J.P. Ricciardi Named Special Assistant To Alderson

The Mets just announced  that they have hired J.P. Ricciardi to be a special assistant to GM Sandy Alderson.

“J.P. brings a wealth if knowledge and a breadth of experience to the organization. I worked with him for over a decade in Oakland and I know first hand he’s a superb talent evaluator.  He’ll be a tremendous resource in a variety of areas.”

According to the Mets, Ricciardi will assistant Alderson in all aspects of baseball operations.

“I couldn’t be more excited about being reunited with Sandy,” Ricciardi said.  ”We enjoyed tremendous success together in Oakland and it’s my goal to help duplicate that here with the Mets.  As a former Met farm hand, it’s a double a homecoming for me.”

Here’s something interesting I was not aware of from Steve Popper.

Ricciardi played two seasons in the Mets minor league system after signing as a non-drafted free agent.  In 1980, he was a teammate of current Oakland GM Billy Beane in the New York-Penn League with Little Falls and in 1981 he played for Shelby (A) of the South Atlantic League.

Welcome to the Mets J.P.. Help Sandy get this team back on track. LGM!

Original Post 4:00 PM

According to the Daily News, the Mets have announced a press conference for 5:00 PM today.

New GM Sandy Alderson will most likely share his progress as far as the search for the new manager goes.

There might be a chance he may have some news regarding the option on Jose Reyes and Hisanori Takahashi’s contract status. Of course, I’m just speculating, but hopefully we do get some information on that front.

By the way, in a chat conducted by Adam Rubin today, he said that he does not believe that Wally Backman will be the next manager and added,

“If I can say it cryptically, I just think the Mets know things that are not circulated and don’t feel comfortable. Sometimes organizations know things that are not widely circulated.”

I wonder what he means by that? I don’t know about you, but I hate it when writers drop something like that without substantiating it.