Before the defending NL-champion Mets begin spring training, general manager Sandy Alderson took a swing at some Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby.
Q: Thoughts on World Series-or-bust. Is that fair? Or is it something you’re just going to have to live with?
A: (Smile) I guess we’ll live with it to the extent that it’s being portrayed that way. 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.
Q: What do you like best about this team?
A: I think you have to start with our rotation, and I like it because they’re good, but they’re also charismatic. All of them have a star quality that is difficult to find. It’s difficult to find even one pitcher that has that in a rotation. We’ve got four guys — five guys — Bartolo [Colon] had a quality that really can’t be duplicated. And so, from an entertainment standpoint? Every night’s gonna be a great night to watch a game because every one of those games will be started by a pitcher that brings not just a competitiveness, but an entertainment value that I think fans appreciate.
Q: How about the rest of the makeup of the roster?
A: I like the team that we have going into the season. I think it’s clearly the best roster that we’ve had at the beginning of any season that I’ve been here. We’ve got a lot more depth in our roster of position players. We have many more complementary players so that we can do some platooning and mixing and matching. We’ve got a mix of homegrown players, veteran players, younger guys … a player like [Yoenis] Cespedes, who brings some cachet. It’s gonna be a good team and it’s gonna be an entertaining team also. That’s one of the things I like about it, it’s fun to come out and watch ’em play. It’s an entertainment business. Winning is the most important thing, but there are other aspects of the team that I think make it very watchable.
Q: There probably will be a buzz in the ballpark every night, right?
A: Should be. Yeah. You know there was something really terrific that I hadn’t experienced in the previous 4 ¹/₂ years, and that was the way the ballpark felt at the end of last season, in terms of sheer volume, the number of fans in the ballpark, but the excitement level, the enthusiasm, the positive nature of everything … it was phenomenal.
Q: It’s different being the hunted, correct?
A: I know people say that. We’re certainly relevant again, and I think that our players in particular have to have a right mindset, but I don’t think it’s about being the hunted, I think it’s about expecting to be very competitive and going out and doing it. You can’t just say you’re going to be competitive, you have to do all the work necessary to actually achieve that level of performance.
Q: What would it mean to you to deliver a World Series championship to this town?
A: Well, I wouldn’t be delivering it. I would be part of a group that would have achieved it. No, it would be great. Over the course of the last four or five years, a lot of us here came when I did. Said, you know (chuckle), if we ever get there, it’s gonna be that much sweeter because of how we got there and the fact that it’s New York City. We came close to realizing that dream last year, and it’s really tough when you get that close and it doesn’t happen. In some ways it’s tougher than losing earlier in the process. I’ve been with teams that have gone to the World Series four times and only won one, and I can tell you it’s losing (smile) when you get that close. Particularly when you don’t play terribly well.
Q: Are you driven to take the next step and win one?
A: Yeah, one is sort of driven to get back, but it’s not that easy to do. Kansas City did it, and some teams have done it. I don’t know that any team has gone to the World Series three years in a row since the A’s did it in ’88, ’89, ’90. It’s tough to do. It’s tougher to do now because you have more layers of competition. You’ve got the wild card, and then the division series and then the league series before you get to the World Series. Back in those late ’80s, you only played a league championship series and that was it.
Q: What was it about the way the Royals played the game in the World Series that really impressed you or that you guys can learn from?
A: They were a good team, and sort of relentless in the way they played, good defensively. But at the same time, we could have very easily won that series. Didn’t happen. That’s typical in a short series like that, things go the other way, don’t go your way. But look at the Dodger series (smile). We could have easily lost that. The notion that well, gee, we can learn something from the fact that we got beat in five fairly close games. … Had our defense been better, we probably might have survived that series better, but we knew that defense was not our strength going in. It was a risk that we took by the way the team was composed. It’s one of those things. But no team is perfect. Every team is flawed in some way.
Q: Describe Neil Walker.
A: He has a tremendous reputation as an individual, and he’s gonna be a very solid addition at second base.
Q: Shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera.
A: I think Cabrera is gonna be very solid for us. [He was] acquired mostly because he’s a switch-hitter and can hit from the left side and is effective against right-handed pitching. The only downside to Cabrera, I think, for us, is that it moves [Wilmer] Flores out of that position. Notwithstanding all the criticism, he did a very nice job for us at short, but he’s gonna be very valuable to us at a number of positions this season.
Q: Defense at short and second?
A: It’s not gonna be the best defensive combination in the league, but I think on a net basis, it’ll be an upgrade over what we’ve had.
Q: Antonio Bastardo.
A: Not a lefty specialist, somebody we expect to pitch an inning. He’s effective both against righties and left-handed hitters. Has a lot of self-confidence, and I think he’s gonna fit in nicely for us.
