By Josh Finkelstein

Joe Girardi made it clear on Tuesday night that he is coming close to determining his future about where and if he will be managing in 2020, citing that it should not take much more than 48 hours to determine his next destination.

With that being said, it’s hard to see how the Mets are the team he becomes the next manager for right now, given that Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported that the Mets are expected to still be conducting interviews on Friday.

If the Mets were not to be the team, it will almost certainly be the Philadelphia Phillies that get him, given that he has become the clear favorite for their position and that they had a much slimmer candidate list. Dusty Baker and Buck Showalter were the only other known candidates.

Up until Wednesday morning, the Chicago Cubs were in the mix as well, but they decided to hire David Ross as their new manager instead, as reported by David Kaplan of NBC Sports.

The question is, knowing that there is another team in the mix, should the Mets be expediting their managerial search process for Girardi?

To me, that’s only if the team believes that Joe Girardi is one of the top three candidates in the mix. If he’s not, then you obviously don’t even bother because at that point you are rushing the process for nothing.

That being said, I’ve always personally seen this process playing out in the way that Girardi and Carlos Beltran would end up being among the three finalists for the position with either Eduardo Perez, Luis Rojas, or Tim Bogar proving to be the third candidate in the final group. Derek Shelton, theoretically, also could be in the final three.

If this is the case, then the team needs to absolutely expedite the process and move up interviews with candidates to try and ensure that Girardi is actually still an option.

Obviously, this is an interview process and if the Mets don’t want to rush into a decision or have already determined that another candidate is more preferable to Girardi, then that’s understandable.

But, if they are serious about actually wanting Joe Girardi leading this talented Mets squad into battle next season, then they need to act quickly and before he’s no longer an option.