By Tim Ryder
As the New York Mets continue to move forward in their search for jettisoned skipper Mickey Callaway‘s replacement, the team’s initial round of interviewees continues to grow.
After confirming meetings with Diamondbacks farm director Mike Bell, Twins bench coach Derek Shelton, former Flushing standout Carlos Beltran, and seasoned veteran Joe Girardi, earlier this week, updates are now beginning to trickle out regarding the timing of the Mets’ vetting process.
According to SNY, Girardi, 54 will indeed meet with Mets brass next week and, as per Andy Martino of SNY, Beltran, 42, already met with the team on Thursday.
There’s been plenty of buzz surrounding Girardi and the Mets, as his experience at the helm — as well as the glowing recommendation he received from his former employer, Yankees GM Brian Cashman — would appear to be a perfect fit for this team.
But on Friday, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tabbed Beltran as a “very serious candidate” for the vacancy in Queens.
Beltran has no managerial experience, but, in all fairness, neither did Rocco Baldelli, Aaron Boone, Alex Cora (who’s publicly lauded Beltran’s addition to the Yanks’ front office), Dave Martinez, Craig Counsell, Dave Roberts, or Kevin Cash. And they all did pretty well for themselves.
Anthony DiComo of MLB.com confirmed on Friday evening that current quality control coach and longtime organizational mainstay, Luis Rojas, “is on the Mets’ list of managerial interviewees”, also alluding to “others we don’t know about”.
Rojas’ innate knowledge of this organization, as well as his experience working with a large portion of the Mets’ core, must be appealing to general manager Brodie Van Wagenen & Co., but will it be enough to usurp Girardi and Beltran as the apparent front-runners? We shall see.
As always, keep it locked onto MMO for continuing coverage of the Mets’ search for their next manager.
