Kristie Ackert of the NY Daily News caught up with Mets GM Sandy Alderson on Sunday after the team’s first full-squad workout of the Spring, and he had some very straightforward things to say about the upcoming season.
“We’re all-in here,” he said about a payroll that is nearing $160 million dollars. “I think it’s a credit to ownership that our payroll is as high as it is now given where we’ve been as recent as two years ago and where our budget might have been. We’ve had the fortune here recently of being able to take advantage of opportunities or not have to make moves on the basis primarily of payroll. From that standpoint, I think we should all be pleased.”
As far as his expectations for the team goes, there was no hiding his enthusiasm and clearly anything less than a championship would be disappointment for Alderson who is now entering his seventh season as the team’s chief executive.
“I really think that we have the potential to be better than we have been. I think we’re all excited. I’m certainly as excited if not more so this spring than I have been since I’ve been here and that includes following a World Series appearance last year.”
This offseason it seemed like Sandy Alderson understood that the Mets had the pieces to make another World Series run as long as they all stayed healthy, unlike last year. He did a great job in retaining virtually the entire team he finished the season with – except for Kelly Johnson - but hey the Trade Deadline is only five months away. 
Manager Terry Collins also chimed in and he also had generally the same sentiments.
“What these guys did last year, persevered through the tough times, adversity, the injuries, all the doubters, all the things that happened, they better walk around with their heads up, they better have a little swagger.”
“They better talk winning and better play like they are going to win, they better act like they are going to win,” Terry said. “Obviously when Jake (deGrom) got hurt and he was out and after Steven Matz was out and Matt Harvey was out, I remember saying how we’re going to do this, they just rose up.”
The starting rotation, the deep depth chart, the strong back-end of the bullpen, even just Yoenis Cespedes by himself are all reasons to get excited for 2017. There are many more aspects of the New York Mets that get my blood pumping when I think about the upcoming season. There is of course that ever-present phrase, “If they stay healthy.” Well, just as the innocent are innocent until proven guilty, the healthy are healthy until proven injured.
As our fearless leader Joe D. likes to always tell us in private, you have to be a real ignoramus if you can’t look at this team objectively and come away thinking this is one of the most balanced teams the Mets have ever put together. I guess both Joe and Sandy seem to be seeing eye to eye on the Mets this season.
