Are we considered "rebuilding?"

[HahnSolo]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I remember people saying, after the 2000 season, "The Mets don't need Alex Rodriguez because they have Rey Ordonez."

Wow I don't remember that at all. The mongos in Met nation were all over signing ARod, plus they were coming off a pennant with Mike FReaking Bordick playing SS down the stretch. I recall very few people pining for Ordonez over ARod.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I was on Team Ordonez.

My optimism got the better of me, but my thought was, he's got the ability to get better offensively and would remain good defensively. But neither thing happened.

Plus A-Rod turned out to be a fraud and a burden on every team that had him.

[Ceetar]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I was on Team Ordonez. My optimism got the better of me, but my thought was, he's got the ability to get better offensively and would remain good defensively. But neither thing happened. Plus A-Rod turned out to be a fraud and a burden on every team that had him.

meh, I mean, there IS an argument that they should've have spent that type of money on one player, but they were coming off a WS and do probably at least make the playoffs with A-Rod in 2001. That income pays for A-Rod, especially if they could've maintained it into 2002-2003. And A-Rod was definitely worth it for the Yankees (And the Mariners) and wasn't really any more of a fraud than anyone else.

Imagine a world where the A-Rod led Mets destroy the Yankees in the WS and the entire 2002 season is framed as a potential Subway Series rubber game? (on the other hand, there may have been an untold amount of violence at the interleague subway series in 2002 if that happened) Hell, imagine the sickening syrupy prose in which a 2001 Subway Series is "healing" New York. Join us as we rage against the idiot national media who suggest we don't care who wins.

[Frayed Knot]

Rey's situation was a bit like Lagares's a couple years back: a superior defensive player at a premium position seemingly on the rise.

In 1999, Ordonez was (thought to be) 24 y/o was coming off his 4th Gold Glove and, while still at the low end of the offensive scale, did manage to raise his OPS by 59 points over the previous season
which was itself of 67 point jump over the one before and he was rewarded with a four year contract buying out his arbitration years.
I think there was also a subtle signal by GM Phillips in that deal and a similar one given to Armando around the same time towards the just traded for/FA-to-be Mike Hampton: we're making this a
good place for you to stick around by taking care of both the defense and the back end of the games behind you.

Problem was that two months into the deal Ordonez had aged two years (when his real DOB was revealed), was backsliding with the bat, had mysteriously lost his defensive magic, was lost for the
season with a broken arm. He'd never recover even the hint of what he once (briefly) was.


Lagares got his Gold Glove in 2014 at age 25 the same year he upped his rookie year OPS by 70 points and got a five year (plus option) deal out of it.
Juan hasn't lost much if anything defensively but, like Ordonez, his hitting hasn't progressed the way they hoped and now he's in a situation where his contract calls for him to be the full-time player
that he's yet to prove he can be.