The Mets have some big stuff on their plate right now. They're working on an extension for David Wright, working on a fall-back plan if an extension for R.A. Dickey doesn't happen, and figuring out how the hell to build the rest of a functional baseball team this offseason. That doesn't mean G.M. Sandy Alderson is betraying any of that business to the media.

In what was an otherwise vague, uninformative conversation with the media, noted jokester Sandy Alderson pretty much did a Mets-themed stand-up set Thursday in Indian Wells. Some gems, via Andrew Keh of the Times:

“What outfield?” Alderson replied, spurring a burst of laughter from those gathered around him.

That quickly led to another quip. “We’re going to bring those fences in another 150 feet,” he said, playing off the fact that a season ago he shortened the dimensions of spacious Citi Field in a bid to help the team’s power hitters.

Two jokes are a lot for a general manager speaking on the record, but Alderson was just getting started.

Asked from where the team’s new outfielders would be acquired, he grinned. The reporters waited. “A cardboard box?” he said, finally.

Alderson reportedly went on to make light of Lucas Duda's moving mishap. His long-standing tendency to meet trying times with self-deprecating humor is admirable, I think. Might as well have fun. But yeah, the team is pretty barren and an R.A. Dickey trade might be in the works. Nobody's forgotten that there's plenty of serious stuff going on behind all the LOLs.