The New York Mets aren’t exactly clear on who will become their next general manager, but judging by yesterday’s New York Post article by Mike Puma, there’s one very clear takeaway: analytics will not be tolerated.
While the general understanding has always been that the Mets’ executives have been more inclined to a more old-school look at the game (as evidenced by their current list of candidates, which hinges strongly on scouting backgrounds), a source close to majority owner and CEO Fred Wilpon told Puma that “if Fred had to sit in a room with a guy who had to explain to him analytics, Fred would blow his brains out.”
Wilpon himself will not be present for the actual process of interviewing candidates, instead deferring those duties to his son and COO Jeff Wilpon as well as assistant GM John Ricco. Ricco held an interim position through most of 2018 alongside J.P. Ricciardi and Omar Minaya following Sandy Alderson’s resignation, and has reportedly been left out of contention for the new, vacant position.
Nonetheless, Ricco still appears likely to have a say in who the next general manager will be, even though that position will impact him from above. And with the recent announcements that both Ben Cherington and Thad Levine have withdrawn their names from the discussion, the feeling across baseball has proven to be mutual.
With 49-year old Kim Ng being the youngest of the team’s four candidates, experience clearly appears to be of the utmost importance for the front office. The approach in itself isn’t disappointing, as the team’s outright aversion towards statistics that have come to dictate the game over the last decade.
And despite having three and a half months to formulate a coherent plan for tweaking and polishing the roster, the Mets have instead plugged their ears, alienated a variety of successful, available executives, and decided to crudely run through a chiefly important process in building a winning team. Much of this comes as little surprise given the team’s trajectory across the last pair of seasons, but still resonates as embarrassing once confirmed by credible sources.
