You can’t go a couple hours without someone telling the New York Mets no thanks. Earlier today it was Brewers GM Matt Arnold (after Theo Epstein, Billy Beane, David Stearns, Scott Harris, Peter Bendix, and Brandon Gomes), and this afternoon it was Cardinals GM Michael Girsch.
It’s become the vogue thing for all organizational number twos – get the word out that you don’t want the Mets’ top job:
#Mets reached out to #Cardinals late last week for permission to talk to GM Michael Girsch about the opening to run baseball ops in Queens, according two sources. He elected to stay with the Cardinals, a team source confirmed.
— Derrick S. Goold (@dgoold) October 27, 2021
We spoke earlier about why so many execs seem to be shying away from this particular job, from the tweeting owner to the still-kinda-president Sandy Alderson. But it turns out, there might be another reason. The search process, itself, might be off the rails.
I don’t even know what to say:
An update on the Mets’ front office search and how Steve Cohen is leading the process, with this amusing nugget, regarding Chris Christie’s involvement, included within: https://t.co/dbnDMHXSZs pic.twitter.com/I2NQOrND8q
— Deesha (@DeeshaThosar) October 27, 2021
Chris Christie, baseball adviser. Okey dokey. I mean, he’s on the board of directors, so I guess it isn’t beyond bonkers, but it still feels way off from how this process should actually be going. You’ll remember that, when it came time to staff up his front office, Tom Ricketts sought the help of baseball lifer (and executive Hall of Famer) Pat Gillick to know how to proceed on finding and landing someone like Theo Epstein.
Mets fans for years and years desperately wanted the Wilpon Family to sell the team. Mission accomplished. But now? Things might be even more LOLMets than they were before.