HOW TO SAVE THE METS
Amazin’ plan to nurse club back to health
With the Mets mired in misery again, The Post’s Ken Davidoff reveals a model for the organization to follow back to contention, with guidelines established for ownership, talent development and evaluation, health management and media relations.
NO MORE quick fixes for the Mets. No more five-step plans. Not from here, anyway. For that’s what’s so confounding about this team, right? In myriad cases over the past two decades — think the trades for Mike Piazza (1998) and Johan Santana (2008) and the long-term commitments to both, the hiring of Sandy Alderson (2010) and two resignings of Yoenis Cespedes (both in 2016) — they have done exactly what the masses demanded. Yet here they are, once again, their collective asses back in the jackpot.
The Mets appear to be a broken organization, their whole less than the sum of their parts. In this era of baseball, when arguably more teams are being run more intelligently than ever before, they require a 360-degree assessment and a gut renovation of their culture.
Just look at the ar cs of their past three longterm general managers: Steve Phillips (1997-2003), Omar Minaya (2004-10) and Alderson (2010-18) all guided the Mets to exciting October heights, only to leave their posts with the team on the downswing once more; Jim Duquette ran the team for a year-and-a-half between Phillips and Minaya.
Each man must take considerable blame for failing to keep the good times rolling. Nevertheless, their similar rises and falls suggest greater forces in play that can’t be healed solely by singular moves — or higher payrolls, for that matter.
The Mets’ goal should be to institute principles that transcend any one decision or one person. That insulates them against the inevitable bad contracts that no team has figured out how to avoid. So instead of five steps, how about identifying five pillars that form the base of a strong baseball operations department and providing role models for each?
1 Ownership
Role model: Cubs Got to start with the obvious, right? When Alderson took his (seemingly permanent) leave of absence last month, Mets COO Jeff Wilpon himself said, “This is … a results business, and we’re well below our expectations, from ownership on down.”
This is partly about payroll, Yet it’s definitely not all about payroll. A team with the Mets’ payroll, even subtracting the insurance payout for David Wright, should not be a cellardweller. And repairing that starts at the top.
Nine years ago, the Rick et ts family purchased another jewel franchise, the Cubs, who were somewhat comparable to the Mets now: fits and starts of success, sandwiched by mediocrity and worse. Chairman Tom Ricketts, who grew up in Omaha, Neb., attended the University of Chicago and stayed in the Windy City, hired Theo Epstein to run the baseball operations in 2011, slashing payroll dramatically then ramping it back up. He invested heavily in improvements for Wrigley Field and Wrigleyville that are still ongoing.
All the while, he stayed engaged with the Cubs’ fans, and he largely allowed Epstein to institute his own culture. Now the Cubs, who won the 2016 World Series to end their 108-year championship drought, are a dynamo, a baseball-team-shaped ATM machine. “I think the biggest thing for success is he was a fan,” Cubs pitcher Jon Lester said of Ricketts at this week’s All-Star Game festivities. “He met his wife in the bleachers. At the end of the day, he’s a Chicago Cubs fan. I think when you have that, it makes you unique. He still sits down in the front row and drinks beer and watches the game.
“He’s not kind of your typical owner. That was kind of one of the things that drew me to this place. He definitely hasn’t changed with success.”
Ricketts, who didn’t return requests for an interview (OK, so he isn’t perfect), also authorized Epstein to offer Lester the sixyear, $155 million contract that secured the left-hander’s services in December 2014. So again: The financial commitment is a huge part of it. However, Ricketts’ approach to the job also has included personal accessibility and accountability and the confidence to let his deputies do their jobs as they see fit.
2 Amateur acquisitions and development
Role model: Cardinals The Cardinals, a small-market team by virtue of their home city’s population, amaze most because they have consistently churned out controllable talent despite posting winning records in 10 straight seasons and 17 out of 18. That means no high draft picks, no July sell-offs to replenish the supply and, as will happen with 12 postseason appearances in those 18 years, plenty of buy-now trades (for Matt Holliday and Marcell Ozuna, to name two examples) that drain the farm system.
“We’ve always believed that, for us to have a sustained model of success, we would have to do well in the amateur market, both in the domestic draft and internationally,” Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said in a telephone interview. “If we’re failing on that front, we don’t think we can simply be successful in the free-agent market.”
The Cardinals have hit a relative downturn, in jeopardy of missing the playoffs for a third straight season (a drought they haven’t experienced since 1997-99). They just fired manager Mike Matheny in the hopes a change at that level would bring more from the young talent that still works at Busch Stadium. Just since last year, shortstop Paul DeJong, starting pitcher Jack Flaherty and reliever Jordan Hicks have joined a core that includes homegrown guys such as catcher Yadier Molina, third baseman Matt Carpenter and starting pitchers Carlos Martinez, Michael Wacha and Luke Weaver.
“We’re very much an advocate for moving a player along at their pace, which it could be argued is too quick,” Mozeliak said. “If they work hard, perform well, they move up.”
DeJong, for example, began last season not even on the 40-man roster, without any Triple-A experience, and the shortstop wound up finishing second in the NL Rookie of the Year voting.
The Cardinals also have been investing in their international signees’ education and nutrition for a long time.
Under Alderson, the Mets ultimately fell short not as much in drafting, arguably, as in developing. Alderson admitted last year that
players arrived in the big leagues not ready for prime time.
