INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — The Mets are so determined to become a more power-oriented team that they have decided they will not trade Ike Davis, The Post has learned.
“If we trade him, where do we find those 32 homers?” one team executive said.
The Mets had originally considered trading Davis and moving Lucas Duda to first base. But even before Duda broke his wrist last month, the Mets had determined to put him in left, keep Davis at first and hope the duo would provide 50-plus, maybe 60-plus homers from the left side.
And Sandy Alderson and his front office will not stop there in their pursuit of power. If they trade R.A. Dickey, something I reported yesterday that they are more seriously contemplating, the Mets would emphasize getting at least one young slugger in return, preferably an outfielder.
This is, no pun intended, right in Alderson’s wheelhouse. Throughout his executive career, he has placed extreme value on the ability of a team to slug at a high level. And the numbers continue to honor his beliefs.
Of the top 11 homer-hitting teams last year, 10 finished at least eight games over .500 and six made the playoffs. Of the bottom 10, only two finished above .500 and just one made the playoffs. Yes, that was the champion Giants, who had the majors’ fewest homers.
But if you are playing the odds, one of the best ways to improve quickly is to find a way to hit more homers. I know Yankees fans, for example, grow frustrated with the team’s long-ball-centric ways and there is no doubt the Yanks could use some more diversity in their offense. However, there also is no doubt that power wins, and the Mets need to begin to win more often and not just point to a distant date for contention.
The club appears set to extend David Wright long-term, and that kind of commitment to a player in his prime creates a greater urgency to contend sooner than later, and so does the cresting disenchantment of a fan base that desperately needs to see some signs of real competitiveness. And the quickest way to, at the least, meaningful September games is for the Mets to upgrade their power.
Last offseason, I asked Alderson if the dip in homers around the majors would compel him to find a different kind of hitter. He responded, “No, when homers become more infrequent, the value of a homer goes way up.”
Yet, between not having the dollars to allocate and/or lack of production, the Mets finished in that bottom 10 with 139 homers. That was 31 more than 2011, but can they find 31 more to get to 170-ish, which would push them toward the top 10 and likely add significantly to their win total?
The Mets can use the A’s as their guiding light, which is comfortable for Alderson since he is in many ways still the patriarch of Oakland’s slugging fixation. The A’s hit 114 homers and won 74 games in 2011 (24th in the majors) and 195 last year (seventh) as they won the AL West. They essentially went all in for the long ball, seeing the untapped power in Josh Reddick and making a great trade for him, investing heavily on Cuban import Yoenis Cespedes and forgoing their defense with players such as Jonny Gomes, Brandon Moss and Chris Carter.
Did the A’s have elite pitching, as well? You bet. The Mets — who like the 2011 A’s, won 74 games last year — are not in financial position to fix all that is wrong. They have to have blind faith that a rotation built around Dickey (if he is not traded for, the Mets hope, a projectable Reddick type), Johan Santana, Matt Harvey, Jon Niese, Zack Wheeler and Dillon Gee can perform at a high level.
The Mets also will have to find their own cost-effective Gomes, Moss and Carter. Heck, including maybe Gomes (a free agent), Moss and Carter, who along with lefty slugger Seth Smith are probably available from Oakland.
Here are others who could fit this category: Free agents such as Raul Ibanez, Russell Martin, Kelly Johnson, Miguel Olivo and Alex Gonzalez or trade candidates such as Baltimore’s Nolan Reimold, Boston’s Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Pittsburgh’s Garrett Jones, the White Sox’s Tyler Flowers and the Cubs’ Bryan LaHair.
None of these are sexy names, but the Mets cannot afford sexy names as they pursue their first magic number of 2013 — 170 homers.