Please use this thread all week to discuss any Mets-specific topic you wish.
In an open thread 11 months ago, my call was for Jeff Luhnow to be the new PoBO for the Mets. It still makes as much sense now as it did then. Perhaps even more. Now that the big three have all officially bailed, who are you going to find that has more experience and success at the head of an organization? The big strike against Luhnow, of course, is his alleged role in the Astros’ cheating scandal. But there’s a pretty decent case to be made that Luhnow was more scapegoat than perpetrator. And beyond that, if others can come back and be employed last year, why not Luhnow now?
Alex Cora returns after his one-year suspension and leads the Red Sox back to the playoffs. Without Cora at the helm, the Red Sox were eight games below .500 in 2020. This past year they were 22 games above .500 and it’s not unreasonable to believe that Cora played some role in that turnaround.
A.J. Hinch returned from his suspension and took over a Tigers team with a .397 winning percentage in 2020 and leads them to a .475 mark in 2021. And after a dreadful start, the Tigers were 68-61 in their final 129 games. Much like with Cora, there’s good reason to believe that Hinch had some influence here.
Luhnow helped deliver championships to St. Louis and Houston. Even if you believe that he was the driving force behind the Astros’ cheating – how hard would it be to put a poison pill into his contract in that regard? Something along the lines of – if found to be involved in any type of cheating or unlawful behavior that occurred while employed by the club, Luhnow has to donate 150% of his salary during his Mets tenure to a charity of the team’s choosing.
MLB gives second chances to known drug cheaters. It gives second chances to people who were in the dugout when the cheating scandal happened and who absolutely should have stopped it. But MLB teams are going to draw a line in the sand to keep out an executive who may or may not have been involved in even the slightest way? And one who when made a scapegoat, conveniently allowed the Astros owner to keep his 2017 championship – to say nothing of the $22 million that Luhnow was forced to forfeit?
How any outsider can look at the publicly available information about the cheating scandal and come away with the ideas that:
1. The team owner should not receive any punishment whatsoever and should recoup $22 million from his PoBO from lost wages
2. That people in the dugout should be cleared after one year and hired without a moment’s hesitation
3. The PoBO is a pariah who should be blackballed for the rest of his life
It simply doesn’t pass the smell test.
Luhnow is available right now to be hired for the PoBO. His resume speaks for itself. There’s no other candidate worth anything who is free to join the Mets today like Luhnow is. If the Mets really want to hire someone with experience quickly, Luhnow is a slam dunk.
While watching the playoffs, I’m reminded how much I dislike the Dodgers and the Astros. Not fond of the Braves either (except for Albies). It makes me think that anyone we can take from these organizations is ok with me.
Luhnow has served his sentence. It seemed that he is experienced, innovative and successful. If Cohen/Alderson wants to hire him then they should.
I fully agree that the way “justice” was served regarding that entire Astros shenanigans was dopey, like these things usually are. I think Cohen will stay away from Luhnow more so due to the allegations of “toxic” work environment, as his role (if any) in the cheating scandal can be rationalized. Many of us ripped Alderson’s recent hires and the Mets’ failure to do “thorough” background checks…something easier said than done…but if Cohen hires Luhnow with his reputation, even after paying private investigators big bucks to scour the earth, and then something surfaces staining him further, it will be very bad for the Met brand and the organization as a whole. There is risk of the unknown with every hire, but he has to get someone without any public skeletons in the closet.
Luhnow is not changing hte way the Mets do business…daily back page nightmares.
What about Chaim Bloom…oh, thats riiiiiiiight.
You’re kidding or you’re just not paying attention. Wouldn’t vetting bring up the Astros mistreating a woman reporter a few years ago? Wasn’t Luhnow involved?
Luhnow has purchased a soccer team in the Mexican soccer league – that is one of the better soccoer leagues in the world – and wants to use analytics to a sport that doesn’t use too many. I would think he wouldn’t be interested, otherwise he would be the best available.
To Woodrow’s comment about the reporters that were harrassed by the Astros AGM for yelping “thank God we have Robert Osuna” after Osuna had a save to clinch a title, and how the Astros traded for Osuna while he was still serving his suspension, professional sports have allowed all kinds of ethical and moral violators to perform as long as thld at a high level, so why stop now? The Astros originally discreditted the female reporters’ statements as being exagerated or taken out of context regarding the AGM’s “targeting” these women simply because they were women and Osuna was a sex abuser. However, three days later they fired him for this saying that he was drunk, also.
I like Luhnow because I realize that some people just are better at their jobs than at managing or controlling people, and Luhnow may be one of those. He was always been upstanding and never a bad thing said about him in either organization of ewhich he served many years. He probably needs a HR department to handle the personnel, or a good PR guy…
Thanks for the info about his involvement in a Mexican soccer team. If I recall correctly, Luhnow is part Hispanic.
Born in Mexico City. But….
What if a team approached Luhnow about putting a plan in place to be followed, a sort of road map for a team to develop a proper farm system with education and talent buildup: kind of like, the present day Astros! Maybe a consultant’s fee, or a consultant’s agreement…. That might pique his interest.
Make him an offer he can’t refuse?
I guess this gets at my hesitancy over the usefulness of a PoBO.
If a guy – whether it be Luhnow or Epstein or Beane or anyone else – can create a manual/road map for teams to follow, what makes paying him to stay on the job for years make any sense at all?
Well, to use an analogy: a master chef can come in and create a menu for a restaurant. However, if this chef leaves the staff will only have one way of doing things without the benefit of variables or adjustments that a more knowledgeable chef can offer.
So, if Luhnow puts it together and say “good luck” the next guy needs to know how to manage the process, not just carry it through.
Fellas,the game has changed. Best teams in the game during the most important games have bullpen games! Starters never face a lineup a third time, many starters don’t make it through four innings. It’s no longer the starting rotation that carries a team but the eight(8 count them) guys in the BP that matter.
I’d rather lead than follow. Just because something is a trend does not mean it is the only way to behave nor that a new approach can’t be successful.
I want a team that makes frequent contact, runs really fast, catches the ball really well, and lets its pitchers go long every fifth day. Which players are going to balk at this approach? What manager worth anything is going to complain that he wants a more tiresome, more time-consuming, mostly actionless game? What fan is going to ask for more pitching changes, longer at bats with the three predictable outcomes, fewer stolen bases, and more errors?
Cohen has a unique opportunity to put a totally new product on the field.
Brian,
I just want to talk with someone about Brett Baty and his AFL dominance. Sure his power has been doubles and triples but I’m not gonna argue with an OPS of 1.155 from anyone. ADDITIONALLY, Carlos Cortes has an OPS north of 1.000 while Hayden Senger and Wilmer Reyes are performing well.
I don’t care about the front office. I am so pumped for these kids!
Wow! The team with the second most wins in baseball, in a must win game and they have a BP game. This ain’t the baseball Imgrew up with.