The Mets are reaching the saturation point of candidates as their new manager. The carousel needs some trimming…
Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen is under pressure to hire a manager replacing Mickey Callaway before, or soon after, the offseason bursts into a fire after the World Series.
Candidates roam the planet far and wide. They come in all shapes and sizes. By now, Mets fans who are following the team know their names and pedigree. If you need a recap, click here for profiles on each man with his hat in the ring.
Van Wagenen faces pressure coming from everywhere to give each candidate a chance for an interview. He squeezed a choice of his own with the announcement that Dave Hill (who?) will be one of three interviewed this week, with Joe Girardi and Carlos Beltran as the others.
Wanting to keep a level playing field, Van Wagenen can opt to give perfunctory interviews to individuals promoted by fans (David Wright), highly recommended sources (Dusty Baker), and media favorites like Girardi and Buck Showalter.
But every time he sits down with someone, the clock is ticking, and it means he foregoes time that he equally needs to place elsewhere.
Van Wagenen: Go Your Own Way
The wisest choice Van Wagenen needs to employ at this point is to go his own way. One way or another, his legacy as the GM of the Mets will weigh heavily on his selection of the next manager of the team. So why play around trying to please everybody?
There are seven other positions besides the Mets open with teams looking to replace their manager. Some rate higher than others as the destination candidates in the running look forward to as an organization they’d like to join.
Joe Maddon, for example, is a perfect fit in Los Angeles with the Angels. Let it be. Why bother interviewing him, unless things fall apart in Anaheim? Ditto Buck Showalter, who has emerged as a leading candidate in Philadelphia, where he’s just the right man to whip an underperforming team into shape.
Similarly, as exceptional a manager as Joe Girardi is, is he a fit for the Mets? Girardi certainly qualifies as an expensive choice, but do the Mets need to reach that far to find someone suitable for the job?
Remember, this is a Mets team that, aside from the daily media obligations, needs little or any hands-on guidance from any manager as to how they play the game on the field.
They are a team with built-in talent that is a bullpen and a starting pitcher away from taking it all in 2020.
Mets Fans: Trust In Brodie
Brodie is the man in charge. Trimming the list to what he sees fit will allow for multiple interviews with a handful of candidates in different settings. A meeting over dinner creates a far different atmosphere than one in Van Wagenen’s stiltified office.
Who are these candidates? We all have our thoughts. But no matter who makes the final cut, there will be dissension in the ranks of Mets fans, and possibly even within the organization.
K.I.S.S. – Keep it simple stupid. Trusting Van Wagenen makes many of us uncomfortable. But he is the General Manager of the Mets and the only one we have.
So, let ‘er rip, Brodie. Do it your way…
Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. Not all holes, or games, are created equal.
