Alderson: Mets may
ORLANDO — Mets pitchers are still drawing interest from other teams, Sandy Alderson said Wednesday. Despite a year in which every starter but Jacob deGrom went on the disabled list and the bullpen was horrific, the Mets’ young power arms are still an asset on which they could draw if they needed to make a trade.
But the GM cautioned that they would be very wary of giving up their depth on the mound.
“It’s a possibility. We have essentially the same depth we had going into last season and we ran through it,” Alderson said. “Certainly 2018 is going to be predicated on our pitching staff. If we presume a majority of those pitchers are going to be healthy, and we are doing everything we can in the offseason to ensure that, but if we’re able to, it’s possible we could trade somebody out of that group.
“I want to emphasize we thought we had quite a bit of depth last year and ended up with none,” Alderson said Wednesday morning just before he left MLB’s annual GM meetings.
The Mets farm system is very thin and they have received limited interest in their higher-level prospects, including first baseman Dominic Smith. Their pitching reserves may be where they have to dig if they are going to fill their needs via a trade.
The stash of young relievers that Alderson brought back in last fall’s salary dump or a Rafael Montero and Robert Gsellman seem more likely to be part of discussions this winter.
“There is an assumption on the part of most clubs that we are not going to trade Jacob deGrom or a Noah Syndergaard,” Alderson said. “On the other hand we do have a number of young guys who haven’t exactly dominated on the major league level, but who have demonstrated some ability and potential for growth, and so I think that interest is roughly as strong as it was last year.”