The New York Mets are likely just a few steps away from hiring their next general manager or head of baseball operations. All that remains is a decision via Fred and Jeff Wilpon as to whom that person will be. Most will agree, making a hire of this magnitude is a tall task for any organization. Making the right choice amid a storm of disarray and frustration emanating from the fanbase only elevates the pressure.

The field has been whittled and the candidates have — as of Wednesday afternoon — all met with team officials. Either super-agent Brodie Van Wagenen, former Brewers GM Doug Melvin, or Tampa Bay vice president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom will be the Mets’ next general manager.

Scratch that. Let’s go ahead and set aside Van Wagenen’s name from the other two and talk about him for a second.

As terrific as this man likely is at his job and as well as he probably knows the inner-workings of a front office, hiring an agent who currently represents a bevy of prominent players (Noah Syndergaard, Yoenis Cespedes, Brandon Nimmo, Todd Frazier, Robert Gsellman, Jason Vargas, and Jacob deGrom, just to name a few) as your GM is just plain wrong.

Even mega-agent Scott Boras scoffed at the idea (via the New York Post), getting his 100-percent-accurate point across quite clearly.

“The Boras Corporation stands for a total commitment to players, and while I have been offered many opportunities with teams, I would never violate the trust that I have with any player and that is very important to what I do.”

“[…] I want [players] to tell me everything and a lot of these things are confidential, they are personal, and if I went to work for a different employer, I would have to divulge all that information because I have to my job for that other employer I made a commitment to.”

Why Van Wagenen is still in the running for this position is beyond me. But, alas, here we are. Onward…

Doug Melvin appears to be in the driver’s seat at this juncture, if only for the simple fact that he has Mets owner Fred Wilpon securely in his corner. As has been reported at length, Fred Wilpon is endeared to the “old-school” train of thought when it comes to baseball — traditional scouting, the “eye test”, etc.

While the 66-year-old baseball lifer was quoted as being “very open to analytics” when speaking with the media on Tuesday, keep in mind, this is a man who stepped away from his GM gig to make room for the next wave of executives, assumingly ones more focused on the analytical side of the game.

At the time of his resignation in 2015, Melvin told the Wisconsin State Journal, “With the changes in the game today, it was time [to step away]. This is my

decision, my gut feeling.”

Everyone can respect a change of heart, especially from an MLB front office stalwart like Melvin. And, to be clear, he wouldn’t be a terrible guy for the job if he is indeed hired. He did tell the Mets media corps (Britton, The Athletic) that the team’s analytics staff “could probably be improved upon and maybe [be] staffed up a bit”. That’s a good sign.

My question is why hire Melvin when they can hire Chaim Bloom, who has — excuse the pun — all of these bases covered? Bloom knows the game as well as anyone and is a tried-and-true proponent of sabermetrics.

As Britton states in his outstanding article, as per a survey conducted by The Athletic, “the five teams with at least 15 staffers in analytics all won 90 or more games this past season”. That is not a coincidence, as we all know.

With the amount of talent here at the MLB level for the Mets in their elite rotation, budding stars in Michael Conforto, Nimmo, and Amed Rosario, as well as the much-improved state of this organization’s farm system, why in the world would anyone want to hold that back?

Again, we all understand that Melvin will probably do fine at his job if he is hired. But the fact of the matter is, as he so eloquently expressed when he stepped away from Milwaukee, the game may have passed him by.

Chaim Bloom has been in an MLB front office since he was 21 years old. He’s a seasoned veteran. He checks all of the boxes. Hire this guy, please.

And if you need any other evidence that he’s the person for the job, don’t forget, unlike some other early candidates who declined to even interview, Bloom did. The fact that this up-and-comer — who the entire baseball world seems to adore — even wants to come here should be all the Wilpons need to hear to sign this guy up. Do the right thing!