In his most recent press conference president of baseball operations David Stearns was asked if Andy Green will return to his player development role and stated he will return to the “front office”, but did not confirm it would be the same player development role. Steve Cohen used identical language a few days later when asked the same question. This could be overanalysis, but it does seem the language for that response may have been pre-decided as such. In the process of finishing this article, Chelsea Janes of SNY wrote a great article that came to the same conclusion from the language the front office and Steve Cohen have utilized and stated, “People familiar with the Mets’ internal deliberations affirm the plan remains for Green to return to the front office, though not necessarily in the player development role he held previously. One role those people floated as a potential fit: General manager, a position Cohen has talked about filling during Stearns’ tenure but never has.”

If Green were to not return to the same role he left, what role could he potentially move to? I believe Green would be a perfect general manager to serve under David Stearns.

Teams often tend to leave higher front office positions vacant so they have spots open to promote their top staff to if teams want to poach them, and teams could be taking notice of Andy Green this season. Multiple prospects who developed under his watch have come up to the major leagues and had immediate success, while he has shown a strong ability to work with the New York media in his press availability.

So what could his role look like if he were to become the general manager and why would Green specifically be a great fit?

Media Relations

When a team has both a president of baseball operations and a general manager, the GM is often the one who oversees the primary communication with the media. GM Mike Chernoff of the Cleveland Guardians is the clearest example of this as the one who regularly fields questions from the media. Outside of the big press conferences, Brandon Gomes with the Dodgers handles the majority of the media relations for Andrew Friedman. Matt Arnold served this role when he was the GM for David Stearns. Of course, some organizations do have this as more of a shared responsibility, like the Texas Rangers with president of baseball operations Chris Young and general manager Ross Fenstermaker.

The media itself has also not portrayed itself as the biggest cheerleader of David Stearns. They regularly criticize him and for over a year have openly speculated about whether Steve Cohen should fire him. Some have criticized how he runs his press availability, accusing him sidestepping questions, as Abbey Mastracco of NY Daily News did in June. Part of this is the standard of New York media, but even at the national level, reporters have not been his biggest defenders, like when Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic stopped just short of accusing Stearns of scapegoating Carlos Mendoza. Jon Heyman of the New York Post was even more direct in his view of how Stearns handled the situation with Carlos Mendoza.

Whether any of this is truly deserved or not, the Mets could benefit from having another member of the front office be the conduit to the media at least in part. Green has handled his press availabilities well as both the current manager of the Mets, as well as when he was running the Mets’ player development.

Day-to-Day Operations

A benefit of having a general manager under a president of baseball operations is that it takes some of the day-to-day operations off the POBO’s plate. Now, it is unlikely that Stearns is currently personally running every single day-to-day decision – he has a number of assistant general managers who assist in those areas. But having a general manager in place would allow him to centralize that under a single chain of command so he can put all his time on the big-picture items.

Green has already run a large department inside the Mets organization. Much of what he would oversee in day-to-day operations already fell under his umbrella as the senior vice president of player development. Green also likely shares the organization’s philosophy of the front office Stearns has worked to create as he was hired by Stearns and then asked to cover the manager position.

Player Acquisition

It is no secret that the results of the Mets’ player acquisition under Stearns have been a mixed bag. They have been clear successes, including Clay Holmes, Sean Manaea, Luke Weaver, Jared Young, retaining Pete Alonso in 2025, and of course, Juan Soto. There have also been large misses, especially recently, including Jorge Polanco, Ryan Helsley and Freddy Peralta. Now, Stearns is not personally viewing film and scouting each individual player; he is making decisions based on information provided to him by his staff and by the model the team has created. These are also staff he has put in place or chosen to retain from previous administrations. But with the mixed returns so far, why not add more voices that could benefit this part of the organization?

Andy Green could provide insight on multiple fronts for player acquisition. He has spent the previous two and a half years on the player development side and knows the traits the Mets want to target and are able to develop or get the most out of. He has now managed for the Mets in New York and has seen players transition to this ball club. He has helped players from the minors go through that transition to playing in the big leagues in NYC. Obviously, Stearns would have the final say on all player acquisition, but the Mets could potentially benefit from having Green be one of the voices in the room.

Verdict

Andy Green could be a great fit for the Mets general manager role if what I outlined above is how they envision the role fitting into the organization. There are many ways a team could outline the organizational flow chart of responsibilities between the POBO and GM role, and this is one scenario where I believe Green would be the perfect candidate. This is a thought that seems to potentially be gaining some traction in the media, as well as Will Sammon of the Athletic recently mentioned Green’s name as a possibility if the Mets were to look to promote someone into a larger role in the front office.

When discussing what either a general manager or advisor in the front office that can be another voice to help direct Stearns Sammon wrote that league executives feel the Mets could benefit from “adding more “baseball people” as potentially helpful. To them, that means someone in a leadership position who knows how players and coaches think through solving problems. Other examples could include someone who challenges projections from the models that modern organizations are often tethered to.” Sammon mentioned that Green could fit that description.

Whatever role he is in next season, Green has made it abundantly clear he has no interest in staying the on-field manager. It is very possible he just returns to his player development role. He could also retain that title but have added responsibilities that were discussed earlier. Or, maybe he truly is the best candidate to be the next Mets general manager.