According to a source I talked to on Thursday, the Mets are unlikely to get any of Billy Beane, Theo Epstein, and David Stearns to come to New York to be the president of baseball operations.
Steve Cohen is said to be hoping for a big-name hire at POBO –like he was last offseason after he bought the team — but that might be off the table with the aforementioned names likely staying put.
Jon Heyman of MLB Network reported earlier on Thursday that Mets president (and currently GM) Sandy Alderson signed a two-year deal to return last offseason, though it was with the intention of being less involved in the baseball side than he has been. Meaning Alderson could shift to the business side this offseason to allow the new POBO hire to be the top baseball decision maker–something that is very important to a number of potential candidates.
Heyman also mentioned Jon Daniels of the Rangers, Mike Chernoff of the Indians, David Forst of the A’s, and Josh Byrnes of the Dodgers as candidates to run the Mets baseball operations. Source tells me that Forst and Chernoff are not likely to leave their current jobs to come run the Mets.
Erik Neander of the Rays is certainly a name the Mets would’ve liked to interview, but he was given a contract extension and promotion by Tampa earlier this week.
The Mets did interview former Marlins executive Michael Hill last year and he’s still seen as an option should the Mets fail to land a big fish. Hill is currently working as the co-senior vice president of on-field operations for Major League Baseball.
Other than Hill, it isn’t clear who else the Mets would look to interview after their top tier of big names.
Lastly, as I mentioned last offseason, Rays executive Bobby Heck would be a candidate again for the Mets GM position.
Of course, as we get closer to the end of the season, we will begin to hear more names involved in the Mets search for POBO and likely search for GM. But, for now, it looks like they could strikeout yet again on bringing in a big name to run the organization.
