Out Of Somewhere

Any post that I would write about the Matt Garza trade would probably read a lot like my post about the Adrian Gonzalez trade, so fundamentally you should just refer to that.

But …

The difference is that I knew the Mets had zero shot at Gonzalez.  I would have hoped the rotation challenged club would have been more of a factor for Garza, a young pitcher who is under club control for another three seasons.  It’s the kind of acquisition I’ve wanted: one with 2012 and beyond in mind instead of 2011.  But again, the farm system just seems to be too thin to make a deal like this.  Hell the Cubs have the kind of farm system where they are able to make this trade, and even they’re being questioned for making a “buy” deal when they have no shot this season.  And if the Cubs have no shot this season, what kind of shot do the Mets have?

So the question becomes thus: Did the Mets not explore this deal because they didn’t have the prospects for it?  (Probably not.)  Or is it because they view Garza as more of a “now” deal than a future deal?  (It would be both … unless the Mets are conceding the next three years instead of just 2011.)  Or is it because …

As you likely know, earlier this week we signed pitchers Chris Capuano and Taylor Buchholz. Chris is a former All-Star and 18-game winner who last year came back from his second Tommy John surgery. We are confident he has the ability to re-establish himself as a dependable starter who can excel in our ballpark. Taylor has fully recovered from elbow surgery and has the potential to be a solid arm out of the bullpen.

Every year players come out of nowhere to become success stories. Look no further than R.A. Dickey. He signed a minor-league deal last January, became a fixture in the starting rotation in May, and finished the season with 11 victories and a 2.84 ERA. I believe some of our off-season acquisitions can be this year’s version of R.A.

That was from Sandy Alderson, in his address to Mets fans via e-mail.  The problem with this is that I don’t want to have to depend on “success stories out of nowhere”.  And I hope that there’s a long term plan involves rebuilding the farm system so that Mets fans don’t have to guess who the next R.A. Dickey is, or the next Jose Valentin.  Garza wouldn’t have been that.  He would have been a solid asset for now and the future.

And affordable.  But the Mets have made it known that they’re not going to spend more on another pitcher than they did on Chris Capuano.  So we’re back to looking for the diamond in the rough, just like Omar Minaya did.  And that’s the irony of the whole stupid thing: Omar relying on that for so many years has made it necessary for Alderson to employ the same strategy at the start of his era.  We can only hope that all this money they’re not spending will one day go towards paying over slot for top college and high school players at the draft.

All that said, by all accounts the Cubs gave up a good haul to get Garza.  It’s probably too much, but the aim one day should be to have enough prospects in the system that you can make a deal like this with excess prospects instead of “emptying the farm”.  But if you’re Tampa … all those prospects and Chris Carter?  And they didn’t even give up a shot at two first round draft choices for him?  No wonder this team survives in the A.L. East!