Writing about the ineptitude of the Wilpon family, owners of the New York Mets, has become commonplace at this publication. Even with no baseball being played in Queens, they are still up for ridicule as the organization’s offseason has gotten off to a sluggish start.
After making former GM and ailing Sandy Alderson the fall guy for the past two poor seasons in a backstabbing way that only could be done by the father-and-son duo, Fred and Jeff are taking the reins on hiring his replacement.
There’s been no rhyme or reason to their tactics, so far.
The first round of interviews saw Jeff assistant GM John Ricco, who wasn’t up for the position, bring in candidates from all different ends of the spectrum when it comes to baseball ideologies.
Milwaukee Brewers senior advisor Doug Melvin (66 years old) and St. Louis Cardinals director of player development Gary LaRocque (65 years old) both specialize in scouting and player development. It would be the perfect fit for the stubborn father Fred, whose past implies that he scowls at next-generation analytics like a curmudgeon yelling at kids to stop playing in the street in front of his house.
Regardless, Melvin and LaRocque’s backgrounds suggest that the Mets would want to build from the ground up, attaining young talent and working with them to ensure they become productive contributors at the major-league level.
It’s an aspect of the organization, outside of the pitching staff, that has been an issue. Amed Rosario and Dominic Smith have not met expectations upon their debuts while the farm system is ranked in the bottom half of the league.
At the end of the day though, it would seem the Wilpons are content with rebuilding on a budget, an idea that would make any Mets fan cringe. At the end of the day, this is a big-market club that can stand to have a payroll hover over $200 million rather than the $172 million it had last year.
It’s worth noting that LaRocque did not partake in contract negotiations with the Cardinals, which immediately puts the Mets behind should they ever want to pursue a big-name free agent. Let’s be honest, though, that probably won’t happen.
This is where things sort of begin to slide off the rails just a bit more.
While old-school is favored to prevail, the Mets also brought in 35-year-old Tampa Bay Rays senior vice president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom, more of an analytical, new-school candidate that goes against everything the Wilpons believe in.
After all, they said Alderson was too analytical at times despite the Mets having one of the smallest analytics staff in baseball.
Yet Bloom helped build the Rays into an unlikely for the American League Wild Card race as the team won 90 games in 2018. And they did it on a $77 million payroll, which is music to the cheap Wilpons’ ears.
Somewhere in the middle of old-school and next-gen is MLB executive Kim Ng, who could become the league’s first female general manager, De Jon Watson.
Sure, the Mets might be making progress in the interview process, but it’s become crystal clear that even the Wilpons have no idea what they want in a general manager or how they are going to approach the future. Who would want to enter an organization in such disarray?
The Mets have already seen Cleveland Indians GM Mike Chernoff, Dodgers VP of baseball operations Josh Byrnes, former Red Sox GM Ben Cherington and Minnesota Twins GM Thad Levine decline interviews with the team. You can’t blame them.
Fred and Jeff Wilpon are more likely to use these interviews as a smokescreen just to bring in an old-school boss like Melvin or LaRocque to run the organization the same exact way. It wouldn’t be surprising if either Melvin or LaRocque already knew if they had the job.
All signs point to nothing changing within the New York Mets organization and with a scapegoat about to be hired when things go south, that’s just the way the Wilpons like it.
