The only time anyone's been talking about the Mets for the last couple of months was to mock/sympathize/observe the fact that their two greatest rivals were on top of the baseball world. The initial reaction to that may be to go to bed and bury your head under the covers until Spring Training comes, but let's hope that Omar Minaya wasn't doing that. Let's hope he was watching the playoffs, the World Series and parade and paying attention to how the Yankees got there.
The first thing he should have noticed was CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira. There's a lot of rumors and theories regarding how much money the Mets are prepared to spend on the free agent market, but what those two players made clear this season was that teams serious about winning must have different levels for players they believe are difference makers. Minaya clearly believes that, given his previous pursuits of Carlos Beltran and Johan Santana, but it was a vivid reminder that playing the free agent market for lesser players, we're looking at you Oliver Perez, is by and large a mistake.
Are Matt Holliday or John Lackey those kinds of players? Holliday might be, although there are differing opinions, but Lackey seems more like an A.J. Burnett-type at this point in his career. He'd certainly make a fine running mate for Santana, but you've got to ask yourself if he's worth the price in draft picks and the risk of paying him big money as he ages. That's where the second lesson comes into play.
Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes played big roles on this Yankee championship team, and both of them were draft picks signed because the Yankees hadn't turned them in as compensation for signing free agents. They were also paid above-slot prices, something that's harder to do when you lock your budget into pricey long-term deals for veteran players. Throw in Melky Cabrera and Robinson Cano, both international signings, and you've got a Yankees team that wasn't blind to the necessity of building from within.
The Yankees also made a smart trades for useful, affordable players like Xavier Nady and Nick Swisher, which left them overstaffed when the season began but made them look brilliant when Nady got hurt. A lack of depth killed the Mets in 2009, it would be folly for them to allow it to happen again. That ties into the above points about youth, especially when you expand it to include Brett Gardner and Phil Coke. There's more to building a winner than splashy free agent pickups and/or trades for superstars.
It might not be possible for Minaya and the Mets to pull all of that off in one offseason, so it is vital that they are honest in their assessment of this team. A core of Beltran, Santana, Francisco Rodriguez and David Wright is very good, but will they be able to augment it enough now to compete with the Phillies in 2010 and beyond? While marketing a rebuilding effort won't be easy, it wouldn't be wrong for Minaya to say that Holliday isn't a guy who will make a difference.
What he can't do, however, is pass on signing him and then use the same money to sign three lesser players, or split Lackey into two back-end starting pitchers. That's just signing guys to make yourself look like you're doing something, which will only serve to bloat the payroll without inflating victory totals.
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If the Mets can learn these lessons and emulate their rivals from the Bronx, they may get a parade of their own too long.
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City and is a contributor to FanHouse.com and ProFootballTalk.com in addition to his duties for NBCNewYork.com.
