Sandy Alderson discusses reasons for offseason hits and misses

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla.

Sandy Alderson, for really the first time, provided reasonable explanations Monday about why the Mets didn’t sign George Springer or J.T. Realmuto, two logical big-money upgrades at positions of need for the franchise.

Alderson also said he was totally ready to bring Trevor Bauer to Flushing — despite the pitcher’s sketchy social media behavior — and then acknowledged the possibility that his last-minute flip to the Dodgers could be a potential net positive for the Mets.

Losing out on Bauer wasn’t the fault of the Mets, who to this day believe 100% they had a deal done. But passing on Springer and Realmuto because of the large financial commitments now leaves Alderson with no other choice but to come up with extensions for Francisco Lindor and Michael Conforto — the alibis he used Monday to describe the Mets’ offseason strategy.

"I’m very comfortable with the way it shook out," Alderson said a few hours before the Mets’ first exhibition game. "We had to be mindful of the kinds of negotiations in which we might engage with Lindor, with Conforto, possibly with [Noah] Syndergaard. There are lots of opportunities for us to spend money long term."

Without mentioning Realmuto by name, Alderson cited the "pivot" to James McCann (four years, $40.6 million) as critical to the eventual trade with Cleveland for Lindor and Carlos Carrasco — a swap that immediately added $34.4 million to the 2021 payroll. As for Springer, who signed a six-year, $150 million deal with the Blue Jays, Alderson was even more blunt.

"Well, I think it all came down to five years versus six," he said. "And in our case, we also had to be constantly aware of players already on the team who were going to be in a similar position. And how many of those deals we could actually negotiate and expect to complete and not absolutely hamstring ourselves going forward.

So had we signed Springer, it’s probably less likely that we’re able to re-sign Conforto, for example. And, at some point, even Steve Cohen runs out of money."

Alderson knows full well that Mets fans would prefer locking up the homegrown Conforto over signing Springer. After a statement like that, however, he needs to deliver.

The Mets didn’t wind up with any of the top free agents (we’ll count DJ LeMahieu in this group), but Cohen still added $92 million to the 2021 payroll alone, pushing it over $200 million.

Even with the in-house free agents on Alderson’s radar, the Mets were more than willing to make an exception for Bauer, due in part to the shorter-term nature of his contract demands.  

Bauer essentially signed a bundle of three one-year deals with the Dodgers totaling $102 million, guaranteeing him record salaries but also including an opt-out after each of the first two. While Bauer initially would have pushed them over the $210 million luxury tax threshold, the Mets could have kept their desired longer-term flexibility.

The situation with Bauer, however, was about more than just money. There also was the baggage. Alderson said Monday that he had polled a number of Mets employees about a few of Bauer’s intimidating Twitter episodes — including the bullying of at least two women — before deciding they would take the chance on handling that aspect of him moving forward.

And yet, shortly after spurning the Mets, Bauer got into a Twitter feud with Syndergaard, who started it by mocking him for saying he’d donate to the team’s charities after bolting to L.A. Bauer fired back repeatedly, a counterattack that included digging up Syndergaard’s past tweets taking shots at fans. It was the exact sort of thing the Mets prefer to avoid, but it’s always part of the package with Bauer.

"I think that he would have added a dimension to our team — maybe a third or fourth dimension," Alderson said. "It’s hard to know how that would have turned out. But we thought we could manage it, and maybe that was naive. We’ll see. But we’re very happy with the roster we have, and I’m not here to say, ‘Wow, we dodged a bullet.’ I’m here to say we made an effort. We thought he would help our team."

Alderson went on to say that some of the cash previously earmarked for Bauer was distributed elsewhere, mostly in the two-year, $20 million contract for Taijaun Walker, as well as some other depth pieces.

Knowing Bauer’s potential for causing headaches, the Mets inadvertently may have spared themselves plenty of future aggravation.

"We did a lot of homework on his social media,’’ Alderson said. "It’s not foolproof, but we did spend a lot of time on it. We felt we could manage it, and it’s possible that we wouldn’t have been able to, but at this point, we don’t have to worry about it."

This being the Mets, there will be plenty of other concerns. But at the start of the Grapefruit League season, after a productive winter, Alderson seemed to have fewer than usual.

By David Lennon

dave.lennon@newsday.comDPLennon

David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.