NY Mets: Five fabulous Sandy Alderson moves as Mets GM

Former New York Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson will make his return to the front office as team president and oversee a roster he has largely constructed himself.

New York Mets owner in waiting Steve Cohen has already made his first big move before officially stepping foot into Mets headquarters as the team’s new CEO. On Thursday morning reports around the league had surfaced that Cohen was bringing back former Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson as Team President, pending his ownership approval from the other 31 Major League Baseball owners in November.

The 72-year old Alderson, who is currently a Senior Advisor with the Oakland Athletics, was the Mets General Manager from 2010-2018. Most famously Alderson is widely recognized for constructing and developing the 2015 Mets squad that won the National League Pennant and went on to the World Series against the Kansas City Royals. Due to the Mets’ success in 2015, Alderson also took home the Baseball America Executive of the Year Award.

We all know Alderson, for the most part, wasn’t able to operate with a big market budget throughout his time in New York due to no fault in his own, and it’ll be interesting to see how he approaches operations in the front office with the biggest budget he’s ever had.

While Alderson’s departure from the Mets organization back in 2018 was not the way anybody would like to have seen him go out due to his ongoing battle with cancer, it’s only fitting that Alderson returns back to the organization he has helped construct for close to a decade.

At this point, it is yet to be determined if Alderson will be handling more than the day-to-day baseball and business operations, and stepping back into the General Manager’s seat. But in celebration of Alderson’s return to the Mets front office, I thought it was only fitting to revisit five of Alderson’s best moves as the Mets General Manager.

2015: The last-minute Yoenis Cespedes trade at the deadline

If there ever was one transaction that defined Sandy Alderson’s time as Mets General Manager and could be defined as franchising altering, it was the trade with Detroit Tigers at the 2015 MLB Trade Deadline for outfielder Yoenis Cespedes. In return, the Mets would give up Minor League pitchers Michael Fulmer and Luis Cessa. We all have to remember this trade may never have happened if it wasn’t for the nixed Carlos Gomez trade with the Milwaukee Brewers just a couple of days prior.

Cespedes burst on to the scene immediately with the Mets and not only brought the production on the field, but he also brought energy and swagger to the ballclub that we hadn’t seen since our homegrown shortstop Jose Reyes had departed after the 2011 season.

Prior to this trade occurring a mere thirteen minutes prior to the deadline, let us also not forget that the Mets also had just blown a 7-1 lead less than 24 hours prior and we also had to stomach days in July with John Mayberry Jr. hitting cleanup due to a lack of offensive options during most of the first half of the regular season.

Enter La Potencia. Cespedes would hit .287 with a ridiculous .942 OPS to go along with 17 home runs and 44 RBI’s over his 57 magical regular-season games with the Mets, and help power their way to the National League Pennant and World Series birth. Cespedes would also go on to have a very successful 2016 campaign with the Mets after re-signing in the offseason, despite his season being marred with a golfing controversy.

While the Cespedes marriage did not end how all of us would have envisioned in 2020, there is no denying the impact Cespedes made during the 2015 and 2016 seasons with the Mets and allowed the team to reach heights that most likely weren’t feasible had this trade not been made.

2012: David Wright’s Extension

After Jose Reyes had walked in free agency after the 2011 season to the division rival Miami Marlins, there was now surrounding pressure building from both the fanbase and the media for Alderson to open up the checkbook and pay one of the biggest Mets homegrown stars in their history in third baseman David Wright. Wright was one year away from free agency and was still at the top of his game as one of the best players in baseball despite turning 30 years old.

Alderson would ultimately get an extension done with Captain America’s agents Sam and Seth Levinson at the 2012 MLB Winter Meetings in Nashville. The deal at length would be a 7-year extension that totaled out to $138 million to continue to be the face of the franchise, despite the Mets struggling on the field over the previous seasons. The Mets were also in an era where they were very budget conscious and it wasn’t necessarily a given that Wright would be offered a lucrative extension due to his age and the Mets payroll situation.

