Jose Reyes is scheduled to return to the starting lineup for Game Two of Monday’s doubleheader against Florida, following Mets manager Terry Collins alluding to his shortstop’s (recent) inability to remain healthy. Though Collins’ remarks weren’t necessarily endorsed by GM Sandy Alderson — see the quotes culled by the New York Post’s Dan Martin, below — full credit to the writer for ignoring Fred Wilpon shouting in the background, “he’s not even worth Carl Crawford-disabled money,”
One day after Collins talked about potentially giving Reyes mandatory days off to protect the hamstrings that have sidelined him this season, Alderson acknowledged there would be conversations about how Reyes will be used when the team has exclusive negotiating rights with the free agent.
“I think that’s a decision that’s made jointly,” Alderson said last night. “It’s something we’ll have to address with the doctors, trainers and Jose himself. For example, there may be no medical justification that days off can preserve his health. It’s not necessarily a solution.”
Much of what they do in this offseason will be tied to whether Reyes remains with the team. Alderson, like a year ago, doesn’t feel compelled to make a splashy move.
“We want to improve the team, but that’s separate from creating buzz,” Alderson said. “To some extent, they go hand-in-hand. We’ll look at free agents, but we’re not going into it feeling like we have to do something big just for the sake of it.”
The notion of standing pat after what might turn out to be a 90 loss season is the kind of thing you’d expect to hear from a smaller market franchise, though Alderson need not remind anyone paying attention wishing “to do something big” and having the financial wherewithal to do much else besides hunt for the 2012 version of Kelvim Escobar Chris Young.