Blog Entry #1

The biggest reason for the New York Mets' failure to make the playoffs or show any sorts of future promise in 2021 was due to their inability to hire the correct person for the role of President of Baseball Operations during the preceding offseason. The Mets need to prioritize hiring the right person to fill that role before the 2022 season and they need to do so rather quickly while still ensuring they are the correct person for the job.

On Dec. 13, Jared Porter was announced as the Mets new GM and presumably at the time, the Mets future President of Baseball Operations. The day before his hiring, the Mets signed James McCann to a four-year contract worth $40 million. A few weeks prior, Trevor May signed with the Mets to a two-year, $15.5 million deal. Those two signings were Sandy Alderson-led. Just over a month before Porter's hiring, Brodie Van Wagenen was still calling the shots, as he had been since the 2019 season. In July of the 2018 season, after Alderson stepped down from the team due to a recurrence of cancer, the GM title was given to a trio of Mets executives, none of whom stayed in that position after the season.

After about one month, Jared Porter was fired due to his sexual harassment scandal. Replacing him was the Mets runner-up choice from the hiring period--where they failed to even interview most of their top choices anyway--Zack Scott. He lasted about half a year before being busted for a DWI and will reportedly not return for the 2022 season.

The Mets roster is comprised of multiple different visions from multiple different GMs and two different ownership regimes. Alderson's vision got shifted mid-season in 2018 and only lasted until Van Wagenen took over. The Van Wagenen vision got shifted to the Alderson vision once again for about a month in 2020 until it became the Porter vision which turned into the Scott vision. This upcoming offseason the vision will get shifted once again.

The new vision for the 2022 season will have to include Van Wagenen's vision of having Robinson Cano's salary on the payroll. It will have to include Alderson's vision of having James McCann as the starting catcher. It will also have to start from behind, as with nobody in place to negotiate contracts, impending free agents such as Marcus Stroman, Javy Baez and Michael Conforto haven't even started the negotiation process.

The Mets hiring process in the first offseason of the Steve Cohen regime took way too long as they failed to hire top targets including Mike Chernoff and as a result went with the Alderson vision until over a month into the offseason. They can't let that happen again, especially with the number of impending free agents they have waiting to be re-signed.

The Mets need to find one single vision to focus on and they need to find it quickly. If they wait too long like last offseason, the Mets fanbase better hope the offseason is another slow one or else they're going to be playing from way behind.