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No provisional title. No quick searches. No bandages.
Sandy Alderson must now take charge of Mets baseball operations until the next offseason. He must bring stability and confidence to this department and make it attractive so that in October / November 2021, the best candidates line up for an interview, unlike what happened last time.
According to Alderson, the Mets haven’t been able to recruit enough quality contenders for the position of president of baseball operations. So they filed that down and decided to hire a GM and landed on Jared Porter. And Porter has now landed on the Mets. Turned them into Wilpon Mets. An organization embraced by a dark cloud.
Alderson had delivered a mission statement to Steve Cohen, which led to his hiring as team president. He envisioned the Mets becoming a beacon rather than a laughing stock; implied was to move away from the Wilpons into a new reality. During his introductory press conference in November, he put these words to this idea: “We are fortunate to be an iconic franchise … We are fortunate to write an epic story.”
Then Alderson’s first big hire turned out to have a closet full of horrible. It was revealed by ESPN on Monday night that in 2016 – when he was an executive with the Cubs – Porter sent over 60 harassing and obscene texts and photos to a foreign reporter. Alderson said Porter believed it was his texts and images. The Mets had no choice and Tuesday morning Porter was fired and, at 41, was likely to have ended his Major League Baseball career.
Porter’s finalist Zack Scott was also hired to serve as executive vice president and assistant general manager. The two had worked together in Boston. But those familiar with the inner dynamics of the Mets say that Cohen and Alderson were so impressed with Scott in the interview process that they pushed the idea onto Porter more than vice versa.
So the easy choice here would be to raise Scott or at least give him the working title.
The Mets shouldn’t be doing that. Scott was brought in in large part to strengthen and build the Mets’ analytical wing. He was admired in Boston for his work in this area. But he wasn’t seen as a dynamic character, the kind you might imagine sitting on the podium and selling the visions of a team from big markets. At least not yet. So why rush to even give Scott the tentative label?
Think of this as a 12 month audition. The Mets can see how it works. How he promotes culture within the organization, manages increased responsibilities, etc. .
Remember that before Porter and Scott were hired, Alderson had run a deal signed Trevor May and James McCann. They had started the main work on the trade that would enable Francisco Lindor and Carlos Carrasco. Those who dealt with the Mets say Porter was only managing Alderson’s playbook.
At that introductory press conference, Alderson had proposed, “I’m not going to make the decisions about baseball. I’m waiting for a seat at the table, but not at the head of the table.
But there is a bit of Hyman Roth in “The Godfather: Part II”. Alderson is too great a personality and thinker to be influential and not to exercise it. So let’s not even pretend he’s not at the head of the table, especially now.
And that’s where it needs to be.
Because he and Cohen are auditioning too. When Cohen’s money was pumped into a large market franchise, it was thought that candidates would flock to run the Mets’ baseball operations. Cohen and Alderson were dismayed when this did not happen. One of the reasons is that the best and the brightest – those whom Cohen and Alderson initially believed would not beg for the job – have pulled back concerns about Cohen.
One of these candidates stated that “Black Edge” was being distributed as a library book among the top crop. This book detailed, among other things, a toxic culture at Cohen’s SAC Capital, which vanished after paying a record fine of $ 1.8 billion for insider trading. Cohen’s tracking firm, Point72 Asset Management, settled a claim last year with an employee who alleged a sexist work environment.
These questions gave owners a pause before they approved Cohen’s purchase of the Mets and threw a stop sign for candidates to run baseball operations.
So Alderson and Cohen have this year to show that it’s a new business, a new day and the new Mets. Alderson must find the former Marine within himself and take on the task of directing baseball operations and providing relentless signs of success, holiness on the job and enduring competence. It cannot be handed over to Scott or someone who emerges from another research so close to the start of spring training when more applicants will be banned.
Cohen insisted his Mets would have integrity at his core, which he cited when firing Porter less than 12 hours after the grim revelations.
It is only a step before the first crisis. Next up has to be Alderson who is running baseball operations for this year. This is the best alternative for trying to turn another epic Mets disaster into an epic story.
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