NY Mets: Five general manager options to replace Brodie Van Wagenen

3) Paul DePodesta

There is and always will be a special place in my heart for Paul DePodesta. He came to the Mets in 2010 as one of Sandy Alderson’s first hires and was the assistant GM until he left in 2016 to become the chief strategy officer of the Cleveland Browns.

DePodesta also worked under Billy Beane in Oakland for many years during the moneyball era. In fact, he was played by Jonah Hill in the movie Moneyball.

It was long believed that DePodesta would succeed Alderson one day and become the GM of the Mets, but he decided to leave for the NFL and the rest is history.

Now with Alderson potentially back in the fold as president, DePodesta could be lured back to finish what they started.

When the Mets lost DePodesta it hit the Mets a lot harder than most fans realize and the loss of  DePodesta is a big reason why the Mets have fallen off the cliff since 2015. He was and still is considered one of the smartest minds in baseball and was a big reason the Mets got to the World Series in 2015.

A lot of the players on that World Series team were brought to the team because of Paul DePodesta. In fact, one player, in particular, was there because of him. That man is Jacob deGrom but not for why you think.

No DePodesta did not draft deGrom but he stopped Alderson from trading him away. In 2012 the Mets made a rather minor trade sending Pedro Beato to Boston for catcher Kelly Shoppach but originally Boston had asked for Jacob deGrom who was not Jacob deGrom yet, but Alderson was ready to comply and DePodesta stopped him because he thought deGrom could be a diamond in the ruff and that he was.

That story aside DePodesta is a very good baseball mind, he knows the Mets organization extremely well, and five years ago he was supposed to be the GM of the future and now he has the chance to be again.