New York Mets president Sandy Alderson met with the team’s media corps via Zoom on Monday afternoon, confirming the Mets’ fruitless search for a president of baseball operations and their pivot towards filling out the organization’s front office.
Per Alderson, the Mets were faced with “limited access” when casting their net. A preference to make “lateral moves” — as in hiring a president of baseball operations from another team to take on those duties in Queens — was spurned due to various reasons.
“We respect the fact that individuals are under contract with other clubs,” Alderson said. “There are individual cases that might involve prior history — locally here in New York, or what have you. There might be circumstances that would suggest, perhaps, a lateral move would be possible. In each of those instances, that wasn’t the case.”
“Based on those conversations and, again, limited access, we decided to forgo […] that possibility of a president of baseball operations position and focus on the general manager.”
“It was mostly a combination of inability to get access to individuals for a lateral move and one or two other cases — for example, there was a very strong family issue that I think prevented a candidate from moving forward — but we’re happy with where we are, we’ve canvassed the possibilities, and as a result, we’ve begun to focus on the GM position.
With regards to the now prioritized general manager position, Alderson confirmed the team is “not concerned about a timeline” with regards to the hire. He did concede that they’d likely be taking a “sooner rather than later” approach, but added, “I absolutely do not believe it’s preventing us from moving forward on the player front and all the other issues that are presented in the offseason.”
Per source on Monday (Twitter), it was confirmed that Alderson himself has indeed been making contact with players and their representation this offseason.
Alderson confirmed that the team has interviewed a “half-dozen” candidates for the GM spot with the goal of “presenting one or two candidates to [Steve Cohen]”, noting “this is a decision that Steve will be involved in, as well.”
Per Alderson, longtime Mets organizational fixture John Ricco — currently a senior vice president and senior strategy officer with the team and formerly an interim GM for the club (2018) — will be his “right-hand person” with regards to both business and baseball operations but is not a candidate for the position.
As for who might be a fit for the vacancy, Alderson noted the team would “like to find someone as general manager who is capable of growing into the [president of baseball operations] role; that would be ideal”.
Alderson’s consummate hire would be “someone who can handle most of the traditional general manager role”, though he does anticipate involvement in “decision-making and mentoring” as this process unfolds.
Keep it locked onto MMO as this story continues to develop.