Looking back I don’t believe Mets fans would’ve been able to stomach both Jose Reyes AND David Wright in opposite team uniforms after the 2013 season. I know I wouldn’t have been able to and with the play on the field, it seemed many fans were losing hope. This was a deal that had to be made and despite the results not completely panning out over the length of the deal due to Wright’s injury history, at the time it was one of the most significant moves the Mets could have made to deliver hope to their fanbase that better days were coming.

In 2013 during Spring Training, Wright would be named only the fourth team captain in Mets history. He would also play a significant role in the Mets winning the National League Pennant and their World Series appearance back in 2015. Unfortunately, Wright would ultimately retire at the age of 36 years old due to injuries at the conclusion of the 2018 campaign. However, despite the injuries, Wright was able to produce when in the lineup back in 2013, 2014, and 2015 seasons after signing his extension and etched his name in stone as one of the greatest Mets players of all time.

2012: Blockbuster trade with Toronto Blue Jays

Sandy Alderson was a busy man during the month of December in 2012 as he would swing a blockbuster trade with the Toronto Blue Jays and acquire right-handed pitcher Noah Syndergaard, catcher Travis d’Arnaud, catcher John Buck, and outfielder Wuilmer Becerra in exchange for Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey as well as catchers Josh Thole and Mike Nickeas.

The two big prizes of this trade for the Mets were Noah Syndergaard and Travis d’Arnaud as both were highly regarded as two of the top prospects in the Blue Jays Minor League system, and were now inserted to be part of the future Mets core for seasons to come.

Many executives and media around the league believed that the Mets had pulled a robbery on the Blue Jays by acquiring two of their prized prospects in exchange for a knuckleball pitcher and a couple of underwhelming catchers. At the end of the day, you can certainly argue that the Mets won that trade, as Dickey did not perform as well as he did in a Mets uniform for the Blue Jays and Syndergaard, as well as d’Arnaud, have gone on to have successful careers thus far.

When this move was made Alderson had already had a vision for how the Mets organization was going to be built and he envisioned the team being built through pitching. While d’Arnaud had a mixed bag of results for the Mets during his time, especially due to various injuries, and is now thriving with the Atlanta Braves, Syndergaard has gone on to establish himself as one of the top of the rotation stalwarts for the Mets since his debut in 2015.

The results of this trade will certainly continue to play out over future seasons with both Syndergaard and d’Arnaud currently active players in the Major Leagues, but looking back on this trade it was one of the biggest wins Sandy Alderson had as General Manager of the Mets when building his vision for the organization.

2014: Drafting Michael Conforto 10th overall in the 2014 MLB Draft

When making this last pick for Alderson’s best move as General Manager of the New York Mets it was not hard to highlight his selection of outfielder Michael Conforto in the first round of the 2014 MLB Draft.

Alderson has a pretty solid drafting record that includes Brandon Nimmo, Dominic Smith, Pete Alonso, and Jeff McNeil but at this point, it’s not unfair to say that Michael Conforto has more of an established track record and should find himself as one of the cornerstones of the franchise for years to come.

Conforto burst on to the scene for the Mets back in 2015 after barely playing a full season in the Minor Leagues and made his impact felt immediately as a rookie and slugged nine home runs in 56 games while playing a vital role in the Mets National League Championship season.

After a bit of a sophomore slump in 2016, Conforto would make the National League All-Star team in 2017 and post career-best numbers but his season would, unfortunately, be cut short due to injury.

Fast forward to 2020 and the 27-year old Conforto has established himself as one of the best all-around outfielders in the game of baseball and is certainly going to get paid one way or the other after the 2021 season. To this point, this draft pick by Sandy Alderson has been gone down as easily his best as Mets General Manager due to Conforto’s long-term success he has achieved and by projecting his future success in seasons to come as Conforto now seems to be hitting the middle of his prime.

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