Hunger Games: Baseball Edition

Tonight, the Mets start a two game series with the Oakland Athletics. Or as Chris Young knows it: His last chance.

A source revealed to Adam Rubin that Young’s “days are numbered” with the organization, and they may cut him Thursday or whenever Juan Lagares is activated. Two things I want to throw out there, and they both share the same theme: How Garbage Rolls Downhill:

First off, blaming Sandy Alderson for making this signing is fair. I believe that the signing of Young looks bad when put next to the similar contract of Nelson Cruz, who is tearing up Baltimore. (Though I question whether Cruz would have put up the same numbers at career killing Citi Field.) And while Alderson points out fairly that Young’s contract was signed when Cruz was seeking much bigger dollars, the argument there is that maybe Alderson shouldn’t have acted so quickly on yet another “lightning in a bottle” signing that the Mets are famous for over the past few seasons. But ask yourself this: would Alderson, or anybody else, be faced with making these cheap “lightning in a bottle” signings if the finances were better? Especially considering that Alderson spent the last two months of the 2013 season convincing us that there was going to be significant interest in Shin Soo Choo?

Second, leaking this information to the press while it is still in the larval “maybe” stage benefits nobody outside of Rubin, who puts all those internet hits in a pile and rolls around them in his underwear. (Don’t begrudge him, he’s doing his job … and I’d do the same thing.) It doesn’t benefit the fans, who will only be disappointed when Young is still on the roster on Friday. It doesn’t benefit Young, who is now faced with two games to save his roster spot (which is stupid if the Mets would really consider making a decision on a guy’s career on the strength of two games, and letting those two games wipe out a half-season which has been awful).

And it doesn’t benefit the Mets as an organization, who continue to cement their image as a team who snipes behind the backs of their employees (Ike Davis drinks too much, Justin Turner doesn’t hustle, Marlon Byrd coaches too much … etc.) The sad part is that if the Mets really didn’t want these leaks to get out, they wouldn’t get out. All it would take is a tantrum from Golden Sperm to say “don’t leak to the press … period.” But obviously, nobody wants to take the time to shut these leaks up … leaks which seriously do seem to happen to the Mets more than any other organization (if the Mets were a landlord, they would have been brought up to the tenant review board by now.) But that’s obviously not a priority, and that’s a shame. Because I can’t think of how this benefits anybody.