Recently, this bombshell appeared in The Athletic about the Mets’ search for a President of Baseball Operations:
Owner Steve Cohen is running the executive search on his own, according to multiple sources, with little input even from team president Sandy Alderson.
No doubt this made the Alderson haters, who blame him for everything, including the Jacob deGrom injury, the massive underperformance from guys in their prime and for bringing in a guy who was the team’s second-best hitter in the second half of the year, very happy.
The Athletic story was written by two people. One was regular beat writer Tim Britton, who is fantastic. The other was Brittany Ghiroli, who, well, is not. You never know in these combo pieces how much – or in this case, which particular part – each writer produced. Either way, there’s always the double-edged sword with using anonymous sources. Anonymity might very well bring you great information you couldn’t get elsewhere. It also comes with no accountability.
If I go on the record and tell you Dominic Smith is going to hit with great power this year and then he doesn’t, you can hold me responsible. But these anonymous sources get it wrong, there’s nothing we can do about it. And now we have a new batch of anonymous sources contradicting The Athletic’s anonymous sources. SNY MLB Insider Andy Martino yesterday reported this:
Mets president Sandy Alderson has been active on Wednesday and Thursday requesting permission on a new batch of potential general manager candidates, according to multiple league officials in touch with Alderson.
Once those meetings are scheduled, owner Steve Cohen typically conducts a brief introductory interview, and if the parties want to proceed, Alderson would then interview the candidate as well.
Alderson and Cohen are in close contact during this process, speaking by phone as often as four or five times per day.
So, whose anonymous sources have it right? Both Britton and Martino have good reputations and have produced solid or better content throughout the years. If it was only these two involved, I might lean towards Britton. But with the unknown of another person in the mix, it’s hard to declare victory just on past performance.
It’s curious to me the end part of the first paragraph in the Martino quote – according to multiple league officials in touch with Alderson. It pretty much sounds like in order to refute The Athletic piece, that Alderson (or someone on behalf of Alderson) told Martino to get in touch with X, Y and Z and confirm who from the Mets made the inquiry.
The rest of the Martino excerpt has oddly specific details – the order of how things are done along with phone calls four to five times a day.
From my office chair, this reads like Alderson responding (thru Martino) to what he perceives as a hatchet job. Now, that could be completely off base. It could very well be a misguided reading of the tea leaves. My opinion is that it’s not an unreasonable one, though.
There are more interesting nuggets in the Martino piece, including the potential willingness of the Mets to wait until David Stearns and/or Brian Cashman fulfill their current contractual obligations and no longer require permission in order to interview. And here’s another piece from the Martino article worth quoting:
On the other hand, he and Cohen have agreed that it makes no sense for the Mets to commit to a person if the fit isn’t right.
Cohen will be working with this new hire long after Alderson retires — an event that is far from imminent, by the way — and needs to feel a personal connection.
It’s the fantasy of some that Cohen gets rid of Alderson yesterday. But this piece, with anonymous source(s), claims that Alderson will be around in some capacity for the foreseeable future. If the anonymous source is really Alderson, well, that would be worth something.
Of course, circumstances change and what might be correct at the time of printing could turn out to be wrong in the end. If, say, another Alderson hire is found to have sexually harassed people, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine Cohen going, “Enough!”
Yet, at the same time, either Britton/Ghiroli’s anonymous sources or Martino’s anonymous sources are wrong at the time of publication. But it’s not like they’ll be held accountable by the public. In the court of public opinion, anonymous sources are batting 1.000 and are never wrong.
I’ll say it again:
Cohen has one move that would stop the stupid presses and start a new era…rip off the band-aid! Ask Sandy to step down, hire a new guy who is solid and unspectacular, hand-pick a manager and give him to the new guy. Then report to work every day. The sooner the better.
I think we all get caught up in the minutia and over speculation with regards to these processes based on the popularity of the team combined with modern technology. Reports have to report, just like surgeons have to do surgery, builders have to build, etc. I always take this stuff with a grain of salt…they wind up being a combination of truth, intent, absence of full context, etc.
It is totally possible that both reports can be mostly accurate – that Cohen is taking the lead, with little input from Alderson. Alderson, with the industry expertise, is making the contact, gathering intelligence, setting up calls, and providing updates to Cohen. Frankly, this makes complete sense, and is very consistent with the original explanation of Alderson’s role. He will likely remain, as long as healthy, in a business/advisory role because he is a good resource to the owner who is new to the business.
Regarding Alderson’s role in the hiring “fails”, clearly, as admitted, they need some improvement in background screening. That said, regardless of who is hiring and how much resource is put into background screening, there is some risk, and not all blame can be pinned on the one making the hire. Just look at leaders across society…in schools, corporations, elected officials…this is not a problem specific to baseball or the Mets. Maybe a lot of these guys saying “no thanks” don’t want their skeletons dug up by a rich owner and organization that has a ton of scrutiny and needs to get it right.
All this shows only one thing, and exactly why no one wants this job: the Mets are a dysfunctional shit show.
I hope Chris doesn’t blow up if they don’t hire anyone yet.
Lots of names, don’t know any of them… Tonight, Puma wrote that Epstein and Beane gave some guidance on names to reach out for…. I want Cohen to make the hire, it’s his team! He needs to be a leader and show care. If he gives it to Alderson, people will think he doesn’t care. It’s understandable that Alderson will have to interview the candidate as well at some point…. Last point, as long as someone is in place by World Series’ end to start making decisions on who stays and who goes, which manager to hire and also help make a free agent plan, none of this delay matters. We just want a good leader, not someone who trades his three very good prospects for Shelby Miller.
+1
I hope the Braves close today, so we can get on with the off-season. Still hate them, but I hate the Astros a lot worse.