Just Mets

Sandy Alderson held a briefing with the media before the club went down in mostly irrelevant manner to Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers on Thursday to discuss a variety of topics, from injury updates to the team’s stance at the trade deadline.

Specifically regarding the trade deadline, Alderson was grilled hard about the team’s strategy and position heading into the trade deadline, which expires one week from today.

Alderson offered a realistic, albeit peculiar outlook on the state of his club.

“We have great starting pitching that will get better over time,’’ Alderson said. “We’re cognizant of our strengths and our weaknesses. We are looking hard to improve those weaknesses. But we’re realistic too.

“Is there a window [for the starting pitching]? Yes, there’s a window,” Alderson explained. “But, as I said, it’s not a few weeks wide. It’s the longer view that we have to take. It doesn’t mean we’re not going to do anything. It doesn’t mean we’re not trying to make a deal. We’re certainly aware of the team that we have and the imbalance that we have right now between pitching and offense.”

That’s agreeable to an extent, the Mets have to look at their pitching staff – and their team for that matter – on a longer scale.

But again, only to an extent, and eventually tomorrow has to become today.

Why? Because pitchers unpredictably break, as Terry Collins says. And that’s all they have. In addition, the clock is starting to tick louder and louder as the club continues to meander. And, they can’t control what happens with other clubs, either.

The proof exists in their very own starting rotation in which three of their four current pitchers have already endured the trials of Tommy John Surgery, not to mention others in their very own back yard like Zack Wheeler, Josh Edgin, Bobby Parnell, Jeremy Hefner, Jeff Walters, and now maybe Jack Leathersich.

There’s also the business side that coincides with the fragility of pitchers. That clock runs even when these pitchers are healing.

Again, a very peculiar comment about an issue some might feel the club is too conservative (and indecisive) about.

Alderson then made remarks hinting his club – which has a non-major league offense yet is very much in contention for the playoffs – could stand pat at the trade deadline.

“It doesn’t mean we are not going to do anything, it doesn’t mean we are not trying to make a deal. We are certainly aware of the team we have and the imbalance we have now with pitching and offense,” he said.

An imbalance doesn’t do the situation justice. Their pitchers are better hitters than their pinch hitters. Their lineup on Thursday featured John Mayberry Jr. and Eric Campbell batting fourth and fifth respectively against Clayton Kershaw.

Nothing against those guys, but their batting averages are lower than Jacob deGrom’s.

That’s not an imbalance. That’s uncompetitive.

Still, in another sign the Mets could indeed stand pat at the trade deadline, or not add a piece which will help significantly upgrade the offense – which would not take much right now – Alderson said it’s important the bench players play more, as some of their peripheral stats suggest they’re better than they’ve performed and simply hit into bad luck.

“You look at some of the peripheral data on Campbell its pretty good. He had some hard hit balls that didn’t fall. As well as his pinch hits,” Alderson said.

Well, there’s a reason they’re bench players – that’s because they shouldn’t be playing more. In fact, they should be playing far less than they have been playing. All of them.

Every player, good or bad, has luck go both ways, and Campbell recently has certainly experienced his share of bad luck. But in the end, Campbell, Mayberry, Anthony Recker, are all hitting well below .200, which is quite representative of the club’s league-low .233 batting average, .357 slugging percentage and .654 OPS, and their 28th best 85 wRC+ and .298 on-base percentage.

Peripheral data is nice, but the stat that matters the most – wins – is suffering because of the aforementioned statistics, and not necessarily because of Campbell’s .200 batting average on balls in play (which accounts for the countless routine ground balls and flyballs a player hits, too).

If they do end up adding to the roster, Alderson said that aquisition might not be a primary player – they could seek to add more role players too.

“We’re not just looking at rentals. It could be a role player it could be somebody more significant.’’ Alderson said. “We’d certainly be willing to consider both, but it’s a question of what develops.”

In other words, considering Alderson is not close to any kind of deal at this juncture, who knows what they’re going to get, if they get anyone at all.

Alderson was challenged by reporters on Thursday, specifically when asked about the club’s ability to add payroll in general – he responded sternly when asked about how much the club can specifically take on.

“I’ve said before that we have the ability to take on money,” Alderson said. “Give you a rough estimate? C’mon.”

He was pressed again, although a little more generically, about the club’s ability to take on a, “major” contract.

“I think the answer to that is yes, OK?” Alderson snapped. “Now, none of you will believe me, OK? So I’m not sure why you asked the question and insisted on the answer.”

“I think it’s a fair question,” the reporter said back.

With respects to the Mets and Alderson, it is. They have yet to earn that benefit of the doubt. Sure, they have signed Michael Cuddyer and Curtis Granderson to multi-year, multi-million dollar deals. But those haven’t been great deals, to say the least, and the club has yet to make a trade for a big league player making significant money short of John Buck under Alderson’s watch.

But it’s more than just about an ability and willingness to take on a contract. It’s about showing a commitment to the pennant race they’re in and can win if they could have league average offense. Remember, this club is 35-5 when they score four or more runs, but they’re only scoring 3.4 runs per game this season.

That comes with making investments in the big league roster, and it usually means they need big league players to do that.

It’s nice Alderson has once again said there are no monetary restrictions. There’s only one way to make the fans and media believe that to be the case.

“I think we have a responsibility to the fans to do as much as we possibly can to try to improve the team,” he said.

Based on the climate and tone of the fans, trying will not be acceptable this time.

Actions speak louder than words.