NY Mets: Five biggest challenges facing the Mets this offseason

2) Who manages the 2021 Mets?

After the Mets solve their General Manager dilemma, the next challenge the organization will face will be who is the leader in the clubhouse for the Mets next spring?

Current Manager Luis Rojas seems to check all of the boxes in terms of the analytical approach the team wants to invest in beginning this offseason. Rojas is also familiar with Sandy Alderson from his days as the General Manager in the organization, in which Rojas was a manager at multiple levels in the minors and was heavily considered as a riser in the coaching ranks.

However, there is no guarantee that Rojas is back managing the Mets in 2021. While Rojas did get the short end of the stick by having to navigate his first managerial experience in a shortened season, Rojas’s ultimate fate may lie at the feet of who is sitting in the General Manager’s office.

While Rojas’ decision making and overall comfortability in the dugout seemed to steadily improve as the season wore on, it’s currently undetermined if the Mets will want to keep the camaraderie with the young skipper and allow him a full 162 games to be evaluated on, or whether the Mets will target a more veteran option to try and take this team to the next level.

Rojas handled his job admirably this season considering all of the circumstances he faced after accepting the managerial job, as well as having to swallow he wasn’t current GM Brodie Van Wagenen’s first choice this past offseason. The players seem to back Rojas as the best option in the press, and his style certainly fits the new culture the Mets are building.

In the end, it will be the Mets General Manager’s first decision to make in regards to Rojas’s job security and it certainly will be one of the biggest challenges the organization has to answer this winter.