Sandy: Amazin’s not a ‘tear-down situation’
The “open for business” sign has been all but posted outside Citi Field, but it isn’t a large neon sign. This isn’t a full-on sell-off — it’s more like a rent-off.
General manager Sandy Alderson doesn’t foresee completely tearing this team down — and all but dismissed the idea of dealing core components of the present such as Jacob deGrom.
“This is not a tear-down situation,” Alderson said before the Mets’ 14-2 win over the Rockies on Friday night. “This is what I believe is a sort of [hitting] the pause button.”
Alderson left open a small possibility open he could go in a different direction if the team, now seven games under .500 at 40-47, suddenly turns it around.
Alderson pointed to this weekend’s series against the Rockies, who lead the Mets by 9 ¹/2 games for the second wild card, as a possibility to sway him.
But the Mets executive also made it seem like only a major winning streak could prevent him from looking to trade free agents-to-be like Addison Reed, Jay Bruce, Curtis Granderson, Lucas Duda and Neil Walker, among others. And even then it might not be enough, if the teams the Mets are chas- ing continue to win.
“I think we’ll know it when we see it,” Alderson said. “You’re always looking to see what transpires over the next seven-to-10 days, but I think we’re at the point in the season where things would have to go exceedingly well for us to realistically change direction. We had the trade deadline coming at the end of the month, as everyone is aware, and not surprisingly we’ll be open to talk to clubs about various possibilities.”