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WSJ's Brian Costa asks Sandy if progress is being made. Sandy is like, "Sorta..."
How close are the Mets to competing for a championship? "It's a very difficult question to answer," general manager Sandy Alderson said.
Alderson views the benefit of this season largely in terms of collecting information. Some of it has been good. Some of it hasn't.
Ruben Tejada, for example, has established himself as a solid everyday player at shortstop. Zack Wheeler has emerged as one of the best pitching prospects in baseball.
But the struggles of Lucas Duda and Kirk Nieuwenhuis and the continued deterioration of Jason Bay leave the Mets devoid of everyday outfielders going into 2013. And Ike Davis hasn't come close to resembling the All-Star he likely would have been before an injury wrecked his 2011 season.
"I think we have a much better sense now of who our players are, who we think are going to develop into those championship-caliber players, who may not, and are in a position to act on that," Alderson said. "The last couple of years, we've done a lot of experimenting. Some things have worked out. Some haven't. But I feel a lot more confident about where we're going than I did a couple of years ago."
That is partly a function of time. The Mets owe a combined $50.5 million to Bay and Johan Santana next year, including buyouts of their 2014 options. But by 2014, their top pitching prospects will have all reached the majors—or so they hope—and those contracts will finally be off the books.
Meanwhile, though, Alderson is conscious of how the Mets are perceived. The rest of this season will have an effect on whether fans view the Mets as a mediocre team getting better or something more depressing.
Through Wednesday, they had lost 22 of 31 games since the All-Star break. If that winning percentage (.290) held through the end of the regular season, it would be their worst after the break since 1965. And the Mets would finish 68-94.
To convince their fans to bear with them—and maybe to convince Wright to stay long-term—they will have to do better. |
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