Mets Offseason Recap: Week 3

We’re somehow just the third week into the offseason, but this week saw more realistic expectations for the front office situation come up as the less realistic solutions fell by the wayside.

Let’s look at what went on and look at what could come next.

Two Duds

So while we speculated last week that David Stearns and Billy Beane wouldn’t advance in the Mets’ front office search, those assumptions were confirmed this week when Stearns was denied permission to interview and Beane pulled his name out of the running citing not wanting to move his family across the country.

In what seemed like a favor to Sandy Alderson, Beane interviewed with SNY and said any young executive would have a great opportunity to come work for Alderson and Steve Cohen.

We’ll see if that notion is proven when it comes to who is actually hired. Which leads to…

New Front Office Names Surface

After the top three names were officially ruled as duds when it came to the Mets’ president of baseball operations role, some new names surfaced in the search.

First, Peter Bendix, the Tampa Bay Rays’ vice president of baseball ops, landed on the Mets’ radar, according to MMO‘s Mike Mayer. Bendix has been with the Rays for over 10 years, starting as an intern and making his way to one of the top front office jobs in the organization.

In the same article, Mayer said to keep an eye on Brewers senior vice president Matt Arnold as a name in the Mets’ search.

Later in the week, two reports surfaced regarding Brain Sabean, the Giants’ general manager from 1997 to 2014, and his interest in the Mets’ front office job surface. The NYDN’s Deesha Thosar reported that Sabean is looking for a new challenge after essentially sitting on the sidelines as a special advisor with the Giants for the last seven years. Sabean has a proven track record of building a successful organization, and he could bring manager Bruce Bochy, who managed the Giants from 2007 to 2019, along with him.

With the Dodgers out of the postseason hunt now, there could be more traction with Los Angeles executives Josh Byrnes and Brandon Gomes, both who are reportedly on the Mets radar, too.

A Javy Báez Extension?

Reports surfaced this week that the Mets could try to sign Javier Báez extension earlier in the offseason. SNY’s Andy Martino said there is a “real chance” the team could lock him up sooner rather than later, partially citing Báez’s drive to play alongside Francisco Lindor.

Tim Britton recently wrote an article in The Athletic projecting Báez’s next contract to land in the total money range of $120 million to $150 million. How much he gets and for how many years ranges from four to seven years based on Britton’s projections, but those are realistic numbers based on Báez’s upside and improvement with plate discipline when he came to the Mets.

The ultimate decision on Báez, however, would likely require the team filling their top front office job first.

Carlos Carrasco’s Surgery

The Mets announced Carlos Carrasco underwent elbow surgery on Tuesday to clean out bone chips from his right elbow. They didn’t give a timetable on his recovery, but they said he’d resume baseball activities sometime this winter.

After the surprising surgery was announced, reports came out that Carrasco allegedly felt the issue way back in the spring but decided to pitch through it. That could explain why a consistently solid starter like Carrasco became so inconsistent in the first innings of his starts this season.

Carrasco’s bad hamstring caused him to miss four months last season, and the hope is his elbow won’t hinder him from being in the Opening Day rotation in 2022. The surgery doesn’t exactly boost confidence. Locking down a premium starting pitcher (or two), along with hoping Noah Syndergaard receives and accepts a qualifying offer, will be a top priority in free agency.

What’s Next?

It wouldn’t surprise me to see more action with regards to the Mets’ interview process for their front office job.

With the Rays, Dodgers, Giants and Brewers — the primary teams which the POBO candidates have come from — out of the playoffs, in addition to the Mets’ top three choices out the window, we may see more reports of formal interview requests from guys like Bendix, Scott Harris (Giants GM), Arnold and Byrnes. It would behoove the Mets to have a POBO or GM locked down by the end of the World Series so they start offseason with a leader in place.

In non-Mets news, the freaking World Series between Houston and Atlanta starts Tuesday, which means we’re at most seven games closer to the offseason truly starting. That’s the angle I’m trying to take on it.