Sandy Alderson jokes about Mets shortstop situation

During Saturday night’s BBWAA awards dinner in Manhattan, Mets general manager Sandy Alderson poked fun at the Mets’ current shortstop situation.

While introducing former Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken, Jr., Alderson joked:

"This is a big night for Mets fans, who have been waiting all winter for me to introduce a shortstop."

Alderson was of course referring to the Mets’ current shortstop Wilmer Flores, who nearly every scout feels cannot be an adequate defender at the position, and his failure to replace him.

Thoughts:

Joking about the state of the Mets is something Alderson has done in the past, be it his “what outfield” comments from a few years ago or his many jokes about the lack of money the club has to operate with.

Alderson’s past jokes, though, were different than the one he made on Saturday night.

Those jokes were made during non-contending years and were either about things that were beyond Alderson’s control (money) or things a non-contending club shouldn’t really care about (the makeup of the outfield of a sub-500 team).

Alderson’s joke on Saturday night was actually amusing, and it isn’t something to get furious over. However, given the current feeling from most of the fanbase and media that Alderson is neglecting shortstop, joking about his failure to upgrade the position simply wasn’t a smart thing to do.

There are those who will respond “money” whenever someone asks why Alderson hasn’t found an actual shortstop, but that’s a lazy cop-out.

While it may be impossible for the Mets to take on Troy Tulowitzki‘s salary, it’s preposterous to claim that the Mets can’t take on the close to big league minimum salary of a player like Brad Miller or Chris Taylor or Addison Russell or even Jurickson Profar if he proves healthy.

As it pertains to shortstop, Alderson has failed to do his job. While his joke about it was funny, the situation isn’t.