Photo by Chris Simon
Time to hit the reset button.
Mets owner Steve Cohen can look around his office today and see no familiar faces that he brought in. The Mets front office is completely turning over for the second time in as many years with the departures of Jared Porter and Zack Scott. If Cohen wants to turn things around for this franchise the first thing he’ll need is stability.
The month-long search for a president of baseball operations or general manager is no closer to finishing than it was at the season’s end. They move from candidate to candidate how bandits moved from town to town in the Wild West.
We’re now into stage four of the front office search. Expectations have shifted to “maybe it’s not so bad to promote someone from the inside.” And when you have more candidates than a presidential primary it’s not unreasonable.
Inside the Mets have identified Ian Levin and Tommy Tanous as possible promotion options. They’re both experienced and certainly qualified. Most importantly, they’ve been with the Mets for years stuck in an occupational purgatory with this franchise.
Levin has been with the Mets since 2005 when he was a media relations intern. Since he has served as the coordinator of amateur scouting, manager of baseball analytics, director of minor-league operations, and director of player development. He’s worked for five Mets GMs.
Tanous joined the Mets as a professional scout in 2011 and took over as the scouting director before the 2012 season. He was promoted to his current role in 2017. He’s been directly involved in the drafting and signing of Michael Conforto, Jeff McNeil, and Pete Alonso to name a few.
Ten and 16 years as a Mets fan is tough enough, imagine having to work for them too.
Are Levin and Tanous the only options? Of course not. Raquel Ferraria from Boston would be another excellent hire and hopefully, change the culture in the Mets front office.
When the Mets think about stability, they’ll have to consider the rest of the team as well. They’re looking for yet another manager and coaching staff (sans Jeremy Hefner). No team has a better group of players hitting free agency than the Mets. Only Sandy Alderson is able to survive the constant turnover.
It’s time to restart. Something has to change and it starts at the top. Whomever the Mets decide to hire better be in it for the long run.
