by It’s pretty obvious that the 2026 season has been a nightmare for the New York Mets.
The low-hanging fruit way that some have chosen to deal with all of the losing has been to keep bringing up the players who are no longer here, or to keep harping on the bad decisions that the front office has made. Well, there’s been enough of that.
Outside of some miracle run over the second half of the season, the Mets are probably going to sell off a few of their assets before the MLB Trade Deadline on Monday, Aug. 3, at 6 p.m. and will miss the playoffs for the eighth time in the last 10 years.
To quote President Jed Bartlet, “What’s next?”
Despite his public vote of confidence in his president of baseball operations, David Stearns, Mets principal owner Steve Cohen cannot be satisfied with the team’s performance over the last two seasons.
Stearns’ hand-picked manager, Carlos Mendoza, was fired. The interim manager, Andy Green, is more than likely just here to finish out the string and will go back to his job in the front office at the end of the season. So, the first order of business will be to hire a new manager.
Or is it?
Though Stearns said publicly that he doesn’t see the need to hire a General Manager to assist him in building the next group of players, does Cohen – behind the scenes – tell Stearns that he ihe needs to hire one?
If that happens, the new hire must be brought in from outside the organization to ensure a fresh perspective on player valuation. It’s clear to this columnist – and many Mets fans – that this skill has not been evident over the last two years.
Here are a few candidates:
Jeff Kingston – Assistant GM & VP, Los Angeles Dodgers.
Moisés Rodríguez – Assistant GM, St. Louis Cardinals
Eve Rosenbaum – Assistant GM, Baltimore Orioles
James Harris – Assistant GM, Cleveland Guardians.
Each of these folks has enjoyed success at several levels within their organizations (and others) and would certainly qualify as valuable candidates. I am sure other names in MLB could also be considered if the Mets indeed go that route.
Or perhaps a new manager, instead of a GM, one with a winning pedigree and former MLB managing experience, can better bridge the gap between the front office and the team on the field in a more hands-on way.
The suspicion has often been that the Mets’ front office controls the day-to-day machinations of the team, limiting the field manager to keeping up clubhouse morale and dealing with the media.
Now, those skills are important in today’s game, especially in the bright lights of New York, but having a manager like, let’s say Alex Cora, who will fight to make out his own lineup, have a say in who pitches and when, and who has the gravitas to push back against a front office that is mostly bereft of people who have played the game at a high level, is the better move.
My analytical friends will, of course, counter this by saying that nearly all MLB teams operate in the other way, instructing their field managers to carry out their instructions.
Well, I have said it before, and I will say it again. The best Mets managers in recent history, Davey Johnson, Bobby Valentine, Willie Randolph, and Buck Showalter, all had a certain degree of control over the lineup, the pitching staff, baserunning, and team defense.
Since the Mets have been pretty much a disaster the last two seasons, maybe it’s time to change things up a bit as this organization moves forward?
