Alderson Is Forced to Remake Mets on the Cheap Ben Solomon for The New York Times Sandy Alderson's personnel moves with the Mets have made news by what they have not included -- big-name talent. Since becoming the general manager of the Mets 17 months ago, Sandy Alderson has overseen the team's acquisition of roughly two dozen players with some form of major league pedigree. None of those acquired were stars, and hardly any cost significant money, at least in baseball terms. They were a modest catalog of journeymen and role players, short-term fill-ins and long-term what-ifs. The combined value of these players" contracts comes to about $30 million. Only two of the players, relief pitchers D. J. Carrasco and Frank Francisco, were signed to deals for more than one year. And Francisco was the only player to sign a contract worth more than $3.5 million. These signings, as they occurred in ones or twos, have rarely been newsworthy. Who, including the most-crazed Mets fans, was going to get excited by the announcement that Chin-lung Hu had been acquired by the Mets as a backup infielder after hitting .191 in 96 games over four seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers. But when Hu, who went a meager 1 for 20 as a Met in 2011, Carrasco, Ronny Paulino, Russ Adams, Blaine Boyer and the others who have been acquired are taken as a whole, they provide a stark narrative of just how much the Mets" financial issues have restricted Alderson and left him to nickel-and-dime his way to 25-man rosters both last season and this. Since he came aboard in October 2010, Alderson has been obligated to take a payroll that was over $140 million and cut it to about $90 million. You can make that kind of huge and swift reduction only if you repeatedly acquire players who will cost very little. "I don't think people really understand how constrained he really is," Steve Phillips, a former Mets general manager, said of Alderson. There's no team in the last year and a half that's been as affected by financial challenges as the Mets. Alderson's early moves with the Mets set a clear standard. In a two-day span in December 2010 the Mets announced the signings of Adams, Carrasco, Paulino, Boof Bonser, Pedro Beato and Brad Emaus. Bonser and Adams were signed to minor league contracts. Bonser pitched three and two-thirds innings for the Mets" Class AAA team in Buffalo before having Tommy John surgery. Adams, an infielder, retired in May. Beato and Emaus were selected in the Rule 5 draft at major league minimum salaries of $414,000. Paulino signed a one-year deal worth $1.35 million. Carrasco agreed to a two-year deal worth $2.4 million and followed with one of the worst seasons of his career. Emaus did not do much better, batting .162 in 37 at-bats for the Mets, before being quickly returned to the Toronto Blue Jays, the team from which the Mets had claimed him. The wave of acquisitions in January 2011 followed the same script. Alderson added seven players that month - Taylor Buchholz, Chris Capuano, Willie Harris, Chris Young, Scott Hairston, Tim Byrdak and Boyer - who would go on to appear for the Mets in the regular season. Of these players, Capuano received the most guaranteed money, a one-year base salary of $1.5 million. The pattern continued from there. Jason Isringhausen, a 39-year-old reliever with many miles on his arm, was signed to a minor league deal last February. He eventually became the Mets" de facto closer. Miguel Batista, a 40-year-old pitcher, was signed to a minor league deal in July and eventually ended up in the starting rotation. The current off-season - which featured acquisitions like Rob Johnson, a catcher and defensive specialist who signed a minor league contract, and Ronny Cedeno, a journeyman shortstop who received a one-year deal worth $1.15 million - has essentially been more of the same. Notably, reliever Jon Rauch got a one-year contract for $3.5 million and Francisco, in only the second multiyear deal of Alderson's tenure, got $12 million for two seasons, which, by current Mets standards, is Albert Pujols money. "They've been in a bottom-feeding mode when it comes to the free-agent market," said Phillips, who is now a host on SiriusXM's Mad Dog Radio channel. They are trying to catch that lightning in a bottle, that diamond in the rough. Elena Gustines contributed reporting.