Mets' Front Office Search Looking Like Repeat Of Last Year
The Mets' search to find a president of baseball operations is starting to feel like deja vu.
After it was initially reported that the Mets spoke to San Francisco Giants general manager Scott Harris about their top vacancy, Mike Mayer of Metsmerized revealed Harris removed his name from consideration.
The 34-year-old is fresh off his second season as the Giants' GM, where the team won 107 games and captured the NL West division title. Prior to joining the Giants' front office, Harris served as the director of baseball operations with the Chicago Cubs from 2012-2019.
Another factor working against the Mets was that Harris is a native of Redwood City, which is located in the Bay Area. And as it turns out, the Mets were very much interested in Harris, but he was not looking to leave his current position or relocate.
On an additional note, Rays vice president of baseball development Peter Bendix, who the Mets were also targeting, is unlikely to leave his role with Tampa Bay, per Mayer.
So, after whiffing on the top three candidates in Billy Beane, David Stearns and Theo Epstein, the Mets have now shifted their focus to the next wave of younger executives.
However, the Mets have continued to strikeout on drawing other team's front office members away from their current roles.
And remember, the Mets already tried the same method last year upon Steve Cohen's purchase of the team, but failed to hire a POBO, before bringing in a GM in Jared Porter who was fired a month later for sending inappropriate texts to a female reporter during his time with the Cubs.
Dodgers VP of baseball operations Josh Byrnes continues to remain a name who the Mets have interest in. But it is currently unknown if the Mets have requested to speak with him as of yet.
Brian Sabean, the architect who built the San Francisco Giants' dynasty last decade, also has interest in the Mets president of baseball operations job, but the team has not spoken to him up until this point. In fact, they might not consider the 65-year-old at all due to their desire to bring in a younger executive.
Regardless, the Mets' search for a president of baseball operations is looking like a repeat of 2020 all over again, where they came up empty. They cannot fail to fill this position for the second straight year if they hope to build stability within the organization.
