By Mike Steffanos November 30, 2020
Another day, another disappointment for the Mets in their search to hire an executive. After lowering their sights to a GM working under Sandy Alderson rather than a President of Baseball Operations, the Mets are still looking to make a hire. Today's news is that former pitcher Chris Young doesn't want to uproot his family from Dallas to New York City. Some people are making a big deal of this, but I don't really care all that much. I don't blame the club for aiming high for a candidate, and I don't think they should settle for anyone they don't really want. At this point they should perhaps consider tabling the whole thing for another year and going forward with the people they already have. But that's up to Alderson and Cohen.
I notice that Steve Cohen replied to a tweet from SNY's Andy Martino with the million dollar question:
I'm in agreement with Cohen on this. If there are people shying away from the job because they think Cohen wanting to win in 3-5 years is too demanding, than they shouldn't come here. If you're being handed the resources to build one of the best organizations in baseball, a lot should be expected from you. I don't think Steve Cohen is going to arbitrarily fire someone if the Mets don't win the World Series in 3-5 years as long as they're doing a good job building the organization. But the goals should be very high. Part of the problem here in the last decade or so was that little was given and little was expected.
I'll take Chris Young at his word for not wanting to move his family. Reportedly this was the case with at least one other of the Mets targets. That's just how it goes. But anyone under consideration who's afraid of the owner without even sitting down and having a conversation with the man about what he really wants is just a coward, and has no business taking this job anyway.
The important thing is that the Mets should be prepared to do everything they need to do this winter no matter how long it takes to hire someone. This needs to include decisions on free agents, both the elite ones and the players who get cut loose this week on Wednesday's non-tender deadline. I believe we're going to start seeing some movement in the free agent market finally once we get past that.
There has been word out of Philadelphia that severe losses in 2020 may limit the Phillies' pursuit of J.T. Realmuto. That doesn't mean, of course, that the Phillies won't be at least trying to make a deal with the catcher, nor does it mean that the Mets won't have competition from other teams. It does, however, increase the possibilities of the Mets signing the best catcher in baseball.
5 comments:
Great minds think alike, Mike. I had written yesterday for tomorrow's piece on a similar landscape regarding the Mets' ill-fated forays into front office personnel. With the Winter Meetings starting next week I am feeling somewhat behind the eight ball without the people in place that I thought were a prerequisite to making personnel changes in folks who actually wear the uniform.
Gotta be bold and go big. Gradualism is for Wilpon acolytes.
It really shouldn't matter that they weren't able to find a GM. If they're not prepared to go forward with personnel changes than Alderson isn't the right man for the job
That's true. No excuses. Sandy with a checkbook should be far more effective than Sandy with empty pockets.
I'll let you know what really ticked me off this morning and has to stop: another article about a player, in this case Japanese pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano, and him being linked to the Yankees of course and not a mention of us at all...HEY WT* (can I print that?) It's high time we got included when any player comes available not just those stinking Yankees.
Post a Comment