Reese Kaplan -- Let's See the Method to the Madness

Unpleasant trivia time now...

Do you remember when super agent Steve Boras called the Wilpons to task for not being able to shop in the expensive aisle in the supermarket?

Do you remember the situation with married GM Steve Phillips and his affair with a 22 year old ESPN intern?

Do you remember the decision to hire super agent Brodie Van Wagenen to fill the opening for a GM when Sandy Alderson left town?

These all seem like good old times once again when the Mets are reeling, unable to land a POBO, a GM nor a manager.  They are unmercifully lambasting Steve Cohen for everything he does because everyone had simply assumed that a relief from the Wilpon comical soap opera would result in new and professional approach to how things were run at the New York Mets.  So far it has not been the case, but that doesn't mean all is unfixable.

Let's look at the specific situation here for a moment.  Mr. Cohen didn't get everything he accomplished in his non-baseball life by taking no chances and by sitting on his hands and not adapting when things didn't proceed as planned.  People don't seem to realize that a first time owner in baseball needs some room to feel his away among the seemingly toxic weeds before emerging with a new and winning strategy.  

To hear most folks tell it, his inability to land one of the best of the top three baseball executives was a Wilponesque sign of baseball failure.  Compounded with anywhere from 4-6 additional denials to interview seemed to throw gasoline on this particular fire.  

Now using the reasoning that not landing a POBO is a complete failure, many people have characterized the new Mets as the same old LOLmets.  On the surface, that seems to hold some merit, but look a little bit deeper.

The stories that abound for the past day and a half have less to do with a failed POBO search and an accelerated quest to land a new GM.  While the accepted script for baseball management goes in the sequence of POBO, GM and then field manager, the fact is that the Cohen front office is now doing the very right thing.

Baseball has GM Meetings taking place in less than two weeks on November 9th.  Right now that would mean Sandy Alderson would be taking the helm and there's not a fan alive who would laud that particular turn of events.  While jettisoning Alderson is another column for another day, bear in mind that trying to land a GM (who would be green around the gills when it comes to Mets' architecture, planning and strategy) is a risky but necessary step for the future.  Consequently the shift of focus to a GM hire makes sense.  

Once the GM is in place, that person can begin the search for the on-field manager which frees up the others in the front office (plus Chris Christie) to redouble their efforts to land a new POBO.  Strange as it seems, the business side of baseball is taking stage front and center.  Since it is different than what most fans have accepted in the past, they are dismissing it as a poorly run front office.  The fact is that the team is strategically doing what they need to do within the time frame in front of them.

The baseball calendar moves quickly in the off season.  Little more than a week after the GM meetings comes the owner meetings during the period of November 17th to 19th and that is followed December 6th through 9th in Orlando.

In between there are another few important deadlines the Mets must encounter and having a GM in place will make it a fairer fight.  November 10th is the deadline for players to accept or reject Qualifying Offers.  Since that strategy is likely in place for both Noah Syndergaard and Michael Conforto, someone needs to decide if a QO is the right way to go.  

On November 19th comes another important date when teams must decide who to protect from the Rule 5 draft.  In order to protect players from that possibility, they must be added to the 40-man roster.  Consequently, someone in the room must decide who belongs in there and which players currently on the roster who should be removed from it.  Four were let go this past week with Jose Martinez, Corey Oswalt, Robert Stock and Jose Peraza.  Earlier in the season they lost others, too, like Brandon Drury, Albert Almora Jr., Wilfredo Tovar, Chance Sisco and Jerad Eickhoff.  

The GM will also be instrumental in facing the December 1st non-tender deadline during which they must make some difficult decisions on who should and should not be retained on the 40-man roster.  If a player is not extended arbitration or have his option exercised, for example, he immediately becomes a free agent.  A good example here would be reserve outfielder Kevin Pillar on whom the club must make that decision.  

While fans and media alike are frustrated by the way in which the Mets are seemingly failing to get things done to fulfill their personnel openings, the fact is they are taking a necessary and intelligent approach to dealing with the issues at hand.  Yes, I'd like to see Sandy Alderson's role whittled down and would have appreciated them following the accepted sequence, but like Steve Cohen, I understand you play the cards that are dealt and you make the best of any given situation.  Here's hoping that GM role is fulfilled quickly.  That alone will take some of the heat off the team.