Reese Kaplan -- Don't Put the Cart Before the Horse

From the Free Dictionary online:

be chomping at the bit:

 

To be impatient and/or eager for something to happen or over some delay. Used to liken someone to an overexcited horse straining against its bit (the metal piece of the harness that fits between its jaws).

 

I was chomping at the bit for the game to start.

 

After two hours of waiting in the airport lobby, we were chomping at the bit to finally get on the plane.

The very definition of this familiar expression illustrates what it’s like to be a Mets fan these days awaiting something, anything to happen.  Yes, Steven Cohen did what he had to do to relieve the fans from their seemingly lifelong curse under the Wilpons.  Yes, Sandy Alderson was brought back for his knowledge of the organization and his maturity in getting things done.  Yes, the front office personnel associated with the previous administration from GM on down were told to collect a paycheck elsewhere.  However, the more days it takes for the Mets to add instead of subtract from the front office, the more antsy and dissatisfied the fan base will become.

Just this week the Miami Marlins announced the hiring and promotion of former executive in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization, Kim Ng, to become baseball’s first and long overdue female General Manager.  The often also-ran Marlins team surprised pretty much everyone with their level of play and manager Don Mattingly was awarded for his efforts.  Bringing in a top brain from a known competitive team should go a long way towards making the Marlins more than a 60-game hot streak.  Congratulations to them.

For the Mets, however, I’m much more interested in seeing who they secure for their organizational chart than I am for their players depth chart.  The reasoning is simple.  There are far fewer good front office types available than there are players.  The player part is far easier.  Wave money at free agents or peddle players to other clubs to get them.  However, the business side of the game requires people who know how to develop and execute strategy, not just for today but for the future as well.  It’s going to take far more than throwing a few random darts at an ill-defined target to get to the postseason.  

So far the only name to drop in the media from the personnel search is outgoing head honcho of the Marlins, Michael Hill.  He was given the unenviable job of putting together a team through budgetary crises, ownership changes and lackluster fan support.  Given the situation he faced and how well the team did this year, he may indeed be the type of forward thinking mind the Mets need.  He set up a team with a mix of old and new, inexpensive and expensive.  Whatever the formula was, for 60 games this past year it worked. 

When was the last time you could say that about the Mets?  Don’t hurry to say 2015 as the club lost the World Series and the main player who helped -- Yoenis Cespedes -- abandoned the team during this past season.  

Yes, I would be doing cartwheels if I read the Mets signed some combination of Trevor Bauer, Brad Hand, George Springer and J.T. Realmuto.  However, unless the new business plan is to buy the pennant year after year without a sound strategy, I’m not sure I’d be ecstatic.  I want to give the new ownership and Sandy Alderson the chance to pay attention first to the business side of the game, then afterwards to finding the players who fit that vision.