Goodbye To Sandy Alderson

The New York Mets were in the World Series in 2015. That’s not so long ago.

Now, they’re more or less a dumpster fire in a division suddenly ruled by the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies.

The Mets’ life got more complicated on Tuesday when general manager Sandy Alderson said he would take an immediate and indefinite leave of absence due to a recurrence of cancer. The 70-year-old also said that if he returned to the club, it would not be in a decision-making role.

Alderson joined the Mets in 2010 and they peaked in 2015 and 2016, reaching the postseason in both. But it has been downhill since, especially this year. The Mets won 11 of their first 12 games but now are 32-45 after snapping a seven-game losing streak with a 4-3 home win in 10 innings over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Alderson made some great decisions in his tenure, and some that were not so great. Trading R.A. Dickey after his Cy Young season led to the acquisition of Noah Syndergaard, a much younger and stronger arm. Dickey hasn’t much since leaving the Mets. Picking up Yoenis Cespedes late in 2015 cemented the run to the World Series, but Cespedes missed half of 2017’s games and has already missed half of this season’s. And letting Daniel Murphy depart as a free agent after the ’15 season was a gut punch.

If the Mets ever get healthy, they’ve got the pitching and the potential at the plate to compete in the National League East. Sometimes bad results are mostly the result of bad fortune in the form of injuries.

We wish Alderson a return to good health and some sort of role with the Mets. Bad as they’ve been, they still have enough pieces if they too can get healthy.

 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman