The clock is ticking.
Sandy Alderson’s top priority remains signing R.A. Dickey and David Wright to long-term extensions, but the Mets general manager admitted the clock is ticking.
“At some point, we need resolution on these discussions to be able to move on,” Alderson said. “But that time is not now.”
It will be coming soon, though, since Alderson and the Mets need to know how they are going to progress heading into 2013. And they have plenty of work to do.
“It’s still very early,” Alderson said. “But between Thanksgiving and the winter meetings [Dec. 3-6] — and [during] the winter meetings themselves — we need to have a little more clarity than we have now.”
The Mets exercised team options on both players for next season, but with as many needs as the Mets have, they could look to trade Dickey if they are unable to reach an agreement.
Alderson already has discussed the possibility of a trade, though he again expressed hope Dickey would remain a Met.
Any move involving the popular knuckleballer likely would be even more difficult for Mets fan to take after Wednesday, when Dickey became just the third Met to win the Cy Young Award. Alderson, who said he had “assumed” Dickey would win, insisted the award would not play a role in the decision.
“The reality is slightly different than the assumption in terms of how it plays out in the media,” said Alderson, who spoke at The Ivy Sports Symposium at Columbia University yesterday about building a winning team. “I don’t think it will have a significant impact on us.”
He also is not concerned about a potential backlash from fans should Dickey wind up elsewhere, especially after the Marlins’ recent fire sale — something Alderson said was “probably a surprising development to a lot of people.”
Regardless, it’s something the Mets are prepared for.
“That’s a factor that we had to anticipate two weeks ago or six weeks ago,” Alderson said. “The quality of his season was the quality of his season. The award acknowledges that, but we had acknowledged that internally long ago. I don’t think it changes the dynamic all that much.”
Alderson also said he doesn’t think it’s a bad sign that no agreements have been reached.
“Not necessarily,” he said. “We wanted to get started early and maybe reach a conclusion early in these negotiations. We did get started early, but these things take on a life of their own and so I’m not surprised in either case that things have gone on as long as have. … I wouldn’t take it as a negative.”
Alderson declined to say if retaining either player was more important.
“I wouldn’t try to differentiate between the two right now,” he said. “Both discussions are ongoing.”
For better or worse.