No interim titles. No quick searches. No bandages.
Sandy Alderson must now take over the Mets baseball operations until the next off-season. He must bring stability and confidence to the department and make it attractive, so that in October / November 2021 the best candidates come to line up for the interview, unlike what happened last time.
The Mets could not recruit enough quality aspirants for the president of baseball operations in Alderson’s opinion. So they presented this and moved only to hire a general manager and landed Jared Porter. And Porter has now landed on the Mets. He turned them back into the Wilpon Mets. An organization embraced by a black cloud.
Alderson sent a mission statement to Steve Cohen, which led to his hiring as team president. He imagined that the Mets would become a beacon rather than a laugh; he was implicitly moving away from Wilponi into a new reality. At the introductory press conference in November, he said these words to that thought: “We have the chance to be an iconic franchise … We have the chance to write an epic story.”
Then Alderson’s first major employment turned out to be a terrible closet. On Monday night, ESPN revealed that in 2016 – while a Cubs executive – Porter sent over 60 harassing and naughty texts and images to a foreign reporter. Alderson said Porter copied that these are indeed his texts and images. The Mets had no choice and until Tuesday morning, Porter was fired and, at 41, probably finished a career in Major League Baseball.
Porter’s second finalist, Zack Scott, was also hired to be GM’s executive vice president and assistant. The two had worked together in Boston. Those who know the inner dynamics of the Mets say that Cohen and Alderson were so impressed by Scott in the interview process that they pushed the idea of Porter more than the other way around.
So the easy call here would be to either pick up Scott or at least give him the interim title.
The Mets shouldn’t do that. Scott was brought in largely to build his Mets analytical wing. He was admired in Boston for his work in this field. But he wasn’t seen as a dynamic figure, the kind you can imagine sitting on the podium and selling the visions of a big market team. At least not yet. So why rush to give Scott the middle label?
Consider a 12-month audition. Mets can see how it works. How to promote culture within the organization, deal with increased responsibility, etc. If all goes well, the job will stay there for the next off-season and all Scott will do until then is the job he was hired for, but with a little more responsibility.
Remember that before Porter and Scott were hired, Alderson led an operation that was signed by Trevor May and James McCann. The main work had begun on the transaction that will detain Francisco Lindor and Carlos Carrasco. Those dealing with the Mets say that Porter was simply leading Alderson’s playing card.
At that introductory press conference, Alderson said, “I will not make baseball decisions. I expect a place at the table, but not at the head of the table. ”
But there’s something about Hyman Roth in “The Godfather: Part II.” Alderson is a personality and a thinker too big to influence and not to exercise. So let’s not pretend he’s not at the top of the table, especially now.
And there it must be.
Because he and Cohen are auditioning. When Cohen’s money was injected into a franchise on the big market, it was thought that the candidates would rush to conduct Mets baseball operations. Cohen and Alderson were dismayed when this did not happen. One of the reasons why the best and brightest – the ones Cohen and Alderson were initially convinced of, would have asked for the job – was taken into account in connection with Cohen’s concerns.
One of these candidates said that the “black edge” was passed as a library book among the top cultures. The book detailed – among other articles – a toxic culture at Cohen’s SAC Capital, which disappeared after paying a record $ 1.8 billion fine for privileged transactions. Cohen’s tracking firm, Point72 Asset Management, filed a complaint last year with an employee who claimed a sexist work environment.
These issues paused owners before approving Cohen’s acquisition of the Mets and signaled a halt to candidates to conduct baseball operations.
So Alderson and Cohen have to prove this year that it’s a new business, a new day and the new Mets. Alderson needs to find him as an elder and take on the task of conducting baseball operations and providing unparalleled signs of success, holiness in the workplace, and persistent competence. It can’t be raised for Scott or someone who would come out of another search so close to the start of spring training, when even more candidates will be out of bounds.
Cohen insisted that his Mets would have integrity at his core, which he quoted when he fired Porter less than 12 hours after the outbursts.
This is just one step before the first crisis. The next step should be Alderson running baseball operations for this year. It’s the best alternative to trying to turn another epic Mets disaster into an epic story.