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

When Steve Cohen takes over as owner of the New York Mets, will he find a new general manager? Let’s look at some candidates.

The 2020 offseason for the New York Mets will without a doubt be one to follow closely. The offseason gets started with a vote to approve Steve Cohen as the new owner of the New York Mets franchise. This one event will create a ripple effect and set the tone for the rest of the offseason.

Going on the assumption that Cohen gets the necessary votes to be approved and welcomed into the elite club of major league baseball club owners, the Mets offseason could get busy fast. Earlier this week it was announced that Steve Cohen would hire former Mets GM Sandy Alderson to be president of baseball and business operations.

This is without a doubt an exciting piece of news because it brings Sandy back into the organization and now, he will presumably not be financially handcuffed or restricted in any other conceivable way. The first question that arises, however, is will Brodie Van Wagenen be the Mets General Manager in 2021.

In all likelihood, he will not be retained, and the Mets will conduct a search for their third GM in as many years. It can probably be assumed that whoever is hired as the General Manager would be Alderson’s successor being that he is in his 70s and recovering from a bout with cancer from a few years ago.

The rumors and rumblings have already started about who could be interested in the job as well as who could interest the Mets. The five GM options discussed here will represent options that are not only realistic, that means no Brian Cashman, but also a good fit.

Honorable Mentions

The people named in this slide are considered “honorable mentions”. All three of these men would be fantastic fits for the Mets organization but at the same time, they do not fit the model that seems to be taking shape.

Presumably, the Mets will have Alderson be the president of baseball operations and a different person be general manager. This means that anyone that is already a president and GM would have to take a demotion, albeit maybe a short-term one, to come to the Mets.

Theo Epstein

Theo Epstein is currently the President and GM of the Chicago Cubs. He has been with them for nine years and before that, he was with the Boston Red Sox for ten years. Epstein is highly respected throughout the game and is considered one of the two best “active” executives in baseball with the other being Brian Cashman.

He has broken two curses in his career. First the curse of the Bambino with the Red Sox in 2004 and second the curse of the Billy Goat with the Cubs in 2016.

So why can’t he come to the Mets and break the curse of the Wilpons?

He absolutely can but he probably will not. If he were to come to the Mets, he would just be the General Manager, which would be a significant demotion for him.

However, he could see it as a challenge and potentially cementing his legacy as one of the best executives ever if he were to bring a title to Queens.

Mike Chernoff

The New Jersey native is currently the General Manager of the Cleveland Indians. He has done a great job the last few years with the Indians creating a perennial contender which included a World Series appearance in 2016.

Even though he is just a GM in Cleveland and coming to Queens would present a new challenge for him, he turned down an interview request from the Mets back in 2018.

That rejection could mean one of two things. He either does not want to leave Cleveland or he did not want to be a Wilpon puppet. If it is the former, he will likely remain an honorable mention, but if it is the latter he could jump into the conversation and be a legitimate and welcomed candidate.

For now, though we will assume he is comfortable in Cleveland and not be a Mets GM candidate.

Erik Neander

Erik Neander is less known among fans than the previous two men but just as good. He is currently the General Manager and Senior Vice President of baseball operations of the Tampa Bay Rays.

Neander’s case is in kind of a gray area. He is technically not just a GM but if he was to come to the Mets it would be a demotion for him. A phone call should still be made but I would imagine that he would turn down an interview or the Rays would block it.

Neander has done an incredible job with the Rays, who have the 28th highest payroll in baseball, and it would be fun to see what he could do with Steve Cohen’s money, but that may be a pipe dream.

5) Bobby Heck

If the Mets cannot have Erik Neander then maybe they can get one of his top lieutenants.

A rather unknown member of the baseball front office community, Bobby Heck is currently a special assistant to the GM with the Tampa Bay Rays. He was hired to that position in 2015 having been promoted from a special assignment scout within the Rays organization.

