Steve Cohen is serious about changing the complexion of the New York Mets. Just hours after finalizing his purchase of the team from Fred and Jeff Wilpon, and Saul Katz, Cohen had new team president Sandy Alderson do the dirty work of cleaning out the Mets baseball front office.
Meaning in-battled General Manager Brodie Van Wagenen, his top lieutenants Allard Baird, Adam Gutridge, Jared Banner, and Assistant to the GM Omar Minaya were all fired!
Talk about making an entrance!
The moves were inevitable, and it clears the way for Alderson to go ahead and create a baseball front office to his liking and Cohen's. It is clear that these two men are not fooling around, and want to turn what has been a floundering franchise into a winner right away.
VanWagenen's firing has to be especially sweet to Mets fans. Van Wagenen, a former player's agent with CAA orchestrated two of the worst off-season's in Mets history with plenty of misses along the way. Here are some of the low-lights:
- Extending contracts to the likes of Jed Lowrie, who only had seven at bats in two seasons and Todd Fraizer - who had 1-plus years of mediocre play as a back-up infielder.
- Re-signing Jeurys Familia to a mega contract which turned out to bomb in Van Wagenen's face as Familia struggled for the most part over two seasons.
- Trading prospects to Toronto for Marcus Stroman who couldn't wait to leave town when he used COVID as an excuse to opt out of the season. Stroman won't be back in 2021.
- Haphazardly handling the bizarre Yoenis Cespedes opt out this past season, when the oft-injured left fielder left the team without telling anyone.
- Naming Carlos Beltran the manager of the team exactly one year ago, while Beltran was in the midst of being linked to the Houston Astros sign stealing scandal. The Mets and Van Wagenen had to double-back and fire Beltran soon thereafter before settling on Luis Rojas as skipper.
- The worst move of all of them was trading Jared Kelenic to the Seattle Mariners for Edwin Diaz and Robinson Cano. Cano has been unable to stay healthy for long stretches of his two years in New York, while Diaz has been a total headcase as the Mets' closer. Kelenic, meanwhile, is considered one of baseball's best prospects and could be in the Majors next year.
- Let us also not forget how Van Wagenen threw Commissioner Rob Manfred under the bus this past season, when he mistook the initial decision to play a game against the Marlins after a team-wide social justice protest as Manfred's idea. It was not. It was Jeff Wilpon's.
Let's be honest whoever Alderson and Cohen bring in to run the baseball team as the next General Manager will surely have some legitimate baseball experience and knowledge.
That is the biggest difference of all. Keep in mind, Alderson was handcuffed by the Wilpon's when he was the team's General Manager from 2010 to 2018. Alderson did the best he could, but he could never spend the kind of money he would have liked. With Cohen now in the fold, and not the Wilpon's there is a very good chance the Mets will be aggressive this time in free agency.
This is all sure to make Mets fans smile, and why not. They have waited a long, long time for this moment.
There are already a number of candidates whose names have been linked to the Mets GM job.
Two of those candidates could come from the Cleveland Indians in the form of Mike Chernoff and Chris Antonetti.
Chernoff is the Indians GM, and was considered for the Mets job two years ago. He is the son of WFAN programming executive Mark Chernoff. Antonetti has worked closely with Chernoff as Indians team president.
Other names include Billy Owens of the Oakland A's. He is currently the A's Assistant GM and Director of Player Personnel. He is also a candidate for the LA Angels GM position. Owens and Alderson are very familiar with one another.
Tampa Bay Rays excutives Bobby Heck, who was a candidate for the Mets job two years ago, and Rays GM Erik Neanader are also names being tossed around. The Mets could also bring back long time Alderson lieutenants like JP Ricciardi or John Ricco to be the team's GM. Ricco served as Mets interim GM when Alderson stepped down initially in 2018 due to cancer.
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