For all the Mets fans dreaming of poaching a top Rays executive and turning him into the next Andrew Friedman with an owner willing to spend, hold your horses.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that Rays GM Erik Neander is “almost certainly” not leaving Tampa Bay for the Mets or any other club. The Angels, who just hired Braves’ Perry Minasian as their new Genereal Manager, reached out to Neander about their opening, but he reportedly has no desire to move and the Rays don’t want to lose the man who runs their baseball operations department.
Neander, 37, started working for the Rays all the way back in 2007 as a 24-year-old intern, and managed to slowly work his way up to the role of Senior Vice President/GM in 2016.
The Oneonta, New York native was named Executive of The Year in 2019 by opposing GM’s after leading the Rays to a 96-66 season with a payroll of just $68.9 million. That wasn’t even his most impressive feat, as the Rays finished the shortened 2020 season with the best record in the AL at 40-20, and were able to make it all the way to Game 6 of the World Series against the eventual champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Although the dream of Neander looks dead, Rosenthal notes that the Mets openings in the baseball ops department are “piquing the interest” of executives around the game, especially after the extremely impressive press conference held by CEO Steve Cohen and President Sandy Alderson on Tuesday afternoon.
Two specific names mentioned were Indians President of Baseball Ops Chris Antonetti and Athletics GM David Forst. Rosenthal said both declined interviews with the Angels for personal reasons, but that would “not necessarily preclude them from talking to the Mets” if Cohen and Alderson showed interest.
