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There is a line to be drawn from Zack Wheeler backward to Brandon Nimmo and forward when it comes to Jose Reyes.
It is a philosophical line the Mets live by now under general manager Sandy Alderson in which they are willing to take big risks, notably financial, to try to accrue as many impact-type players as possible.
So the Mets ignored the concerns about Nimmo — that he was a high school kid from Wyoming, hardly a baseball hotspot — and drafted him with the 13th overall pick last month because they projected tools that could translate to an All-Star. They were willing to eat $4 million dollars of Carlos Beltran’s remaining contract and accept just one prospect in return from San Francisco because the one prospect, Wheeler, was someone Mets scouts thought had front-of-the-rotation potential.
And Alderson has tempered his preference for on-base percentage and against mega-contracts to favor signing Reyes for a significant sum after this season because he has seen firsthand just what a difference-maker the shortstop is.
Of course, a cash-strapped ownership will ultimately decide whether to approve a contract for Reyes. But keep in mind: 1) The removal of Francisco Rodriguez’s potential vesting option was huge in trying to keep Reyes, and so — in a more minor way — was saving $5.5 million overall in dealing K-Rod and Beltran. 2) There are a surprising number of executives within the Mets who think they are going to keep Reyes despite the financial hardship. 3) Ownership is elated with Alderson’s work, so it is more amenable to follow his recommendations.
There appears uniformity in the organization that risky decisions on star talent and potential must be made to avoid having a vanilla team of No. 4 starters and sixth-place hitters.
“You never want to be in position where you are trading away terrific players [like Beltran],” said Paul DePodesta, the Mets’ Vice President of Player Development. “But, when you are, you have to make the most of it. What we did at this deadline, is like our attitude in the draft. We were not looking for the safest pick. We were looking for the most impact. We know we are not going to be right all the time and some are not going to make it. But to be a championship-caliber club, we need some homegrown guys to be impact players.”
With that in mind, once the main suitors for Beltran were defined, the Mets deployed their scouts to focus on high-end prospects. By Tuesday, the Rangers and Giants had become the primary contenders for Beltran. But Texas never put its best prospects, shortstop Jurickson Profar or left-hander Martin Perez, into play. The Rangers were willing to consider a package of good quantity with a pitcher like Tanner Scheppers in the deal. The Mets were not sure if Texas would, at some point, include intriguing lefty Robbie Erlin. And they didn’t need to wait.
That is because the Mets’ front office was in agreement on fewer than five prospects they thought worth obtaining just by themselves because of the upside possibilities. Wheeler was in that group. And Mets assistant GM John Ricco said, “A lot of things had to come together for us to get that kind of prospect.”
They did: 1) Giants GM Brian Sabean wanted to protect position prospects, and so refused the Mets’ request for outfielder Gary Brown and first baseman Brandon Belt. 2) San Francisco is deep in pitching and has organizational confidence it can draft and develop more. 3) The Giants are the defending champs, want to repeat and want to honor that their fans have sold out all 81 home games this year. 4) They needed to replace out-for-the-year star Buster Posey. 5) Sabean said, “Carlos was the player we coveted all along” and he found the sticker price on lesser available players was going to be high, also.
So he relented on Wheeler because Beltran “is legitimately a third-place hitter on anyone’s team.” It was a move a first-place team with a historic chance to repeat in its crosshairs can make.
Alderson’s mandate was different. He was looking for “big upside” to honor his philosophy and, in Wheeler, taken sixth overall in the draft just two years ago, he saw someone “you don’t get access to often.”
It is a big risk, an A-ballplayer with talent. But the Mets under Alderson yet again showed who they are going to be: Willing to take big risk in the search for big reward.