3 Arbitrage
Role model: Dodgers Mozeliak discussing his team’s success in the above category, self-deprecatingly said, “We’re not splitting the atom.” With this category, though? The Dodgers are doing some next-level stuff.
Swiss army knife Max Muncy, enjoying a breakout season, serves as the Dodgers’ latest poster boy for their knack of buying low and selling high. Muncy signed as a free agent in April 2017 after the A’s released him. He follows a trail blazed by Justin Turner, Chris Taylor, Brandon Morrow and others. They sold high on Matt Kemp in December 2014, including him in a deal that landed them catcher Yasmani Grandal, then bought him low last December, acquiring him from the Braves in a mutual salary dump and seeing him surge back to All-Star level.
“It’s a long list,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said at the All-Star Game. “They’re constantly trying to see guys with upside and trending in the right direction. … It’s easy to be on players that everyone is on, but those guys define value and people that can fit in our culture. That makes it more difficult [to hit].”
Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, who acquired all of the aforementioned players besides Turner, politely declined to discuss his front office’s secret sauce, though his experience with the tiny-budget Rays had to help his knack for finding lost treasures. However the Dodgers have mastered this skill, it provides them with cover for the moves that don’t work, like the signings of free-agent pitchers Scott Kazmir and Brandon McCarthy. And it liberates them to use their farm system for buy-high upgrades like Manny Machado.
The Mets, of course, played an undesired part in this tale: They sold low on Turner, non-tendering him after the 2013 season. Minaya, back in the Mets’ fold now as part of the three-headed interim GM, excelled at the buy-low part in his time as GM — finding cheap, useful veterans such as Marlon Anderson, Damion Easley and Darren Oliver, and interesting young pitchers John Maine and Oliver Perez. Since he’s very likely to stick around no matter who becomes the GM, perhaps Minaya can help infuse that skill back into the Mets’ operations. Adding the sell-high part (Matt Harvey after 2015?) would help.
4 Player health management
Role model: Indians From 2010-17, the Mets lost the second-most wins above replacement to injury, 46.7, according to the respected website Man-Games-Lost. Only the Rangers, with 52.74, lost more.
The Indians, with 2.29, lost the least in that stretch.
Indians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti, in a telephone interview, said he wasn’t aware of the study but appreciated its findings.
“Our ultimate goal is to win as many games as possible and try to win a World Series championship,” Antonetti said. “One way to position yourself to do that is to have the players you’re counting on the most be on the field as much as possible. Our medical team spends a great deal of time supporting our players and staff and helping us accomplish that.”
The Indians rely on a holistic, collaborative approach spearheaded by Lonnie Soloff, their director of medical services. For instance, they won’t alter a pitcher’s delivery unless they’re convinced, through their medical data, that the pitcher has the shoul- der strength and flexibility to execute such a transition.
This doesn’t attain perfection, naturally. Nevertheless, the success of the Indians, like the Cardinals a perennial contender in a smaller market, has resulted largely from the consistent health of their top talent like All-Stars Trevor Bauer, Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez.
Some of this ties into the Indians’ good work in roster construction — Bauer (27), Lindor (24) and Ramirez (25) are all well under 30. Yet young guys get hurt, too. Just not as often with the Indians. It’s very worth noting the Mets brought over former Cleveland pitching coach Mickey Callaway to be their manager with the hope that he would share some of the Tribe’s successful formula. To Callaway’s credit, oft-injured pitchers Steven Matz and Zack Wheeler have stayed healthy and productive. Unfortunately for the Mets and Callaway, injuries have littered the rest of the roster.
5 Media relations
Role model: Yankees Who else could it be for this one? The Yankees deal with essentially the same entities and outlets, and many identical people, as do the Mets. Few, if anyone, would dispute that the Mets routinely stumble at conveying their messaging and their information, whereas the Yankees generally treat it like a task as simple as brushing their teeth.
“I think there’s a recognition there are no secrets in New York,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said in a telephone interview. “There’s a mentality of recognizing what’s worth protecting versus what’s eventually going to get out. You live and you learn.”
Part of this traces back to the ownership topic: If managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner is no dominant media personality like his late father George, then he has established a pattern in which he’ll hold news conferences a handful of times each year and also will make himself accessible for select individual conversations.
And Steinbrenner has deputized Cashman to install a culture of accountability as well as a level of realism that is uncommon among sports franchises. When Michael Pineda went down with a serious right shoulder injury in 2012, shortly after the Yankees acquired him, Cashman admitted he didn’t know whether Pineda could return to the ceiling he had established with the Mariners, and he took blame for the apparent blowup of the trade.
“If it’s a one-day story and it’s going to be bad, make it as bad a story as it has to be,” Cashman said. “Don’t belabor the point and have the drip of, ‘ They only gave us 30 percent. Now here’s 20 percent more negative information.”
On top of that, Cashman has deputized Jason Zillo, his vice president of communications and media relations, to build a similar culture among the players. That enabled Giancarlo Stanton’s transition into the fishbowl to go as smoothly as possible.
Cashman credits a book published in 1987, “Communicating When Your Company Is Under Siege” by Marion Pinsdorf, for teaching him this skill. Perhaps the Yankees could buy the Mets a copy this upcoming holiday season?