I like how ya think, Jonathan. Uncle Stevie needs enthusiastic, wise, help and support in organizing future expenditures. His hedge fund data jockeys are great and all, but imagination like yours is what makes champions…or at least lotsa fun!
From the beginning, I defended the Diaz trade and felt that it was misreported and misunderstood from the beginning. Not saying that it was an ideal trade, or even one that I would have made, but Diaz at the time was the most electrifying reliever in baseball w/ 4 years of team control. Cano was expensive (the Mets dumped a lot of salary in that deal, too), but it was reasonable to hope that Cano would give the Mets 3 years of good productivity. Didn't work out. Was Kelenic too much to give? Probably, yes. But BVW had to bring in talent to compete and the Wilpons were the owners, Alderson had left the minor league system a complete shambles, so the deal was made. If Mets win WS with Diaz as closer, that would go a long way. But fans are crazy about *prospects,* especially ones we've never seen play.
I have always said if the Diaz is the last man standing on the mound as a World Series champion, then this trade is a moot point. Will never have to hear about it again.
The other thing about the trade was the context. A lot of fans/bloggers were eager to punt on the season. Even willing to rebuild. But the Wilpons wanted to make one more run and hired a guy willing to go along with that dictum. BVW made the assessment that the Mets could compete in 2019 and make a playoff run. At the time, they had the worst bullpen in baseball in 2018. He brought up Alonso on Day 1 when the assumption was the Mets would Super2 him. Unfortunately, neither Cano nor Diaz played close to their norms -- and Noah was bad when the expectation was that he'd be Very Good if not Great. Even so, 2019 was a thrilling season, with lots to cheer about; they just fell short. The WS that the Nationals won that year could have been the Mets if a couple of things broke the other way.
Jimmy, you got a great conversation started this morning. I like it. But I don’t agree that Alderson left the minor league system in shambles:
Lots of young system guys were just starting out on the team when Alderson left, including McNeil, Rosario and Dom, and more were ready and on the cusp, including, of course Alonso, but also, David Peterson and Andres Gimenez. Mark Vientos, Thomas Szapucki, Patrick Mazeika, Ronny Mauricio, Francisco Alvarez and Colin Holderman were all in the system. There were also Justin Dunn, paired with Kelenic in the Cano Diaz deal; Anthony Kay and Simeon Woods Richardson, packaged for Stroman; Jordan Humphreys - traded for Billy Hamilton; Blake Taylor, traded for Jake Marisnick, Ross Adolf, Scott Manea and Luis Santana, traded for JD (with minor leaguer Brian Bohanek brought back) and Kevin Smith, traded for Miguel Castro. Brody’s the guy that made all of these trades using minor league talent acquired by Sandy. Sandy’s final draft in 2018, in addition to trade pieces Kelenic, Woods-Richardson, Adolph, and Smith, left Brody with Carlos Cortes, Riley Gilliam, Nick Meyer, Bryce Montes de Oca, Jaylen Palmer, Hayden Senger, and Brian Metoyer. These guys are all still in the system and close to the majors either as trade pieces or even contributors to the major league squad. And finally, in 2018 Sandy drafted Tylor Megill in the 8th round!
Honestly, I think Sandy did a fine job in his first go round stockpiling minor league talent. Brody is the one who arguably squandered things and left the system in shambles. Brody’s drafts got us Baty, Josh Wolf, Matt Allen, Jake Mangum, Pete Crow Armstrong, JT Ginn, Isaiah Greene and Eric Orze. Wolf, PCA, Ginn, and Greene have since been traded for pretty good returns: Baez, Bassitt, Carrasco and Lindor (cost Rosario and Gimenez in addition to Wolf and Greene)
Sandy’s second go round wasn’t much good for the minors, but I think he was climbing out of a pretty deep hole dug by Brody.
The Kelenic trade is bad on principle, but I feel it's overblown in importance and like many things Mets related in the last few years, doesn't deserve as much attention as it has received. On the one hand, it has the significance - even under the Wilpons - of really being the start of the Mets shift to the team we have today, while being emblematic of the failings of the last few years under the Ws when they had a team capable of WC expectations. The Good: Taking on the $ and the closer were not moves the Mets had made since the late 90s Steve Phillips teams and early 2000s Manaya teams. BVW pushed Alonso up in spite of service time. Bad: Kept not trading for players when need arose, signing FAs or extending players hiding behind $ constraints and all the things we've seen happen.
