New York Mets president Sandy Alderson continues to be the man wearing many caps as he and owner Steve Cohen have been unable to hammer down a front office during the early portions of the offseason.
Acting as the team’s general manager at Major League Baseball’s GM Meetings in Carlsbad, CA, Alderson provided some insight on the status of the Mets’ front-office plans — and it once again appears that they will forego hiring a president of baseball operations (POBO).
Alderson admitted that the Mets will likely only make one front-office hiring this offseason and that will be a general manager, though there will be no negotiations at the GM meetings to fill the position.
For the second straight offseason, the Mets are pivoting away from a fruitless POBO search after a litany of names either turned down interview offers or their current teams denied Alderson and Cohen permission to even speak with them.
“There’s a certain amount of risk associated with it,” Alderson said on Tuesday while explaining why so many are shying away from the Mets’ job. “You can talk about the risk in terms of the organization, the risk in terms of me, the risk of Steve [Cohen], the risk of New York. If you’re looking to be comfortable, this is probably not the place to come. If you’re looking to be challenged and rewarded, because I don’t think there’s any doubt that this team is going to be successful over the next X number of years, then go for it.”
That still doesn’t mean that is hasn’t been an eye-opening experience for the soon-to-be 74-year-old.
“A little surprised,” Alderson admitted about the difficulty of the front-office search. “New York’s a big stage and I understand where some executives are in their career and the trajectory of that career, the hopeful longevity of that career. I’m not surprised in some cases there’s reluctance. I’m not saying it’s all New York, but it is a factor.”
Alderson revealed that there are still “several candidates” on the board for the Mets to consider with the hope that there can be some clarification about the GM vacancy by the end of the week. He also shot down any notion that the Mets will hire a manager before they find their GM.
“We don’t want to do this in reverse order and hire from the bottom up,” Alderson said. “There was a possibility of doing that earlier in the winter, but in order to do that, you’d have to have someone universally respected and identified by any executive as an outstanding choice.
“I don’t see that happening anytime soon.”
