Maybe the general manager Sandy Alderson should call NY Giants GM Jerry Reese to see if Steve Weatherford is available.
The Mets are punting on this season.
After losing Matt Harvey to a torn UCL, the Mets sent outfielder Marlon Byrd and catcher John Buck to the Pittsburgh Pirates for minor leaguer infielder Dilson Herrera and a player to be named later.
Clearly the Mets are looking towards next year and moving both Byrd and Buck shows that the organization is in take a look mode. With outfielder Matt den Dekker called up today and Travis d’Arnaud anointed as starting catcher, the club will be seeing what they have in the minors going into the off-season.
And frankly, this had to be done. Buck wasn’t starting anymore and the Mets would be crazy to pay up for Byrd in the off-season. It makes too much sense to get something for the two players.
At the same time, the Mets still want to win some games.
“I don’t think that this deal changes anything,” Alderson said. “This is a baseball deal. This is a typical deal late in the season — players going to a playoff contender and in this instance the Mets acquiring some future talent. When you juxtapose this deal with the Harvey injury, it’s easy to conclude, well, things have gone south. And, in fact, although this deal and the Harvey injury were coincidental, one of the concerns we had was the sense that, OK, the two of them together might send the wrong message. So to the extent there was any influence from the Harvey injury, it would have been not to do the deal. But we felt this was in our best interest.
“We want to finish as well as we can. But the sense we create on the part of the fans and their confidence in the future also is a function of more than wins and losses. It’s about the talent. It’s about the direction of the team. I think this move will be weighed in that broader sense rather than just how well we do in the month of September.”
Now you have to wonder how these moves will affect Collins future. He is up for renewal after this season and even though the Mets seem to want him back, the manager still has to finish strong.
“First of all, we all want to win as many games as possible,” Alderson said. “My role is to balance the short term with the long term. I have said before and would reiterate that how Terry is evaluated is beyond simply wins and losses. We’ve talked about that before. To the extent that it’s perceived that this will make it more difficult to win, and I don’t necessarily hold to that belief, obviously all the circumstances will be taken into account.”
To Collins, none of that matters.
“I will reiterate the same things I’ve been saying all the summer: This is not about me. This is not about me. This will never be about me,” Collins said. “This is only about our team and that clubhouse and those 25 guys that have got to go out and play every night. And so my job right now is to make sure they understand what is expected of each and every one of those guys. And that they go out and attain that and reach those expectations. That’s all this is about.”
Even with these moves the Mets still have some work to do. Now they are in evaluation mode looking towards 2014.