Q: Michael Conforto.
A: He exceeded expectations last year, and after we made a couple of trades, had he not been performing, he could have been sent back down, but the fact that he continues to perform and get playing time, even with an improved roster, demonstrated a lot. But we don’t want to put too much on him this year. 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.
Q: Where is David Wright medically?
A: I think we’re hoping that he’ll play 130 games or so. We’re gonna make sure that he’s not overworked. So it’s important for us to find somebody who can play 30 games or so at third base when he’s not in there. But I think we have to be realistic, and not expect that he’s gonna be an absolute everyday out there playing 150 or 155 games, that’s not gonna happen.
Q: Those 30 games …
A: That’s a good question. Right now, Neil Walker could move over there and play a little bit, Cabrera could play there. Ideally, there’d be a left-handed hitter that could play some against right-handed pitching. We don’t have that many left-handed hitters right now, so it’s something we may look out for in the course of spring training. But we’ll have Flores, we’ll have [Ruben] Tejada, we’ve got [Matt] Reynolds, Eric Campbell can play third base — we’ve got a lot of people that can play third, it’s just a question of getting the right matchup.
Q: Cespedes.
A: He has a star quality, no question about that. It comes from his athleticism, his power, the strength of his arm. He has certain qualities that distinguish him from most players. He also carries himself in a different way. He carries himself like a star, and I think that’s part of what captured the imagination of Mets fans. He expects to be good. He expects to be successful. Every time he comes to the plate, there’s a sense that he expects big things.
Q: The bench.
A: I’m gonna try not to refer to the bench as the bench, because I view the full 13-member position player roster to be somewhat interchangeable. And so, we’re gonna have a lot of guys playing and sharing time, maybe not in a strict platoon, but with a lot of guys moving in and out. One of the problems we had last year with our bench was some of these guys didn’t get to play much, and when they did get to play, they weren’t very good because the sporadic playing time. … We’ve got a lot more depth than we had last season. So if you were to take the bottom five guys who will remain unnamed, we have much more talent in that bottom five than we had last year.
Q: What do you think about the Yankees’ bullpen?
A: When you’ve got guys that can throw that hard and are that effective … I think that they’re gonna win the seventh, eighth and ninth inning. So in their case, it’ll probably be all about the first through sixth. We got the first through sixth covered pretty well.
Q: What about after the sixth?
A: If you would take our bullpen going into spring training this year versus last year — if you remember [Josh] Edgin got hurt pretty early in spring training. We didn’t have a lefty. We had Sean Gilmartin, who was a Rule 5 draft pick, but not really a lefty specialist. So now we have two — we have Bastardo and we have Jerry Blevins, who we got late in spring training last year. [Jeurys] Familia is obviously a different guy than he was going into spring training last year, he wasn’t the closer going to spring training. He had a phenomenal season. We didn’t have Addison Reed. I think our bullpen is better. But bullpens are hard to predict. But we’ve got some younger guys — [Hansel] Robles, [Erik] Goeddel, [Logan] Verrett — so we’ve got some depth there too.
Q: What kind of workload do you expect for your starters?
A: You go that deep into the playoffs, there’s gonna be kind of a surcharge on their innings. So we’re gonna be careful with them. It doesn’t mean that we’re gonna manage their innings necessarily, but I think we gotta be careful about how we use them in spring training, how we use them early in the season, and try to make sure they’re available to us if we get into October again.
Q: Describe manager Terry Collins.
A: He was managing a mediocre team at best for the first four years. I thought he did a great job of maintaining a level of performance and commitment on the part of the players during those years. And then last year was completely different, and therefore a different leadership situation. But he handled that extremely well. I’m very happy for him that he got to the World Series finally.
Q: Was it scary to you when you found out that you were diagnosed with cancer?
A: Yes, it’s scary to most people, I would think (chuckle). It was a shock. 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.
Q: Do you think your Marine training helps in a situation like this?
A: I don’t know. It’s hard to say. Look, lots of people face illness, and I have a lot of respect for them and for what they go through.
Q: What is the state of the farm system?
A: It’s good. It’s not where it was at the beginning of last year, before we graduated the Confortos and the [Kevin] Plaweckis … Steven Matz, Noah Syndergaard. We traded a lot of players at the deadline to improve the major league team, we gave up 11 young pitchers. We gave up a draft pick at the beginning of last season to sign Michael Cuddyer. So we’ve gone from top five or six to middle of the pack. But we’ve got a very good scouting department and player development group, and I’m very confident that we’ll get back to where we were.
Q: What have you learned about being a general manager in New York?