Heck is a great baseball mind that is highly respected around the league for his scouting acumen and his player development skills. This type of background would benefit the Mets greatly and the GM job for the Mets would be a much-deserved promotion.

He has also worked under a long list of great baseball minds like Chaim Bloom, who was a finalist for the Mets job in 2018 and is now the Red Sox GM, Erik Neander, Andrew Friedman, and Matt Silverman.

The experiences Heck has picked up along the way from working with these great men can only pay dividends as Mets GM.

Before going to Tampa Bay, Heck was the scouting director for the Houston Astros for five years spanning from 2007 to 2012. As scouting director for the Astros, he was responsible for drafting big-name players like George Springer and Carlos Correa.

Heck was also integral in the drafting of Jason Castro, J.D. Martinez, Mike Foltynewicz, and Preston Tucker.

Without a doubt, he knows baseball and he knows how to find talented baseball players. By no means would this be a bad pick for the Mets to be their new General Manager.

4) Kim Ng

Kim Ng is a highly regarded executive within Major League Baseball’s offices. She is currently the Senior Vice President of baseball operations in the Commissioner’s office but has been a three-time assistant GM with the Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, and New York Yankees.

She has also interviewed for several GM positions throughout her career including the Dodgers and San Francisco Giants. Ng also interviewed for the Mets job in 2018 but was not a finalist.

Ng is more than qualified for the job, having spent time with many clubs in both player development and analytics roles. When she was up for the job back in 2018 Joe Torre had nothing but high remarks for her, having worked with her with the Yankees and the Dodgers.

If that does not convince you then maybe this fun fact will. Earlier it was mentioned how Brian Cashman was considered one of the best “active” executives if not one of the best ever. Well, in 1998 Cashman recruited Ng to work for the Yankees as an assistant general manager at the age of 29.

As a bonus to being extremely qualified and highly respected throughout baseball, Ng, if hired, would become the first female to be a General Manager in any of the major sports in North America. However, breaking barriers is nothing new to Kim Ng. In 1995 she became the first woman to present a salary arbitration case when she worked for the White Sox.

Cohen could really start his tenure as the new Mets owner with a bang by hiring Kim Ng, who has long deserved a General Manager position.

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.

1) David Stearns

The homegrown kid who the Wilpons let slip away.

David Stearns interned for the Mets during the 2008 season when Omar Minaya was the General Manager, but despite Minaya allegedly pleading with the Wilpons to open a position for Stearns they did not, and he moved on from the Mets.

After the Mets, he went to Cleveland where he quickly became a hot commodity within the baseball community. He was later hired by Houston to be an assistant GM before moving the Milwaukee where he is currently the President of Baseball Operations and General Manager.

Now, why is Stearns on this list and the number one option if he is already a president with the Brewers. Shouldn’t he be in the honorable mentions with Epstein and company?

Yes but no, I’ll explain.

There is one difference between Stearns and Theo Epstein and company. David Stearns is from New York, grew up a Mets fan, and worked for the Mets. That carries some weight for sure.

In addition, he is just 35 years old so if he had to take a demotion to be just the GM of his childhood team and have to wait a couple of years to re-gain the president title it may not be that big of a drawback for him.

Stearns has done a great job in Milwaukee. The Brewers have become a perennial contender on the back of Christian Yelich, a trade that Stearns is responsible for.

Let’s also not forget he also fleeced the Mets when he acquired Bobby Wahl, Adam Hill, and Felix Valerio from the Mets for Keon Broxton, who did not last long for the Mets in 2019.

Stearns would be the perfect fit for the Mets due to his excellent baseball mind, his youth, and his love for the team. The only question is, can the Mets can lure him away from the Brewers.

The Mets would definitely have to give him a raise and is giving him that much money to just be a GM at least in the short-term worth it? I think it is, but the Mets may not, but then again it is a new day where money may not be as big of an issue especially if the person is worth it and Stearns definitely is worth it.

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If Cohen is approved and Alderson is indeed hired to run baseball operations, then their first call should be to be the Brewers and David Stearns.