Sandy Alderson Redux In Flushing? What The Veteran Executive’s Possible Return Could Mean For The Mets

In late March of 2012, New York Mets principal owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz held an impromptu press conference outside the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse in lower Manhattan, a short time after a federal judge announced a settlement had been reached between the two men and the trustee for victims of financier Bernie Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme. 

“Stick with us. We’ll be there. We’ve done it before, twice. We’ll do it again,” Wilpon told a throng of reporters that day, referring to the franchise’s two World Series championships (1969, 1986), while also making a plea to Mets fans not to abandon the Flushing baseball team.

Sandy Alderson was beginning his second full year as general manager of the Mets when his bosses made that promise, but the fallout from the Madoff scandal continued to impact the team’s finances in the ensuing years. By 2014, the team payroll had dropped to $85 million, a paltry figure for a team in the country’s biggest market. 

Alderson’s GM tenure in Queens — from 2011 to 2018 — was fraught with financial constraints, but the veteran baseball executive nevertheless presided over a Mets team that advanced to the 2015 World Series, only to lose to the Royals in five games. The Mets also reached the 2016 postseason, but lost to the San Francisco Giants in the wild card game. Alderson would eventually step down from his Mets GM post in June 2018, after a recurrence of cancer, and he was replaced by Brodie Van Wagenen later that year. 

But there may be an Alderson reunion with the Mets in the making, and this time around the club’s baseball operations department might be able to spend at will — or at least more liberally. Earlier this month, billionaire Steve Cohen reached an agreement to buy the Mets from Fred and Jeff Wilpon and Katz for a reported $2.4 billion, but he still needs to gain 75% approval from the other Major League Baseball owners for the sale to be finalized. If Cohen assumes majority ownership, he could bring Alderson back into the fold, according to several reports. 

SNY first reported that Alderson would likely have a role with the team under Cohen’s ownership. It is unclear what post the 72-year-old Alderson would fill, and whether Van Wagenen would remain general manager going forward. The MLB owners are expected to vote on Cohen later this year after the MLB postseason concludes. Cohen’s estimated net worth is $14.6 billion, according to Forbes.

Alderson did not respond to a call and text. 

One baseball source said that Cohen bringing Alderson back would be a shrewd strategy, given Alderson’s stature in baseball, and his familiarity with the bulk of the Mets franchise’s personnel. Some of the team’s young stars, like Pete Alonso, Dom Smith and Jeff McNeil, were drafted during Alderson’s tenure. If Cohen was to make a complete overhaul of the front office, having someone like Alderson in the new regime might mitigate any inner turmoil during the transition. When Alderson was in his first stint with the Mets, he would have made numerous presentations at team partners’ meetings, and Cohen was a minority stakeholder in the club then. 

The Mets’ surprise 2015 World Series run was due in large part to what is considered Alderson’s signature transaction — the trade for Cuban slugger Yoenis Cespedes. Cespedes was acquired at the 2015 trade deadline and the outfielder carried the Mets with his power bat all the way to the postseason. Cespedes slugged 17 home runs in 57 games for the Mets that season, although during the World Series he batted a miserable .150 with six strikeouts.

Alderson had other notable trades at the outset of his Mets tenure — he shipped veteran switch-hitting outfielder Carlos Beltran to the San Francisco Giants in 2011, when Beltran was at the end of his seven-year, $119 million deal, and got pitcher Zack Wheeler in exchange. Wheeler developed into a solid starter in the Mets’ rotation. 

Despite having won the 2012 National League Cy Young award, knuckleball pitcher R.A. Dickey was traded by Alderson to the Toronto Blue Jays that December in a package that also included Mets catcher Josh Thole. In return, the Mets acquired power pitcher Noah Syndergaard and catcher Travis d’Arnaud. Syndergaard became a dominant ace — the right-hander won Game 3 of the 2015 World Series, the team’s lone victory — and d’Arnaud was an upgrade behind the plate. 

The early returns for Cespedes were huge, as the Mets made the consecutive playoff appearances in 2015 and 2016, but Alderson took a gamble by signing the outfielder to a four-year, $110 million contract after the 2016 season. Cespedes ended up playing in just 127 games over the next four years, and was out the entire 2019 season. 

Alderson, a former Marine who served in Vietnam and who later earned a law degree at Harvard, got his start in baseball with the Oakland A’s, and was the general manager when the team went to three straight World Series — 1988 to 1990. The A’s won the 1989 World Series against the Giants. Alderson later worked in the commissioner’s office under Bud Selig before being hired as the San Diego Padres’ chief executive officer. Since January 2019, Alderson has been a senior advisor to baseball operations for the A’s.

If an Alderson reboot in Flushing happens, it could afford him the chance to try and build another World Series contender, with the hope of coming out the other side a winner.