$mall-market ideas in big-market locale
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Don’t get Sandy Alderson started on the Mets’ payroll. Seriously. “I would spend a little less time thinking about our payroll,” the Mets’ general manager advised a small group of media members Tuesday at the Winter Meetings. “We’re trying to put the best team on the field that we possibly can. We want to fill a number of different roles. “For example, what has a big impact is the fact that, will [Michael] Conforto be ready at the beginning of the season or not be ready at the beginning of the season? Do we have to accommodate a potential delay? How does that impact not the payroll as much as the roster and playing time?” Of course, the Mets’ general manager knows darn well that payroll never ceases to be an issue with his team because of the trust deficit that exists between the Mets’ owners and their fans, which emanated from appallingly low payrolls earlier this decade. Hence it falls on Alderson to do the best he can with a payroll that pales in comparison with both the neighboring Yankees and the rival Nationals. Which brings us to the other Mets subject of the day: Mickey Callaway’s revelation that he’s very open to the idea of running a bullpen without roles, thereby using Jeurys Familia, AJ Ramos, Jerry Blevins and whoever else emerges externally and internally in the best slot each day depending on circumstances. It’s a fine idea. It’s one, moreover, that teams with a payroll disadvantage have to consider more seriously. And Callaway knows firsthand how to succeed when you’re at a payroll disadvantage. “We used every resource we could,” Callaway said of his modestly budgeted Indians teams that made the 2016 World Series and won 102 regular-season games in 2017 with him as pitching coach operating a fluid bullpen. “I think knowing that you didn’t have all the money in the world to spend, that you had to do everything else better than everybody else, from health, from juicing, to making sure guys are hydrated. I know that’s been kind of an issue that we’ve brought up.”
The Mets don’t like to portray themselves as the fiscal underdog, as it opens up old wounds. However, if they’re not going to climb back into the $155 million neighborhood where they resided last year until dumping payroll — Alderson alluded late last season to a likely drop — then they’ll be just that, with the Nationals currently projected at $169 million by Baseball-Reference.com and ready to add more.
It’ll become even more imperative for the Mets to optimize their resources, and running a more fluid bullpen falls into that category, especially after Familia’s lost 2017 season.
“I think we’re going to pitch guys when it makes sense, and we’re going to pitch guys to our strengths, and they’re going to face the batters they should be facing,” Callaway said. “If that means [Familia] is going to close every game, that could happen if it lines up that way. We’re not locked into that. I think that we have to make sure we get to a save situation, and if we can’t get there, it doesn’t do any good to have this guy be named the closer. So we’re going to pitch guys when it makes sense, and we’re going to do everything we can to win every night.”
Amen. Actually, much of what Callaway said about bullpen usage and game management will be music to the ears of Mets fans who suffered from nausea trying to watch Terry Collins run a bullpen. Now the Mets just need to give Callaway more weapons. They ultimately passed on his old Cleveland pal Bryan Shaw, who signed a threeyear deal with Colorado on Tuesday night, as well as Tommy Hunter, who agreed to a two-year contract with the Phillies.
“I expect that we’ll have a healthy payroll this year,” Alderson said, and he and his bosses will be held to that. Yet they can create some coverage by adapting small-market ideals, their bigmarket location notwithstanding.