Reese Kaplan -- Progress Has Been Made -- Deal With It & Move On

The problem with media these days is that it's ubiquitous and everyone participating in the creation of it, from professional sportswriters to humble bloggers, needs content in order to feed the insatiable need of their readers, viewers and listeners.  

A great example is the reaction to the New York Mets in their seemingly unending and ineffectual quest to fulfill their many job openings.  No matter what they did there was a need to overreact just to keep the story alive.  

Last week, for example, the prospect of Adam Cromie becoming the new General Manager was the latest bone ferociously assaulted by the media and its acolytes. There were the soldiers of Mets blue and orange who praised the outside-the-box thinking to bring in someone who is not a proven failure.  

Then there were the torches and pitchfork crowd who lambasted the team and owner Steve Cohen for even considering someone who has been out of baseball for FOUR WHOLE YEARS!!!  (Of course, this same crowd had no problem with the Mets hiring a manager who had been out of the Major Leagues from the end of 1999 until 2011, so apparently a dozen years is acceptable sometimes but four years is unacceptable always).  

Anyway, to hear the media tell it, the now 38 year old Cromie was a shoe-in for the job and it was merely a matter of settling the compensation and responsibility details.  No matter who the Mets chose was going to be fodder for everyone to pile onto the LOLmets theme that they are perpetual losers in whatever they attempt to do.

Then, seemingly out of left field, word filters out that Billy Eppler, formerly of the Yankees and Angels, was being offered the job.  Of course, the fact they had a young veteran with five full years as the GM of the Angels was surely going to satisfy the whiners, right?

Wrong.  He served during an ongoing below .500 record in terms of the Angels standing and seemed to cement in many pitchfork carriers that he was a proven loser.  The feed coming out of the Mets is that he was kept from doing what was necessary due to ongoing interference and meddling from owner Arte Moreno who has a reputation for being a difficult person for folks to abide.  

The fact of the matter is, the Mets need someone who is capable of developing the roster effectively and take this responsibility out of Sandy Alderson's hands.  Yes, there was legitimate concern that while scout-oriented Eppler was quite good at finding hitters, he was less effective at building a pitching staff.  Again, the message out of the Mets was that Moreno made this priority less important and he was prouder to have embraced the likes of Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani.  

Furthermore, Eppler is best friends with presumed candidate to be the POBO next year, David Stearns of the Milwaukee Brewers.  He was instrumental in scouting while working for the Yankees and will not be intimidated by New York (not that Los Angeles is exactly a podunk town either).  

He was able to add a number of highly credible players to the Angels lineup.  He was also highly focused on advanced analytics, something which surely rang several bells with Steve Cohen and company.

While a great many fans and media types will rain on the Mets parade at bringing in a new General Manager, the fact is that successfully doing so allows them to prepare for the upcoming season and the inputs to the league's  contractual obligations that are due in December.  

No one was thrilled that Luis Rojas was the emergency replacement manager any more than they were enamored with Brodie Van Wagenen, Jared Porter nor Zack Scott in the front office.  Sometimes things work.  Sometimes they don't.  This choice may or may not work out but it gives the team the opportunity to move forward.  That hiring decision should be recognized as necessary and will be evolutionary for the team, if not revolutionary as many folks desire.