With the first day of pitchers and catchers almost in their sights, the
Mets are ready to finally escape an offseason full of failure. There were so
many staggering setbacks that, as one club official put it, "You almost ask,
'What else can go wrong?' "
Question is: Can the Mets defend their National League title with their current
roster? Most baseball people doubt it, considering the loss of Mike Hampton
and the inability to sign a significant free agent. And just last week, the
Mets suffered perhaps their most disappointing defeat of all.
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Offseason moves
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Acquired P Donne Wall from Padres for OF Bubba Trammell
Signed Ps Kevin Appier and Steve Trachsel and OF Tsuyoshi Sinjo as free agents
Re-signed free agents Rick Reed, John Franco, Turk Wendell and Lenny Harris
Lost free agents Mike Hampton, Mike Bordick, Derek Bell and Kurt Abbott
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That's when a practically cemented deal with the Blue Jays for David
Wells evaporated at the 11th hour, depriving the Mets of the
front-of-the-rotation starter they so desperately need in Hampton's absence.
What exactly, went wrong? GM Steve Phillips had agreed to send Glendon
Rusch and Grant Roberts or, depending on whose whispers you believed, even Jay Payton, in exchange for the
larger-than-life Boomer. It was a perfect fit, no doubt. Wells had the
curveball -- not to mention the big-city persona -- to make the Mets forget
about Hampton.
Yes, Wells will be 38 in May, and he sure has that belly, but who cared? He wanted to be with the Mets, wanted to return to the Big Apple to punish the
Yankees for trading him in 1999 for Roger Clemens. Boomer was so
eager, in fact, he told the New York Post he'd already severed his emotional
ties with Toronto's baseball community.
Wells apparently couldn't contain himself, observing how Toronto "stinks" as a baseball
town and that the franchise wasn't committed to winning. It was typical
Boomer -- loud and opinionated, speaking from the heart. But Toronto GM Gord
Ash was so infuriated, his anger may have altered the chemistry of the
trade talks with the Mets.
Last Saturday night, Phillips and Ash put the finishing touches on the
trade, agreeing to the exact players they'd swap. On Sunday morning,
Phillips' phone rang. It was Ash. The Mets' executive was expecting to hear
that the trade was final -- that Wells was coming to Shea, and the offseason
would be salvaged.
Instead, Phillips was stunned when Ash informed him that Wells was going
to the White Sox, in a deal that included Mike Sirotka. Phillips, ambushed and speechless, released a statement to the press
insisting, "I still feel good about our chances of getting back to the
postseason." But no one dared to minimize the shock.
People close to Wells, and some Mets people as well, believe Ash sent the
left-hander to Comiskey as punishment for his sneering remarks. As one person
close to the talks said, "(Ash) knew how much Wells wanted to be a Met, so he
shipped him off to Siberia, just to make him pay."
Of course, being the ace of the White Sox' staff is hardly punishment,
and it's possible -- even likely -- the Sox will live deeper into October than
the Mets. But if Wells had his heart set on going head-to-head with Clemens,
in the same town, competing for the same back pages, then he may have
sabotaged his own dream.
Then again, maybe the Mets lucked out. Rusch is talented, young and
cheap, and there are scouts who believe he's only a year or two away from
being a 14-16 game winner. On the other hand, Wells was 5-6 with a 4.97 ERA
in the second half of the 2000 season, and was characteristically grousing
about money lately.
In fact, he was all but set to report late to spring training, if the Jays had refused to pick up his option for 2002. And who really knows how Boomer and Bobby Valentine would have gotten along? As much as Wells craved a triumphant return to New York, he showed no
enthusiasm for Valentine's high-energy managerial style. As he put it, "As
long as (Valentine) stays on one end of the dugout and I stay on the other,
we'll be fine."
Still, it's a fact the Mets have been stripped of practically all their
World Series momentum: Hampton and Bobby Jones have fled, Mike Mussina has
chosen the Bronx, and the club ownership never lifted a finger to lure Alex
Rodriguez.
All the Mets can do now is pray for Kevin Appier's smooth transition to a
noisy environment, and that Steve Trachsel's 33 losses the last two years
were really the result of poor run support. While they're at it, the Mets are
wondering about the post-surgery Rey Ordonez, about Robin Ventura's declining
numbers, and whether Timo Perez peaked and declined all in one month last
October.
If the Mets don't resolve these issues satisfactorily ... well, at least
they have soft, sweet memories of the summer of 2000. But as one major-league
executive put it, "The Mets found out the hard way this winter that you can't
rest on your laurels. People move on very fast in this business."
Bob Klapisch of the Bergen (N.J.) Record covers baseball for ESPN.com. Send this story to a friend | |
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