Alderson says he tried to add a reliever
General manager Sandy Alderson of the New York Mets looks on before the game against the Atlanta Braves at Citi Field. (June 4, 2011) Credit: Jim McIsaac
The Mets were quiet at the trade deadline, but not for lack of trying. General manager Sandy Alderson said Monday night he spent the weekend trying to add a reliever who could help the team for this season and beyond.
"We were in the office Saturday and Sunday," he said. "Not because we were trying to move pieces off the team, but in hopes of maybe adding something."
Alderson struck out in that pursuit. He also didn't trade anyone off the Mets' roster even though there was interest, especially in Jason Isringhausen.
"It was by design," Alderson said. "We could have done something, I'm sure, with one or two other players, but we decided on balance, we were better off keeping those players and giving the remaining group as good an opportunity as possible to see how far they can go."
The Mets are 55-54 after last night's 7-3 loss to Florida. They trail Atlanta by 7 1/2 games in the wild-card race.
Alderson said he had no second thoughts about the pre-deadline trades of Francisco Rodriguez and Carlos Beltran. That the Mets have remained afloat, on the fringes of the playoff race, is the reason he hunkered down in his office to try to add a bullpen arm instead of traveling with the team to Washington.
"I thought they had done well in the immediate aftermath of the Beltran trade," he said. "With Frankie and Carlos, there was a certain amount of anticipation, if not expectation, that those deals would happen. There wasn't any compelling reason to go beyond that, and frankly, I felt it was in the best interests of the organization to play well the rest of this season than it was to add a modest prospect or two in some small deals."
A team still can make trades after the deadline, Alderson noted, though the players need to pass through waivers first. How the Mets perform in the next few weeks -- Monday night was the start of a 10-game homestand -- will help Alderson decide whether to be a buyer, seller or neither the rest of the way.
"We'll see how things go," he said. " could be a possibility down the line . . . What we were looking for was an upgrade on some of the relief pitching we have. We weren't going to subtract from the major-league club to do that. But the right deal never materialized."
