Mets’ Alderson weighs in on offseason, 2016 expectations

Alderson is working full days despite the cancer diagnosis he received shortly after the Mets clinched the NL East

During a conversation with Steve Serby of the New York Post, Mets GM Sandy Alderson discussed the makeup of the team, his cancer diagnosis, and weighed in on his expectations for 2016.

Aside from the hope that David Wright will play roughly 130 games, Alderson touched on a host of other topics.

On his cancer diagnosis, Alderson said that — like other aspects of his life — he tries not to dwell on it.

"The original diagnosis was like four days after we clinched the National League East in Cincinnati. So there wasn’t a lot of time to fully enjoy winning the National League East. But eventually as you get more information, you come to grips with it, and it doesn’t have to be a preoccupation. It doesn’t define me at the moment. But it’s something I have to deal with, which I have been doing for the last several months. I’m still very optimistic, and pleased with the way things have gone. I work every day, I’m here full days. The chemo sessions are every two weeks, Friday, Saturday, Sunday."

Alderson noted that the team is the deepest it’s been since he took over, said he’s looking forward to the buzz that was in the ballpark toward the end of last season carrying over, and explained that although the ultimate goal is to win the World Series, a season isn’t necessarily a failure if that goal isn’t reached.

"For some reason, I’ve never felt that winning the World Series is the only definition of a successful season. But there are degrees of success. You get close and then lose, you don’t feel good about it. And yet, was last year successful for the Mets? Yeah, last year was successful for the Mets. It wasn’t as successful as we would have hoped. But it was sure more successful than a lot of people expected. So, going into this season, World Series-or-bust … we’ve got a good team, but we’re gonna have to play 162 games, and we’ll be disappointed if we don’t play well."

As far as some of the individual players on the roster, Alderson said that Wilmer Flores will be “extremely valuable at a number of positions” this season, confirmed that Antonio Bastardo will not be used as a lefty specialist, and said that Michael Conforto will get some playing time against left-handers.

"He’ll get a chance to play against left-handed pitching. But I think we want to be careful. He’s still young, and try not to put too much on him, but did a great job for us last year, great individual, has a tremendous approach at the plate, which was really the reason we brought him up last year because we felt even if he didn’t have success, he would still have an approach that would, over time, be a good foundation."

First things first: It’s nice to hear that Alderson is feeling strong enough to work full days despite his cancer diagnosis. The form of cancer Alderson is dealing with hasn’t been disclosed, but he seems optimistic that he’s in a good spot. Let’s continue to hope everything works out well.

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When reading these quotes from Alderson, it was great — after nearly a half decade of looking to the future — to finally see him weighing in on a Mets team that will enter the season as one of the favorites to win the World Series. What a difference a year makes.

Alderson is right when he says this is the deepest team the Mets have had since he’s been around. I’d go even further and say this is the deepest team the Mets have had since 1986. They were extremely talented in both 1999 and 2000, and their offense in 2006 was tremendous, but this team is so much more well-rounded and features the type of starting rotation that not even the 1986 team boasted.

It was also great to see Alderson note that Michael Conforto will get a chance against left-handers, though he stopped short of saying he would be an everyday guy. Conforto absolutely deserves a chance against lefties, and it should come at the expense of Curtis Granderson.

Next: Mets' goal for David Wright is 130 games

As far as Alderson’s stopping short of saying this season is World Series-or-bust, I see where he’s coming from. The Mets should be incredibly good this season, and they should reach the postseason. But as Alderson noted, it takes a bit of luck to reach the World Series and win it. And that’s what made the end of last season so painful.