Mets could announce GM decision Friday
Jeff Wilpon, chief operating officer of the NY Mets, left, and Fred Wilpon, owner of the NY Mets, appear at a news conference held at Citi Field. (Oct. 4, 2010) Credit: Errol Anderson
The Mets began with a list of roughly 32 names in their search for Omar Minaya's replacement, trimmed it to six for the first round of interviews and finally announced Friday that the general manager derby was down to two - Sandy Alderson and Josh Byrnes.
Both have GM experience, which the Mets settled on as almost a prerequisite for this particular job, but that's about where the similarities end. Alderson, 62, is 20 years Byrnes' senior, so there's a bit of a generation gap. And although Byrnes follows in the sabermetric mold of the younger GMs, Alderson is actually a pioneer of that statistics-driven system of evaluation.
The Mets plan to interview Byrnes Monday and Alderson on Tuesday, and a decision is likely to be made by the end of this week. The announcement could come during Friday's off day between Games 2 and 3 of the World Series. Principal owner Fred Wilpon and president Saul Katz will be involved in this round, with chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon also taking part.
The younger Wilpon and interim GM John Ricco handled the initial phase of the process before submitting the finalists to Katz and Fred Wilpon. At this stage, it will be interesting to see if all three members of the club's ownership group wind up on the same page.
One significant factor throughout the process has been Fred Wilpon's relationship with commissioner Bud Selig, who practically endorsed Alderson in allowing him to potentially leave his reform work in the Dominican Republic. With Selig delivering Alderson as a savior to bail out one of MLB's big-market franchises, it's going to be difficult for Fred Wilpon to turn him down.
That heavyweight backing of Alderson is something Byrnes can't counter, even with his four-plus seasons of running the Diamondbacks and championship pedigree from learning under general manager Theo Epstein in Boston.
As for public perception, it might be tough for the Mets to sell Byrnes to the ticket-buying public after he was fired by last-place Arizona in July, which is a little too recent for comfort.
