Baseball’s great front-office mercenary Theo Epstein has long been in the Mets’ sights. Now he’ll speak to them about a role in the Mets’ front office with Mike Puma of the New York Post reporting a meeting could occur as soon as this week.
The Mets, who announced their plans to move on from manager Luis Rojas on Monday, are looking to replace GM Zack Scott, who was placed on administrative leave following a DUI arrest last month. Scott was named acting GM after New York parted ways with Jared Porter, who was fired after news broke that he had sexually harassed a female journalist by sending a series of explicit, unsolicited text messages in 2016.
Long touted as a baseball wunderkind, Epstein has shown a Midas touch throughout his career, erasing the Cubs’ century-long World Series drought in 2016, which came after helping the Red Sox exorcise their own championship demons in both 2004 and 2007. The question is whether Epstein is willing to put himself through the daily grind of working in a major-league front office, a demanding position that took a noticeable toll on the 47-year-old throughout his Cubs and Red Sox tenures.
Currently working as a consultant to MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, Epstein has always loved a good challenge and the Mets, a title-starved franchise in desperate need of new leadership, would certainly scratch that itch. A man of expensive tastes, billionaire owner Steve Cohen has always been of the “go big or go home” mindset, hence his infatuation with Epstein, the biggest front-office fish of them all. Whether that interest is mutual remains to be seen.
Other rumored candidates include Oakland A’s pioneer Billy Beane (credited as the architect of MLB’s “moneyball” phenomenon) and Milwaukee Brewers big wig David Stearns, who many think would jump at the chance to join his hometown Mets. Of those three, the Mets are seen as most likely to land Beane, owing to his ties to current team president Sandy Alderson, whom he worked with in Oakland.
Related
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow Audacy Sports
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram