As the Mets continue their search for a new president of baseball operations, they may have to change tack, according to Andy Martino of SNY. It has long been reported that the top tier of their preferred candidates included Theo Epstein, Billy Beane and David Stearns. Martino reports that the Mets’ confidence of landing any of the three is apparently low, leading to them consider a change of strategy and targeting younger executives.
Stearns, the youngest of the group at 36, has had his name connected to the Mets in rumors for a while now, as it was widely believed the Manhattan native was entering the last year of his contract with the Brewers. However, Martino says it is “now believed” that the club has a vesting option for his services for 2023. It’s unclear what conditions need to be met for the option to vest, but that is a noteworthy development, if true. As Martino himself notes, this changes the calculation of how much leverage the Mets would have to compel Milwaukee to allow negotiations to take place. Many have speculated that the Brewers could allow Stearns to consider outside opportunities because he is nearing the end of his contract. But if that is not actually the case, it makes it less likely that they would be open to such a scenario.
Dodgers’ assistant general manager Brandon Gomes, 37 years old, has already been reported to be one of those under consideration, though Martino reports that the Dodgers could promote him to general manager in order to keep him from taking a GM job with the Mets. Martino also floats Brewers general manager Matt Arnold and Giants general manager Scott Harris as those that “could be in the mix.”
How does a PoBO have a vesting option? What’s the requirement YALL thing
Win total? Division title?
Not sure why he’d agree to something like that since any numeric- or championship-based metric would benefit him on the open market.
I’m guessing the Mets hire Schildt as the next manager. Maybe Buck Showalter with his experience managing in NYC already but if they can’t find someone like him to agree my guess is they just settle for Schildt since at least he just showed the ability to manage a team into the playoffs. At this point I’ve become really confident the Padres are just going to go ahead and sign Ron Washington to be their manager as soon as the Braves season is over. Washington has already worked with Preller before in Texas and Preller is definitely fond of him. If it weren’t for Jayce Tingler, Wash would have already been the Padres manager for years. Washington has already basically said he would take the Padres job as soon as they offered it to him. He really wants to manage again. I know a lot of fans don’t seem super high on Washington being a manager again but even managers can adapt and get better over time. Wash is very respected and absolutely loved by every person in the Braves clubhouse. He is a big reason the Braves have the best infield in all of baseball this season. As a Braves fan I really don’t want to lose him but I also really think he’s earned another shot with the way he has coached this Braves team the last few years. Right now I’m thinking there is at least a 90% chance Ron Washington is named the Padres manager by around Halloween.
How can anyone seriously discuss potential Met manager candidates until the Mets get a GM?
And for the record, it will be far easier (my opinion) to hire a GM, instead of trying to get a president of baseball operations. Getting a president, then a GM, then a field manager is really a stretch in one off-season. Especially with a potential labor issue on the horizon.
A competent GM (ie, not Porter or Scott – but someone with some good experience) will likely be promoted to president in a year.
Correct me if I am wrong – but the “president of baseball operations” is a role that never existed 25 years ago. A competent experienced GM is what’s needed.
But they gotta act soon.
I’ve noted this elsewhere. The PoBO title is simply title inflation. The PoBO is what we view as the GM. They should hire a competent baseball operations leader. Call him/her anything you want title wise, but you really shouldn’t hire someone with a GM title if you plan to then hire a PoBO. The PoBO will hire the GM and manager.
I didn’t think much of him when he was with Texas, but I have been surprised to hear multiple players in interviews talk extremely high of him and of course what players think of him matters a lot more than what a fan of another team does. He strikes me as a dusty baker type, good with managing egos but slow to adapt to new strategies changing the game.
That is true, but don’t forget he could also have a substantial salary increase written into the option year in order to make it worth giving up the year of control. End of the day there are still only 30 jobs to go around, and if a salary increase were to be in place, it would set a new floor for him if and when he did ever reach the open market.
Team wins?
Another Metsfan22 mocker screen name? There are 2 of us? Man… Making fun of that guy’s lack of intelligence has become quite popular.
More likely gross or net revenues than wins.
I don’t know, @tsats but it is a fantastic idea.
Pay your sales guys commission, your tradesman by the square or opening, & your baseball executives for wins. This is my favorite baseball development of the entire week.
I also reject this opportunity.
Me too, I don’t want to feel left out.
The first order of business for whomever the new GM is – ban green hair dye for any Mets player including Lindor.
That will certainly increase their winning percentage.
Honestly I wouldn’t be opposed to that. Lindor makes so much money that its no surprise his favorite color is green…
It is not Lindor’s fault that the Mets overpaid him by 75 to 80 million. But it is his fault that he played like a ten million dollar a year journeyman. The contract should let him color his hair only when his batting average is over 0.260.
So, a full on ban. Got it.
Sandy Alderson is the Mets problem. Nobody wants to work with such a loser hovering over them. Sandy will either wind up reinstating the DUI GM or promoting his Son. LOL Mets
Jeff Luhnow and Carlos Beltran. Because Darth Vader was unavailable.
I don’t think anyone here understands Sandy Alderson’s role with the Mets under Mr. Cohen…….
He was brought in to be Club President. In the same way that Stan Kasten was brought in by the Nationals where he helped build their franchise, and subsequently moved to the Dodgers in that capacity when the Guggenheim group bought the Dodgers. Most of you don’t know of Mr. Kasten and his exceptional record, as he has left the player moves for Mike Rizzo and Andrew Friedman to oversee and execute (I don’t know his role in their hires).
Alderson’s job is full-time working on economic issues, MLB issues, etc. He hires or proposes to hire GM’s and might rubber stamp of veto managers.
Most teams today have a President (& CEO) as MLB bylaws, laws, tax laws, contracts with cities, etc. are compilated and take someone overlooking them full-time. Aldersons’ background is business – he taught business classes at UC-Berkeley when he was working for the A’s, and he was the one responsible for hiring Billy Beane as a FO person and introducing him to the analytics he and Tony Larussa were using in putting together the (Championship) A’s teams.
Most teams have both a Baseball Ops and a GM in some capacity, although the designation and the job responsibilities differ from franchise to franchise. Laying groundwork for signings, trades, etc. and the endless daily phone calls and emails generally take 2 people that work separately from the duties a President / CEO has. The fact that Alderson is often making signing and trade announcements as the Met do not have a head of Baseball Ops does not mean that he’s carrying out that role.
The Mets badly need a Baseball Ops guy and a GM as well – those are 2 separate 60 hour-a-week jobs in todays MLB. Jeff Luhnow is easily the best candidate. With his analytical and organizational skills he would get along fine with Mr. Cohen. But the issue of course is how his hiring would be accepted by the NYC media which would be knocking him from day one due to the Astros cheating scandal. Other than Luhnow, there really is no established candidate out there. The Mets tried 2 of Epstein’s FO guys, but the media plays favorites and they were protected when working for Theo. Once the Mets hired them suddenly the issue one had working for the Cubs was abhorrent, and the other got caught with a DUI (very possibly due to the job pressure). If the Mets go the route of promoting an up-and-comer as a Baseball Ops head those issues could come up again. They’re between a rock and a hard place. Again.
A lot of good stuff in there. But fully Vetting a candidate is pretty standard. Mets clearly didn’t do that when they hired Porter. No excuse for that garbage.
Job pressure DUI is some bush league stuff too.. But other than that—strong post.
It’s nice that Stearns has the option to wear vests, but what does that have to do with anything?
*somebody virtually whispers in my ear*
Oh… never mind then.
In New York, I would opt for the bullet-proof vest.
I don’t believe anything this clown Martino says
Some names to throw into the mix. Steve Phillips, CJ Nitkowski, Eduardo Perez, Ryan Spliborghs, Gary Cohen, Lindsey Nelson, Tim McCarver, Kelvin Chapman, Ron Taylor, Jim McAndrew, Doug Sisk, Howie Rose, M Donald Grant, Joan Payson, Willie Mays, Ed Kranepool, Ed Charles, Danny Heep, and Frank Cashen. One of these eminents would be willing to do the job, and would be quite effective, I reckon.
Your forgot Lenny Dykstra for GM and Wally Backman for Manager.
You also forgot George Foster, Dave Kingman, Rusty Staub, Bobby Bonilla, and Oscar the Grouch.
And just for good measure- how about Roberto Alomar, Richie Hebner, Jason Bay, Mo Vaughn, Skip Lockwood, Felix Millan, Moises Alou, Art Howe, John Stearns, Todd Hundley, and Nolan Ryan? One of those could surely do this job. Lockwood was into analytics before anyone else. #MIT!
That is Claude Lockwood to you sir.
How about signing Bobby Bonilla as GM and give him a 13 year deal at 1.19 million per year?
That would be great – And maybe he could get the othet Killer B from the Steel City, Barry Bonds, to take over strength, conditioning, and mental skills. That would be a classy Mets move
Maybe you missed the joke. The Mets are already paying Bonilla 1.19 million per year for doing nothing for the next thirteen years.
No, I got it!
You didn’t even mention Tom Seaver. How could you slight him as the Mets are supposed to finally be commemorating him with a statue due to Fan pressure after all these years?
I wonder why Matt Arnold’s name never comes up . He’s second in command to Stearns and General Manager of the club. I’m not sure how much pull he has in the decision making process, but one would think with the recent relative success of the franchise someone would at least toss him an interview opportunity.
Stearns isn’t going anywhere until he’s won at least 1 title for MKE and likely more than that. He’s happy there, his family is happy there and he has work to do there, his words. Teams best in baseball, prime-aged and controlled pitching, coupled with a nice positional core will give Stearns that opportunity over the next few seasons to get that done. Once that’s done, he’s THE man.
I think he also realizes he can stay in MKE for long term and have some down years to rebuild and his job won’t be in jeopardy. MKE doesn’t have WS expectations year in and out (yeah, we want to win one at some point, but we have never had a “World Series or bust” mindset in April.). As long as he keeps the Brewers competitive, he will have a job in MKE. Just sooooo many losing years we have had to endure, that just being decent is massive improvement.
Fans love him. Players seem to like him. I hope he stays long term. Him and Attanasio have been great for the Brewers.
In NY, he would have to win…annually…and more than just a wild card bow out appearance or he’ll be fired sooner than later.
There is no need for him to rush and leave. He has a nice cushy seat in a milwaukee honeypot. He is loved here. His family is happy. Stearns is 36 years old and has plenty of time. People act like Milwaukee is not a great job. The fans come all the time, win or lose.
Just put a team on the field that doesn’t blow chunks and you will be loved in the Brew City.
All true… but what is Cohen offering $$ wise?
lol Mets suck
Bauer
I find your user name unfair and offensive.
Why?
It should say women plural not singular.
Brandon Gomes? As in, former Tampa Bay reliever, Brandon Gomes? I had no idea he got into front office baseball, let alone the Dodgers assistant GM. Talk about a blast from the past.
Cohen should do exactly what the Guggenheim group did when they bought the Dodgers and spend like drunken sailors till the farm system is loaded.
Worked for the Dodgers after a similar dysfunctional time. But fans need to understand that even then it still takes time, a championship doesn’t happen overnight. Took those same Dodgers almost 10 years to get that ring after the Guggenheim transaction.
Either that or when DeGrom is healthy, to make a dozen clones, since in addition to being their best pitcher he can outhit at least half the club.
They should try the real dude, John Stearns. Not this fake dude David
Luhnow is the pick but the Mets will blow it as usual
Scott Harris has just started being a GM so he lacks the experience to be a POBO at this time. Plus, he left the Cubs to go to the Bay because he’s a native of San Fran. So I doubt he wants to leave.
Just make Mr. Met the PoBo and be done with it already…
I don’t see Scott Harris as even a possibility. Just came to SF and did pretty well with Farhan. He doesn’t want to leave after that Dodgers series I imagine
Dump all the Ivy League bean counter GMs in baseball! They are ruining the game!
As a long time Brewers fan. Stearns has done a good job with team and budget. But he has a huge problem assembling a solid offense. It typically looks the same year after year. A roller coaster offense that gets beat by good pitching. It’s the reason the franchise continues to celebrate being a brides maid in ’82
Billy Beane? Have you seen the A’s end results the last couple of years? I don’t know how much of that is out of his control ie ownership issues, but I’m no expert on the A’s (or much of anything else )