New York Post, Tuesday, December 1, 2020nypost.comjas that was necessitated when the
Mets parted late last offseason
with Carlos Beltran amid revela-
tions of Beltran’s involvement in
the Astros illegal sign-stealing
scandal.
Still, it is not an ideal first step.
Alderson had planned to hire a
president of baseball operations,
then a GM. He promised over-
sight, but with the intention to
empower the president of base-
ball operations to make the player
decisions. Cohen, at his introduc-
tory press conference, vowed “to
bring the professionals in and let
them run baseball.”
So far, though, the Mets have
struck out. Alderson announced
last week that the Mets could not
gain access to many candidates
they wanted to interview for pres-
ident of baseball operations. Thus,
Alderson pivoted to just hiring a
GM (that was the job for which
Young was considered) and that
Alderson would shift to greater
responsibility on the baseball side
for at least this year.
In a SNY interview last week,
Cohen conceded, “The first thing,
I’m a little surprised that we ha-
ven’t been able to find people for
the front office. I thought it would
be a little easier than it’s been.
Baseball’s kind of funny where
you have to ask for permission
and all of that stuff, and we’re not
getting a lot of permissions, what-
ever the reasons are.”
In his day job, Cohen has to deal
with contracts and non-compete
clauses when recruiting. But he
generally can get access to whom-
ever he wants for at least a con-
versation. He is learning baseball
is different — he is not on Wall
Street anymore.
Many executives the Mets were
interested in are just comfortable
where they are. There were those
not given permission to make lat-
eral moves. Some other owners
don’t want to help the new owner
with the most money, with one ex-
ecutive saying, “You want one of
my guys under contract, it is like a
player, what is [Cohen] trading tous to get him.” A potential candi-
date said he was not interested be-
cause his research left concern
that in his hedge fund, Cohen
pushes the ethical boundaries too
much, and would that permeate
the Mets?
Hiring Alderson — viewed
within the walls of the game as
upright — was designed to lessen
such worries about Cohen. But it
also was designed to help the
Mets navigate the habits and stric-
tures of the game and accumulate
a superstar front office. Dodgers
East. Instead, Alderson asked John
Ricco to return from the business
side and might rehire J.P. Ric-
ciardi. That trio made up a good
deal of the decision making in Al-
derson’s first Mets tenure.
The promise, though, was not to
put the band back together — it
was to assemble a super group.
There is still time to add quality
and quantity. Clearly, though, this
was not the way Cohen and Alder-
son saw this going.
[email protected]Young out of
running for GM
By Joel SherManThe Mets’ search to bolster
their front office has hit another
dead end, when Chris Young
pulled his name from considera-
tion to be the team’s general
manager, The Post has learned.
Young, MLB’s senior vice pres-
ident of on field operations,
withdrew because of family con-
siderations. He lives in Dallas
and has children ages 8, 10 and 12
and felt this was not the right
time to uproot them despite be-ing intrigued by the position
with the Mets.
Young was a major league
pitcher for 13 seasons and Sandy
Alderson was one of his bosses
with both the Padres and Mets.
Alderson, the Mets’ team pres-
ident, announced last week that
the Mets were no longer looking
for a president of baseball opera-
tions because they had been shut
down from talking to so many of
their desired candidates.
The concentration now is on
finding a general manager.Owner takes to Twitter
following SNY report
By Mollie WalKerSteve Cohen set high expecta-
tions when he said he would be
disappointed if the Mets didn’t
win a World Series title in the
next three to five years.
And the new owner has made
it known he wants a front office
that is ready to rise to that chal-
lenge.
“Who wants them if we aren’t
setting high goals,” Cohen wrote
on Twitter in response to an
SNY report that general man-
ager candidates were put off by
his aggressive goals.
Last week, Mets president
Sandy Alderson said the teamwas no longer looking to hire a
president of baseball operations
for the time being. Instead, the
organization is “exclusively” fo-
cused on hiring a general man-
ager.
Alderson said roughly six can-
didates had been interviewed for
the GM role so far. One of those
candidates, former pitcher Chris
Young, took himself out of con-
sideration for the job on Mon-
day, The Post’s Joel Sherman re-
ported.
Young, who has three young
children and lives in Dallas,
withdrew for family considera-
tions.
[email protected]By Ken DaviDoffWhile Luis Rojas survived
the Mets’ ownership change,
his top lieutenant will not be
as fortunate.
An industry source con-
firmed that Hensley Meulens,
the Mets’ bench coach in
2020, will not return to the
team next season, as first re-
ported by USA Today.
The decision doesn’t come
as a huge surprise, as the 53-
year-old Meulens originally
joined the Mets as Carlos Bel-
tran’s bench coach last offsea-
son, only to see Beltran lose his
job (for his involvement in the
Astros’ sign-stealing scandal)
before even making it to spring
training. Rojas, who had beenset to serve as the Mets’ quali-
ty-control coach under Bel-
tran, became the manager in
January as the club decided to
keep the rest of the coaching
staff intact.
Now, with a full offseason to
prepare, the Mets can pick
someone who fits best with
Rojas after a shaky rookie
campaign (26-34). New presi-
dent Sandy Alderson an-
nounced last week that Rojas,
whom Alderson knew from
his previous time with the
Mets, will definitely manage
the team in 2021 despite the
fact that Alderson and his
boss Steve Cohen have yet to
choose a person to head the
organization’s baseball opera-
tions.Meulens won’t return
in role as bench coach