Mets’ Sandy Alderson explains how decision to sign James McCann allowed Mets to deal for Francisco Lindor

Mets president Sandy Alderson joined MLB Network’s Jon Heyman on the latest edition of the Big Time Baseball podcast, discussing everything the Mets have been up to during an already-eventful offseason.

Naturally, one of the biggest topics of conversation was the Mets’ blockbuster deal to acquire Francisco Lindor and Carlos Carrasco. Alderson said that the talks with the Indians began in November before ramping up last week, but he also explained how the team’s decision to sign catcher James McCann played a big role in being able to go after Lindor and Carrasco.

Because if the Mets had signed, say, J.T. Realmuto instead, it’s likely that Lindor isn’t on the Mets roster right now.

“I don’t think Realmuto was ready to make a decision at the time we were ready to make a decision,” Alderson said. “Look, every choice has its consequences. Let’s say, hypothetically that we had signed Realmuto instead of McCann. Would we still have been actively engaged with Lindor and Carrasco? I don’t know. I think you have to look at the totality of the situation, and the fact that we chose to go in a another direction behind the plate may have put us in the right posture to do Lindor/Carrasco.

“This is not a continuum. It’s just kind of a linear—you’ve got to make decisions from time to time and recognize the implications of those decisions, but by signing McCann we got a very good player and we maintained some flexibility, which allowed us to engage with Cleveland. Engaging with Cleveland and getting Lindor and Carrasco perhaps limits other options, but leaves other options available.”

And that flexibility, Alderson said, is the most pivotal thing for the Mets moving forward.

“From our standpoint, one of the important things over the last three or four weeks of the offseason upcoming, is to be in a position to take advantage of some opportunities again, like we have at the beginning of the offseason, and the middle of the offseason,” said Alderson. “We want to be in a position to take advantage of some things at the end of the offseason as well, but we don’t want to leave everything until the end. So anyway, this is how we chose to approach it, and we’re happy with the results so far.”

You can listen to Alderson’s full interview by listening to the podcast here.