Sandy Alderson Had a Poor Offseason
This past offseason Sandy Alderson and the Mets were heralded for building a deep roster that was better built to sustain a slate of injuries like the Mets fared last year. Here are how all the players Sandy Alderson acquired during the offseason have fared with the Mets this year:
So far, Walker has had a terrific 2015. In fact, he is on pace to have the best year of his eight year career. However, as the Mets offense has tailed off, so has Walker. Here are his monthly splits:
- April .307/.337/.625 with 9 homers and 19 RBI
- May .250/.333/.420 with 4 homers and 6 RBI
- June .224/.307/.289 with 1 homer and 6 RBI
Each and every month Walker has gone from one a career best year to stats worse than he has had over the course of his career.
Like his double play partner, Cabrera’s stats are masked by a hot April. In April, Cabrera hit .300/.364/.400. Since that time, Cabrera is only hitting .247/.307/.409. Worse yet, despite many raving about his defense, the advanced metrics disagree. So far, he has a -5 DRS and a -2.1 UZR.
He was supposed to be a platoon partner with Juan Lagares in center. Given his .165/.216/.242 batting line, it is a blessing that never came to be.
For the second straight year, Cespedes has been terrific for the Mets. His OBP and slugging are on pace to be the highest in his career. He’s also on pace for a career high 38 homers. Even with his poor defense in center field, he has been day in and day out the best player on the Mets.
Like every other backup catcher during the Sandy Alderson regime, Rivera has not hit. Initially, he was supposed to be a minor league depth, but after another Travis d’Arnaud injury, he was called-up to the majors. He has worked well with Mets pitchers this year, specificially Noah Syndergaard Mostly due to his defense, and also because of how poorly Kevin Plawecki has played, he has stayed in the majors when d’Arnaud came off the disabled list.
He was a minor league free agent that was never supposed to play in the majors. When he hit .148/.207/.259 in 14 games we found out why. Of course, he was pressed into action in part because the Mets found it wise to start with Eric Campbell on the 25 man roster instead of Ruben Tejada.
Somewhat surprisingly, at the age of 43, Colon is having his best season with the Mets. He’s 6-4 with a 2.86 ERA and a 1.170 WHIP. He also did this:
After he went down last year, the Mets searched high and low for a lefty out of the pen. They never did quite find one. Blevins has been healthy this year, and he has been terrific going 2-0 with a 2.49 ERA. Only recently did he have a 21 appearance and 13 inning scoreless streak snapped.
He has been the worst reliever in the Mets bullpen with a 5.28 ERA and a 1.565 WHIP. Terry Collins has shoved him to the back of the bullpen and tries to avoid using him in high leverage situations at all costs.
The minor league free agent had a great Spring Training and made the Opening Day roster. He was having a terrific season until Collins pushed him too far for what he perceived to be a must-win game in April. His production tailed off, and now he is on the disabled list with an injured shoulder. This is the same shoulder that caused Henderson to miss all of the 2015 season after having had two surgeries on the joint.
Overall, looking over how these moves have panned out thus far, it does not appear that Sandy Alderson has had as good an offseason as many proclaimed him to have had. In fact, as the season progresses, it makes Alderson’s season look worse and worse. In order for the perception of Alderson’s offseason to change again, the underperforming players are going to have to improve. Time is growing shorter and shorter for that to happen.