Troy Tulowitzki may be available on the trade market and it's time for the Mets to reel in the best shortstop in the league.
Hey there, Mets organization. Can we have a little talk, fan to front office? It seems like we're not really on the same page and I hate that that's the case. I've been a fan of your team as far back as I can remember, a history that frankly doesn't go back as far as many other fans of your team. You see, you have an incredibly passionate fan base just waiting for your baseball team to be good again. Seriously, go do a Twitter search for the word "Mets" and you'll see pages and pages of tweets rolling in, talking about the baseball team that you guys own. All of these people tweet about your team because, for the most part, they care deeply and want to see the Mets win. That's why we need to have this conversation:
We don't believe that you share the same goal as we do.
Thanks to years of financial prudence under Sandy Alderson, along with some shrewd trades and an overhaul of your organization's development practices, you've grown an excellent core of young talent led by your young starting pitchers and aided by some key position players such as Juan Lagares and Travis d'Arnaud with more in the pipeline. This is a fantastic development and one that has long been overdue after years of patching holes with veterans. Thanks to your farm system, you've developed a team that appears to be on the cusp of something special and as a fan, that makes me excited.
Here's the problem: you have a gaping hole at shortstop, one without an obvious answer in the organization this year and into the future. Yes, you say Wilmer Flores could be the answer there but we can't forget how you moved him to third base solely because of his inability to play shortstop a few years back. Prospects like Matt Reynolds, Gavin Cecchini, and Amed Rosario either don't project as starting shortstops or are too far away to help this team now. So you're clearly in a bit of a bind as a team that appears to be a shortstop away from competing.
I should point out that you've also lost a huge amount of fan support due to the previously mentioned financial austerity of recent years combined with all of the losing. Ultimately, winning will cure these ills but winning likely requires you to bring in another bat, and shortstop appears the only place where this can happen.
The options are thin, of course, but there's one home run out there and you almost certainly have the prospects to acquire him. Troy Tulowitzki is a Top-5 talent in this game in the prime of his career and the Rockies may actually be willing to move him. You say you want to build a winner? You say that you have the money to make key acquisitions? Well, it's time for you to show us.
Does Tulowitzki have his issues? Clearly he does and it's a waste of time to rehash them when everybody knows them and recites them ad nauseam while ignoring the positive qualities of his game. Tulowitzki is a franchise-altering player, a shortstop who can hit and play defense at a superstar level, and that's the type of player that doesn't come around often on the open market. As rare as that combination is normally, it's even less common in today's offense-starved run environment. A shortstop who puts up MVP-caliber offense is a huge advantage and one that you should be well aware of. Remember the last incredibly bold trade you made for a catcher named Mike Piazza? Remember how that deal transformed the Mets lineup, giving them a middle-of-the-lineup star at an offensively challenged position? That's what you could have with Tulowitzki at shortstop.
Here's the other place a Tulowitzki trade would help, much like Piazza did: It would create excitement among your fan base of the sort that's been missing for years. Through your rebuilding process, you've been the team selling off quality veterans rather than the team acquiring them. There's nothing wrong with that, but when you're suddenly the team that's trying to win, you have to make "go for it" moves eventually. Eventually doesn't necessarily have to mean today, but it should mean realizing the best opportunity to make an impact and decisively making your move.
Maybe you're anticipating something bigger but short of 26-year-old Honus Wagner himself being resurrected Frankenstein-style and signing with the Mets, Tulowitzki appears to be the best opportunity you may have to meaningfully overhaul your shortstop position. So, considering the fact that you clearly have the prospects to make this happen and with a payroll sitting at $99 million, you should have plenty of financial flexibility to make it happen, you should make it happen.
Ultimately, Mets fans want a winner and we want a team we can be proud to watch and call our own. It's been a long time since that's been the case and now that you appear to be on the cusp of turning things around, it would be a shame to see you fall short, especially when a clear upgrade to your club may be available. Bold moves haven't been in your DNA recently, but oftentimes you need to be bold in order to turn into a winner.
So, I would like to urge you to be bold, to make the call, and reel in the best shortstop in the game. It may hurt your wallet initially, it may hurt your Baseball America prospect ranking, but if it helps your team win 90+ games, go toe-to-toe with the Nationals, get back to the playoffs, and maybe even win a World Series, it'll certainly be worth it.
Your fans certainly will think so.