The Mets plan on looking much different on Opening Day than they do right now — they just haven’t figured out how to do it yet.
One day after coach Terry Collins said the Mets need someone to protect David Wright in the middle of the lineup, general manager Sandy Alderson added he was open to trading arms for a bat.
“People have inquired about pitching,” Alderson said on WFAN. “Pitching is something we want to conserve, but in the right deal, pitching is available.”
Since the free-agent market is not deep, Alderson might have to surrender an arm in order to improve what is now a woeful offense.
But he is reluctant to give up two of the team’s top pitching assets, Zack Wheeler and Noah Syndergaard, with Matt Harvey out for the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
“One guy I would probably not consider moving is Syndergaard,” Alderson said. “But you never say never.”
He added the same was true for Wheeler, but made it clear he’d have to be blown away to consider any deal including the two right-handers.
“We’re not shopping our pitching,” Alderson said.
While mid-level free agents such as Curtis Granderson and Jhonny Peralta are within the Mets’ reach, higher-priced outfielders like Jacoby Ellsbury and Shin-Soo Choo most likely aren’t. So if the Mets are going to significantly improve their lineup, a trade would have to happen.
With Ike Davis and Lucas Duda both at first base, one of them seems likely to go and Alderson said there was no greater market for one over the other.
Of course, it will take considerably more than moving Davis or Duda to fix what ails the Mets.
One common theory involves following the lead of last season’s Red Sox, who won the World Series after striking gold on a series of deals last offseason. Alderson, though, pointed out that the moves didn’t come cheap.
“They spent close to $70 million last year,” Alderson said on ESPN Radio of Boston’s free-agent splashes. “The Red Sox model is not inexpensive. … I think there’s a lesson to be learned there. But the notion that 10 teams are going to follow the Red Sox model? It’s like chasing money in the stock market.”
We all know the Mets’ recent history there.
Regardless, he insisted the shortcomings in the lineup wouldn’t be filled with kids.
“No way,” Alderson said. “I’ve got to watch those games, too.”