. Tyler Lee Clippard, infamous for beating the Mets as a Yankee eight years ago and never being forgiven for it.
We’re letting bygones be bygones for now, because Tyler’s done some solid relief work since 2007, even if most of that was for the Nationals and much of was to our pre-2015 detriment. But he comes to us now, from Oakland, to help us attack Washington like a Tea Party congressional candidate. We gave up Casey Meisner to acquire Clippard. If you knew who Casey Meisner was before this trade and have information that augurs future regret for us, please keep it to yourself. Once upon a time, getting Doyle Alexander and Larry Anderson were instrumental in springing contending teams toward playoff positions. That John Smoltz and Jeff Bagwell were surrendered in the process didn’t seem so bad in the moment.
In the moment we’re in now, in case you’ve forgotten, we’re two games out of first place and nine years removed from our previous postseason. Our lineup improved exponentially with the promotion of Conforto and the additions of the ex-Braves. We now lean a little on a former Yankee and National to strengthen a bullpen where Bobby Parnell and Jenrry Mejia are still finding their way back and Jeurys Familia is most always on call. Meisner’s hypothetically marvelous days to come will have to be risked to get us where we need to go this year.
Now, maybe, another bat or glove so this race stays real? Deadline’s not till Friday. Keep the new Mets coming, Sandy. We’ll learn to love them, too.
Based on multiple reports, the fact that they’ve already acquired four players from Binghamton, Atlanta and Oakland will not stop them from looking for a big bat. This is heartening, because as I’ve said for some time now, this deadline would reveal the team’s CAPACITY and to a lesser degree, willingness to trade and take on some more salary. The next test will be what they do this winter now that their rotation is all but confirmed as the best and most controllable in MLB in many years.
How ’bout that? Sandy just snagged us our first OTC (other team’s closer) since K-Rod. I guess we have the rest of the season to decide if he’s a John Franco OTC or a Mel Rojas OTC, or something in between. And fortunately, for the first time in forever we get to keep our own homegrown closer as top dawg in the pen. Works for me.
I didn’t like the trade when it was made. Your invocation of Smoltz and Bagwell made my stomach drop.
A lot of the recent Sandy-bashing has been pretty silly – this is the guy who got Zack Wheeler for two months of Carlos Beltran, then got Noah Syndergaard and Travis d’Arnaud for an aging R.A. Dickey, all by convincing everybody, most importantly his GM colleagues, that he doesn’t feel a desperate need to do anything. It’s a negotiating ploy, but we all keep falling for it. I guess that means he’s pretty good at it.
So this is a start – and it’s quite impressive that Sandy has 1) not given up any of the top-tier prospects and 2) managed to also pull in some cash to pay big chunks of the acquired salaries and keep whatever payroll flexibility he really has largely intact for other purposes.
I’m just hoping those other purposes include somebody who can both hit and legitimately play shortstop. I’m concerned about what’s going to happen when the clock strikes midnight and Ruben Tejada turns back into a pumpkin.
Here’s a mind-boggling Reuben Tejada factoid: Reuben is in 41st place on the all-time Mets game appearances list. He will pass Lenny Dykstra in a few weeks, in all likelihood. This doesn’t even seem possible. If I slipped into a coma right now and woke up exactly five years from now I wouldn’t be surprised at all to hear that Tejada was still playing SS for the Mets.
I don’t get the constant Tejada bashing. It also annoys me.
He’s a good defensive shortstop. I hear, 30 to 40 years ago, all shortstops were pretty good defensively, and if they batted .260 you couldn’t believe your luck. Ruben has his streaks. Show me one player oh this team that doesn’t have his streaks. Ruben frequently draws walks after being down 0-2. Show me one other player on this team that does that. If we wouldn’t insist on batting the guy with the most home runs in the #1 hole, which is the one thing I could choke Terry Collins for, then we could actually attempt to DO something with Tejada’s walks, which are, admittedly, pretty useless when he’s batting ahead of the pitcher.
Tejada’s been a pumpkin ever since he’s been here, with occasional flashes of stagecoach that never seem able to sustain itself. However, with the addition of our 4 new hitters to the lineup, including Nieuwenheis, perhaps this pumpkin’s defense might be what is needed at this time.
BTW, overjoyed to see N’heis replace Legares in CF, who IS shaped like an actual pumpkin.
Hurrah for Sandy! Great pitching staff (held onto all of them), great relievers, d’Arnaud back soon, David Wright’s Insurance Money, onward and upward!
Why do you keep bashing David Wright? I’d rather have him back than the insurance money.
Keith Law at ESPN.com is very bullish on Casey Meisner and therefore down on this trade. On the other hand, Mets are deep in starting pitching and bullpens (are said to) win playoff series. On the other other hand, Mets are not a lock for the playoffs…
Whatever. I like the deal. It makes the team stronger now while they still have a chance to make a run.
I saw that Keith Law post, and he was basically saying that with 60+ games left, the Mets were dumb to give up a good prospect for 20+ innings of relief. That totally discounts their chances for the postseason. If the Mets don’t make it, it may look dumb in retrospect. But with Mejia ineligible and Parnell recovering from TJ (and 3/5 of the rotation on some sort of innings limit or another), he absolutely had to get someone. I thought it was a great move.
Familia has looked shaky, too, since before the all-star break.
It didn’t rise to alarming until Familia spit the bit against the Dodgers. If Familia loses it, Clippard is not going to fill that hole, but maybe adding Clippard will shift some of the pressure and that will help Familia stay on track. Less need for 4/5 out saves will help, too.
I like the deal for Clippard, considering the Mets current wealth of pitching and the fact you can never have too many options in the bullpen.
Sadly, Tulowitzki has been dealt and not to the Mets. By accounts so far it appears the Rockies shedding salary was the key to the deal with Toronto that sent Reyes to Denver. I wonder if Colorado will now deal Reyes for more prospects. If so, it wouldn’t be terrible if the Mets brought him back to Flushing.
I doubt Alderson would pay the $22 million a year for Reyes.
I would be concerned about how good Casey Meisner might be in 2019 if the Mets didn’t have the arms they have ahead of him. I didn’t notice the Mets exactly missing Steve Renko or Floyd Youmans too badly. Yeah, Clippard might only pitch 20 innings (30 is more likely) as a Met, but at some point Alderson needed to show that there’s a goal here and he hasn’t just been kicking the can down the road. He’s acquired 3 useful role players for 3 quasi-prospects, and it’s nice that the team is finally at a point where such trades make sense.
20 to 30 of Clippard plus x-innings that alex torres can STAY in the bullpen…i like it.
i really like the (unexpected) reenforcements…how long has it been since the mets were buyers at this stage?
so far all the transactions have borne fast fruit…
i. am. stoked!
I’d much rather see Alex Torres in someone else’s bullpen.
For a relief pitcher, 20+ innings is 20 games. There are only about 60 games left in the season with the Mets 3 games back of the Nationals in the loss column.
But for the lapse by a TJ-recovering set-up man within the space of a mere third of an inning, the Mets would be practically tied for 1st place with the Nationals right now.
For a team that is looking ahead with the expectation of winning the division mainly by tipping their W-L record the other way in 1 or 2-run games, especially in the 9 games left against the Nationals, where it’s settled by modern baseball practice that the starters will hand off their very best efforts to the bullpen, those 20+ innings by a premium relief pitcher matter a lot.
Sandy is making moves.who would have thought it. Your right it keeps Alex Torres in the bullpen and not on the mound. Lets go Mets!!
Keep going Sandy…these are good moves, but low level really. Hope you have some Frank Cashen in you…brought in Darling, Hojo, Keith, Gary, Cone, Sid…
Go nuts Sandy…Reyes and Cargo for Wheeler, Plawecki, Montero, Mejia, Murphy, Duda…who else?
Bobby Bonilla.
This seems like a solid move.
I vaguely remember Meisner from last year’s Cyclones staff. Looking at his stats, he was good, but nothing that screams greatness to come.
And Clippard has always been pretty effective against lefties with that change up. That’s something the Mets need.
Meisner is a good prospect, higher up than Gant and Whalen, but he wasn’t an exceptional prospect for the Mets. But then again, maybe the Mets farm system is stocked with future Jacob deGroms.
I hear ya. You never know. Thank Gooden-ness the Mets didn’t deal deGrom in a move like this before he came up. Though, if the farm has more where that came from, that would be awfully good. (Pitching prospects who are way better than anticipated, I mean).
The 2nd snippet is getting some play with Red Sox fans:
http://www.gammonsdaily.com/peter-gammons-cooperstown-awaits-four-baseball-giants/
Whew, close one!
Who the hack is Kelly Shack? – What? – Shoppach? – Dunno, who is she?
Yeah, I am glad Sandy called twice there…
I wouldn’t worry too much about the departure of Casey Meisner. The two highly touted young arms we sent to the Marlins (w/ Preston Wilson) in the Piazza trade, Geoff Goetz and Ed Yarnall, never came back to haunt our Mets.
We can make some hay now in the division race with these recent reinforcements.
Great point….prospects are just that until proven otherwise. I’m sure we all remember David West as well.
Or 99% of every Met hitting prospect for 54 years.