A story of significant league interest, but hopefully only background/peripheral Cubs interest, is the leadership void in New York ever since Sandy Alderson stepped down as GM of the Mets while he battles cancer (the best of luck to him). As much as the Mets have been the butt of various jokes – thanks in large part to an ownership group that with longstanding financial issues – the opportunity to run their baseball operations is still going to be a mighty attractive opportunity.
To that end, a couple spurious rumors/mentions connected Cubs GM Jed Hoyer to the Mets’ opening, on the theory that maybe they could lure him if they offered him a promotion (a la Theo Epstein coming over from the Red Sox) to be the team’s President of Baseball Operations.
Fortunately, the latest on that front, via Jon Heyman, is that Hoyer is in a group of desirable executives for whom the chances of the Mets landing in them “would seem remote.” Instead, insiders tell Heyman that the Mets have a list of 10 or so candidates, and it does not seem like current GMs/Presidents are on the list (with the possible exception of Blue Jays President Mark Shapiro). Read Heyman’s piece for the particulars.
This is the time of year when you start seeing front office openings become more clear, and then, once the season ends, you see the shuffle of promotions around the league. The Cubs, having developed a robust front office staff, have seen their top up-and-comers poached with relative frequency over the past few years. That is to be expected when you are hiring and then developing the brightest while working under the best. I anticipate more rumors and nervousness on this front, though the chances that Hoyer, specifically, heads out is very unlikely at this point. I am speculating, but I’ll say it remains possible that, if Theo Epstein decides 10 years is his max with the Cubs, Hoyer could slide into the President role after the 2021 season.