The New York Mets never ending pursuit of a President of Baseball Operations and a General Manager, and dare I say, even a manager -- that's important too -- is hitting ridiculous levels that only a team like the Mets could top.
First the Mets were rejected by just about every candidate they had on the list. Either candidates like Theo Epstein or Billy Beane weren't interested, or as in the case of David Stearns and Matt Arnold, were told to stay away by teams like the Milwaukee Brewers.
Now the Mets, in an attempt to save face, are scrapping the bottom of the barrel. If reports and rumors are true, the Mets are poised to name little known former National Assistant GM Adam Cromie as their new General Manager.
What do we know about Cromie?
Welp, we know that he has been an attorney at Jones Day out of Pittsburgh for the past four-plus years. He is well educated with degrees at U Mass-Amherst and Georgetown. The later where he got his law degree.
He also spent 10 years in Washington Nationals organization. Other than that Cromie is a virtual unknown.
At the same time, reports came out on Thursday indicating the Mets still have a fascination for Brewers President of Baseball Ops, David Stearns. And even though they were firmly told to stay away from Stearns by Brewers owner Mark Attanasio, the Mets would essentially punt on this season in hopes that Stearns would come to the Mets anyway next off-season because:
1) He is a "free agent," if and only IF he or the Brewers don't exercise his vesting option for 2023.
2) He is a native New Yorker.
3) He grew up a Mets fan.
How cute.
If this is the Mets logic, they have lost already. Does anyone really believe that Stearns would just willfully take the job because IT'S the Mets?
There are 29 other teams out there. And who is to say, that a better job won't be open this time next year. What if the Yankees move on from Brian Cashman? You think Stearns would turn down the Yankees for the Mets?
Plus, if the Mets hire Cromie now as their General Manager, and the front office is basically Sandy Alderson, his son, and Cromie, and the 2022 season is an abject disaster, why on God's green earth would Stearns even consider the Mets?
Plus he's already got a good deal in Milwaukee. He runs a team that is a perennial playoff contender, in a division that is so bad, that the only competition for the Brewers in 2022 and beyond is the Reds, and maybe, if they get their act together, the Cardinals.
That's it!
The Mets aren't even the third best team in the NL East! They are a team in total disrepair.
In addition, were Stearns to come aboard for 2023, why would he want someone like Cromie around? The New York Post reported Thursday that the two of them know each other "only a little."
Would Stearns really want
to be told by Steve Cohen and Sandy Alderson that he has to keep Cromie
and whomever the manager is around for another season? That would be a
total waste of everyone's time.
Aside from the front office fumbling, the Mets have an overpaid short stop heading into the first year of a 10-year deal.
They have no starting rotation to speak of.
Their ace, Jacob deGrom, may never be the same pitcher ever again when he returns from his mysterious elbow injury next Spring.
They are due to pay $48 million to Robinson Cano over the next two years.
They are starring down the barrel of paying Javier Baez $200 million-plus to play second base just to make Francisco Lindor happy.
Their minor league system is a mess.
This is not a good situation. And who is to say it will be any better a year from now? A year from now, the Mets may just begin to realize they need to tear it down and rebuild.
The Mets are banking a lot on faith that Stearns will come here in 2023. As we have seen in other sports, that bet is a bad one. Just ask the Knicks who gave up season after season in hopes that LeBron James would come to New York to save them. He never came here, except as a visitor with the Heat, Cavs and Lakers.
If the Mets were smart, they would have taken this search for a top baseball executive a little more seriously.
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