The injury news was bad again - is there any other kind for the Mets? You think Sandy Alderson understands by now that life as GM for this franchise means knowing there's a potential disaster around every corner?

Now Ike Davis' ankle isn't healing, and after fielding several questions on the subject Tuesday, Alderson lightheartedly noted that he has had so many of these injury-related press sessions:

"I'm looking for someone to give me an honorary medical degree."

And that's the easy stuff compared to answering for Fred Wilpon's sunny commentary on the state of the Mets last week.

Through it all, Alderson's poise and polish have made him the perfect front man for a franchise in various states of crisis.

But he wasn't brought here to be good on camera. He was brought here to rescue a floundering franchise, and in that regard the glare of the spotlight only now begins to fall squarely on him over the next couple of months.

Once again we were reminded the Mets aren't going anywhere this season, as they lost 5-1 to the Pirates Tuesday night, so essentially Alderson needs to be their best player, so to speak, for this franchise to have any chance of surviving its money problems and finding its way back to serious contention any time soon.

For starters, if the payroll is about to be reduced dramatically, as Wilpon intimated in last week's Sports Illustrated story, obviously it's crucial that Alderson make the right calls on trading key players and the prospects he gets in return.

 

Mets GM Sandy Alderson (l.) and COO Jeff Wilpon at Citi Field. | Robert Sabo/News

Perhaps more than ever that could mean deciding between Jose Reyes and David Wright, the Mets' homegrown stars. And while Reyes always seemed more likely to go, as he heads for free agency this winter, there is a sense among some baseball people that the shortstop may be changing Alderson's mind.

Tuesday, for example, a major-league scout who once worked under Alderson predicted that the GM will find a way to keep Reyes, even if it means trading Wright instead.

"If he has to get down to a (payroll) number," the scout said, "I think he'll trade the other two (Carlos Beltran and Francisco Rodriguez) at the deadline, then deal Wright in the offseason. The way Reyes is playing, he has too much value to trade at the deadline for what Sandy can get in return.

"Look at their club and look at the other shortstops around the league, and trading Wright makes more sense. You can play (Daniel) Murphy at third and he'll give you enough offense there. But you can't replace Reyes' offense with (Ruben) Tejada.