On Wednesday, Anthony Reiber of Newsday opined on why the New York Mets should promote longtime assistant GM John Ricco to the spot recently vacated by Sandy Alderson in the wake of his cancer recurrence.
Reiber’s opinion on Ricco seems to be backed up by New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman (tried to hire Ricco in 1998), “All he’s done is gotten more experience and I’ve heard nothing has changed from the person I knew then: extremely hard worker, knowledgeable, cares, selfless, committed. He checks all the boxes.”
Ricco, 50, joined the Mets in 2004 after working in the MLB commissioner’s office. He was named assistant to the general manager in 2006, who at the time was Omar Minaya. Once Minaya was fired in October 2010, Ricco was briefly tabbed as the Mets’ interim GM before Sandy Alderson was hired later that month.
When Alderson announced on Monday that he would be stepping away from the position to address his health issues, many fans believed Ricco would be named, at the very least, the interim GM once again. But do things ever go that smoothly within this organization? Never.
After Alderson spoke, Jeff Wilpon announced that the triumvirate of John Ricco, longtime special assistant to Alderson, J.P. Ricciardi, and Ricco’s former boss, Omar Minaya would be taking over the organization’s baseball operations. Wilpon also said that all decisions would go through him, but that’s another article for another day.
In this writer’s opinion, John Ricco is ready to take that next step. Sandy Alderson, for the bevy of questionable moves that have been made during his tenure in Queens, is an all-time great in his chosen field. Ricco has been by his side for over eight years, presumably learning intimate details about exactly what it takes to be an MLB general manager from one of the best to ever hold the position on a daily basis.
Ricco spoke to Reiber about his duties under Alderson and how he’s taken on more responsibilities over the last few seasons.
“Honestly, Sandy has been delegating more and more to me,” he said. “That process had started several years ago. Over the last few weeks, maybe a little bit more.”
As Reiber notes, Ricco comes from a “non-scouting background,” but that doesn’t seem to have any effects on his confidence level heading into an, um, unique situation with two peers beside him and another superior to answer to.
“I’ve been at this job now the better part of 15 years and 25 in baseball,” Ricco said. “Watched a few games. I have a pretty good idea of what plays at this level and what you need to do to put together a winning team.”
As awkward and forced as the situation may seem, these three co-GMs are certainly not lacking in experience or intelligence. The biggest issue they may end up facing could be having autonomy. We shall see.