Q: Was there a low point or most frustrating moment or period as GM?
A: From my standpoint, I kind of knew what it was gonna take to get us turned around, and hoped it would have taken less time than it did, but there was a certain progression we had to go through. So I never really got that frustrated. Fans were frustrated from time to time, I understood that. It didn’t make me happy that they were, but I certainly didn’t get frustrated at the fans or the media or even the team. I sort of managed my own expectations in that sense.
Q: The criticism that bothered you the most.
A: Criticism is sort of part of the deal. It’s gonna happen. It didn’t bother me that much. I understood where it came from, and what was behind it. At some point there was a sense that we were never gonna do anything out of the ordinary, it was all gonna be kind of plodding, methodical … long-term vision that didn’t allow for any deviation, or any sort of spontaneity. I knew that wasn’t the right perception, but there wasn’t any real way to demonstrate how wrong it was until the right moment arrived.
Q: You’re talking about Cespedes?
A: No, just kind of the journey from Year 1 to Year 5. I love making splashy deals, because they’re fun to do! You know how people are gonna react … surprises … those are great things to be involved in. Again, it’s entertainment. But it has to be at the right time at the right moment for the right reason. And we weren’t really in the position to do something like that until last year. We were still sorting through players, and allowing some of our better prospects to develop. We were trying to be competitive, but what was more important was developing assets at the minor league level and getting out from some contracts that made it difficult to do other things.
Q: What do you hope Mets fans say about you?
A: I hope they believe that I have their best interests at heart. That what drives me is really … I think what I get as much pleasure out of is knowing Mets fans are happy. They’re enjoying the team, they feel that their loyalty had been rewarded, and that all of their patience for the last four or five years was not for naught … that it translated into something, and there was a payoff at the end. People like to be liked, I guess (smile). I’m probably no different in that sense than others. But, you also have to do your job and do what you think is best, keeping in mind that what’s best is being able at some point to reward the fans who come to the ballpark and watch you on television, that’s what you’re trying to do. But some of the things that happened on the journey to that end are not always received well.
Q: Are you recognized in Manhattan when you walk around?
A: Some. The problem with being a D-level celebrity is that you’re never quite sure who recognizes you, so you gotta be careful all the time, even though 99 percent of the time nobody gives a damn (chuckle).
Q: What are you most proud of?
A: We knew what we wanted to accomplish, but we had an idea of how we wanted to pursue that, and we stuck with it, ownership was supportive, and we focused on process more than outcomes, because you can’t really control outcomes, you can only control what you can control. But I think that we had the discipline and support to stay on track, and that ultimately it paid off. Doesn’t always, there’s no guarantee that it would, but it did. If you look at mid-July from last year to now (chuckle), it’s been really pretty amazing. Mostly ups, aside from losing the World Series which was a major down. The second half of the season — net-net positive. The offseason — net-net positive after signing Cespedes, although people were grousing before that (chuckle). But, you know, it’s never over till it’s over (smile).
Q: But the perception of Sandy Alderson from a year ago to now is totally different. That’s got to be nice.
A: Yeah it is. But also, I recognize it won’t always be that way (chuckle). That’s the understanding one has to have in baseball. When you’ve lost five in a row, you know you’re not gonna lose the next 50, that it will turn around. Sometimes it just turns around on the merest of circumstances. Somebody boots a ball or what have you? But the same is true when you win five or six or 10 in a row, that it’s not always gonna be that way and you have to be prepared to deal with whatever comes next. I’m not a marathon runner now but I’ve run a couple of marathons. But I have been a runner for a long time. What you realize like in a long-distance race is that there are these stress points that you hit where you really want to quit. You just want to stop. But if you get through them, then the stress dissipates, and you go on for a while longer until you get to another point where it gets stressful — it might be a hill, it might just be distance, it could be anything. But if you do that a couple of times, you realize that, “I can get through this.” And so, over time, you do get through them and you get through those points with less stress than you originally experienced not having done it before. And so, in some ways, that’s the way I approach baseball, the team, the season, is that you have to be aware that those difficult points will arise, and you have to be prepared to deal with them. But they’re manageable, and you’ll get through them. But you can’t be paralyzed by the stress or the losses or the difficulties. You have to be able to recognize them, and manage them, in a way that gets you through to the other side.
Q: Do you take that same approach with the cancer?
A: Yeah. … When I say there are good times and there are bad times, it’s really mostly mental. What’s great is coming to work every day. You’re distracted and doing things and that’s all positive. Yeah, I’m sure there are times with most people who have significant illness where they dwell on it, and dwelling on it is (chuckle) probably not best. But there’s an inevitability too you’re gonna think about it. But I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about what-ifs. It’s not productive.