Cano in SD makes a lot of sense. Tatis needs a lot maturity and leadership. I'm surprised SD didn't put in - or exercise - an insurance option on his contract the way Wilpons did with DW and Ces, given his recent injury on a motorcycle is on the list of actions that can nullify contracts (Kellen Winslow Jr. with Browns comes to mind.) While Machado does that now, he is also shouldering the whole team offensively and as the main leader. Cano can individualize his time with him like he did with Rosario in '19. A fair case could be made missing his presence in the clubhouse contributed to Stroman, Baez, et. al ruining the clubhouse dynamic culminating in thumbs down and in Lindor's difficulty adjusting to the market. Glad he gets a shot. In my book, I see his PEDs purely from the injury prevention/recovery/maintenance angle. He passed them all w/ the Yanks and the 2nd came after his 'run hard to 1B, then land on IL a bunch' 2019 year...
One thing that surprised me, that I didn't realize from the distance, was how much Cano loves baseball. I mean, I think he loves the game far more than most players. He took steroids twice -- but not for the money. And look at him now. The guy wants to play. I always liked that, liked that he was a top-step guy. It didn't work out in NY, but he'll make a good coach someday. I wish him luck.
If Big Mac can be a coach and A-Rod can be in the running to purchase a team, Cano definitely can stay in the game after playing. I'd even put a wager down he gets a manager shot somewhere - maybe minors first, but his impact as an elite Latino infielder with a long career, strong baseball IQ and intangible leadership...who knows. He might get a gig before Beltran does again.
An image to immortalize: perhaps tech savvy fans can assemble?
The (star) Soto of the over the top slide step glare at pitchers after EVERY ball pitched to him, squirming at the feet of the giant stone wall of Taijuan Walker, who looks down at him bemused and says:
— “relax dawg. You tough. Don’t whine on camera;” or
—“easy hoss…you kick my sore knee and you be over as well as out;” or
—“hey, I look different from down there without the bat?”
It was hilarious to watch. Soto (legit star, total respect) is tough, but tangling with giant Taijuan never moved him physically, and Walker had the calm confidence of a powerful dude. Reminded me of the Instagram meme of a worked up German Shepard barking and approaching a relaxed Rotweiler. The Rot calmly moves his head slightly, no bark, doesn’t even stand, and the attitude alone sends the shepherd fleeing.
I like how ya think, Jonathan. Uncle Stevie needs enthusiastic, wise, help and support in organizing future expenditures. His hedge fund data jockeys are great and all, but imagination like yours is what makes champions…or at least lotsa fun!
From the beginning, I defended the Diaz trade and felt that it was misreported and misunderstood from the beginning. Not saying that it was an ideal trade, or even one that I would have made, but Diaz at the time was the most electrifying reliever in baseball w/ 4 years of team control. Cano was expensive (the Mets dumped a lot of salary in that deal, too), but it was reasonable to hope that Cano would give the Mets 3 years of good productivity. Didn't work out. Was Kelenic too much to give? Probably, yes. But BVW had to bring in talent to compete and the Wilpons were the owners, Alderson had left the minor league system a complete shambles, so the deal was made. If Mets win WS with Diaz as closer, that would go a long way. But fans are crazy about *prospects,* especially ones we've never seen play.
I have always said if the Diaz is the last man standing on the mound as a World Series champion, then this trade is a moot point. Will never have to hear about it again.
The other thing about the trade was the context. A lot of fans/bloggers were eager to punt on the season. Even willing to rebuild. But the Wilpons wanted to make one more run and hired a guy willing to go along with that dictum. BVW made the assessment that the Mets could compete in 2019 and make a playoff run. At the time, they had the worst bullpen in baseball in 2018. He brought up Alonso on Day 1 when the assumption was the Mets would Super2 him. Unfortunately, neither Cano nor Diaz played close to their norms -- and Noah was bad when the expectation was that he'd be Very Good if not Great. Even so, 2019 was a thrilling season, with lots to cheer about; they just fell short. The WS that the Nationals won that year could have been the Mets if a couple of things broke the other way.
Jimmy, you got a great conversation started this morning. I like it. But I don’t agree that Alderson left the minor league system in shambles:
Lots of young system guys were just starting out on the team when Alderson left, including McNeil, Rosario and Dom, and more were ready and on the cusp, including, of course Alonso, but also, David Peterson and Andres Gimenez. Mark Vientos, Thomas Szapucki, Patrick Mazeika, Ronny Mauricio, Francisco Alvarez and Colin Holderman were all in the system. There were also Justin Dunn, paired with Kelenic in the Cano Diaz deal; Anthony Kay and Simeon Woods Richardson, packaged for Stroman; Jordan Humphreys - traded for Billy Hamilton; Blake Taylor, traded for Jake Marisnick, Ross Adolf, Scott Manea and Luis Santana, traded for JD (with minor leaguer Brian Bohanek brought back) and Kevin Smith, traded for Miguel Castro. Brody’s the guy that made all of these trades using minor league talent acquired by Sandy. Sandy’s final draft in 2018, in addition to trade pieces Kelenic, Woods-Richardson, Adolph, and Smith, left Brody with Carlos Cortes, Riley Gilliam, Nick Meyer, Bryce Montes de Oca, Jaylen Palmer, Hayden Senger, and Brian Metoyer. These guys are all still in the system and close to the majors either as trade pieces or even contributors to the major league squad. And finally, in 2018 Sandy drafted Tylor Megill in the 8th round!
Honestly, I think Sandy did a fine job in his first go round stockpiling minor league talent. Brody is the one who arguably squandered things and left the system in shambles. Brody’s drafts got us Baty, Josh Wolf, Matt Allen, Jake Mangum, Pete Crow Armstrong, JT Ginn, Isaiah Greene and Eric Orze. Wolf, PCA, Ginn, and Greene have since been traded for pretty good returns: Baez, Bassitt, Carrasco and Lindor (cost Rosario and Gimenez in addition to Wolf and Greene)
Sandy’s second go round wasn’t much good for the minors, but I think he was climbing out of a pretty deep hole dug by Brody.
The Kelenic trade is bad on principle, but I feel it's overblown in importance and like many things Mets related in the last few years, doesn't deserve as much attention as it has received. On the one hand, it has the significance - even under the Wilpons - of really being the start of the Mets shift to the team we have today, while being emblematic of the failings of the last few years under the Ws when they had a team capable of WC expectations. The Good: Taking on the $ and the closer were not moves the Mets had made since the late 90s Steve Phillips teams and early 2000s Manaya teams. BVW pushed Alonso up in spite of service time. Bad: Kept not trading for players when need arose, signing FAs or extending players hiding behind $ constraints and all the things we've seen happen.
Cano in SD makes a lot of sense. Tatis needs a lot maturity and leadership. I'm surprised SD didn't put in - or exercise - an insurance option on his contract the way Wilpons did with DW and Ces, given his recent injury on a motorcycle is on the list of actions that can nullify contracts (Kellen Winslow Jr. with Browns comes to mind.) While Machado does that now, he is also shouldering the whole team offensively and as the main leader. Cano can individualize his time with him like he did with Rosario in '19. A fair case could be made missing his presence in the clubhouse contributed to Stroman, Baez, et. al ruining the clubhouse dynamic culminating in thumbs down and in Lindor's difficulty adjusting to the market. Glad he gets a shot. In my book, I see his PEDs purely from the injury prevention/recovery/maintenance angle. He passed them all w/ the Yanks and the 2nd came after his 'run hard to 1B, then land on IL a bunch' 2019 year...
One thing that surprised me, that I didn't realize from the distance, was how much Cano loves baseball. I mean, I think he loves the game far more than most players. He took steroids twice -- but not for the money. And look at him now. The guy wants to play. I always liked that, liked that he was a top-step guy. It didn't work out in NY, but he'll make a good coach someday. I wish him luck.
If Big Mac can be a coach and A-Rod can be in the running to purchase a team, Cano definitely can stay in the game after playing. I'd even put a wager down he gets a manager shot somewhere - maybe minors first, but his impact as an elite Latino infielder with a long career, strong baseball IQ and intangible leadership...who knows. He might get a gig before Beltran does again.
An image to immortalize: perhaps tech savvy fans can assemble?
The (star) Soto of the over the top slide step glare at pitchers after EVERY ball pitched to him, squirming at the feet of the giant stone wall of Taijuan Walker, who looks down at him bemused and says:
— “relax dawg. You tough. Don’t whine on camera;” or
—“easy hoss…you kick my sore knee and you be over as well as out;” or
—“hey, I look different from down there without the bat?”
It was hilarious to watch. Soto (legit star, total respect) is tough, but tangling with giant Taijuan never moved him physically, and Walker had the calm confidence of a powerful dude. Reminded me of the Instagram meme of a worked up German Shepard barking and approaching a relaxed Rotweiler. The Rot calmly moves his head slightly, no bark, doesn’t even stand, and the attitude alone sends the shepherd fleeing.
Priceless.
And yet, I hope to be rooting for Soto in a Mets uniform in a couple of years, perhaps batting against Walker in his future uniform.
I found his running and defensive miscues hilarious and no one cares because he's a great hitter.
Is Seattle the last team to play their first game at CitiField? I did not realize they hadn't been to the NL side of NY in 14 years.
McCann caught Scherzer in his last start on Mother’s Day, this will not be his first time