No interim titles. No quick searches. No bandages.
Sandy Alderson now has to take over the day-to-day running of the Mets’ baseball operations until next offseason. He needs to bring stability, integrity and success to that department, making it so attractive that come October or November, the best candidates will line up to interview as opposed to what happened this most recent time.
The Mets could not recruit enough quality aspirants for president of baseball operations in Alderson’s opinion. So they tabled that, moved to hire just a general manager and landed on Jared Porter. Now, Porter has landed on the Mets. Turned them back into the Wilpon Mets. An organization hugged by a black cloud.
Alderson, in a mission statement to new owner Steve Cohen that led to his hiring, had envisioned the Mets becoming a beacon rather than a laughingstock; implicit was stepping away from the Wilpons into a new reality. At his introductory press conference in November, Alderson put these words to that thought: “If we want to be an iconic franchise … we have to write more good stories than bad. And occasionally we have to write a really epic story.”
Then Alderson’s first major hire turned out to have a closet steeped in awful. It was revealed by ESPN on Monday night that in 2016 — while a Cubs executive — Porter had sent a barrage of harassing, lewd texts and pictures to a foreign female reporter. Alderson said Porter copped that those were indeed his texts and pictures. The Mets had no choice and by Tuesday morning Porter was fired and, at 41, probably is done with a career in major league baseball.
The runner-up to Porter, Zack Scott, also was hired by the Mets, to be an executive vice president and assistant GM. The two had worked together in Boston. But those who know the Mets’ inner dynamics say Cohen and Alderson had been so impressed with Scott in the interview process that they pushed the idea on Porter more than vice versa.
So the easy call here would be to either elevate Scott or at least give him the interim title. Alderson did not dismiss that as a potential outcome during a conference call Tuesday with reporters,
The Mets shouldn’t do that. Scott was brought in largely to bulk up and build out the Mets’ analytic wing. He was admired in Boston for his work in this area. But he was not viewed as a dynamic figure, the kind you could imagine sitting at the podium and selling a big-market team’s visions. At least not yet. So why the rush to even give Scott the interim tag?
Consider this a 12-month audition. The Porter debacle should teach that if you have more time to get to know someone before handing the keys to a huge job, take the time. The Mets can see how Scott fosters culture within the organization, handles increased responsibility, etc. If all goes well, the job will still be there next offseason. All Scott will be doing until then is the job he was hired for, with a bit more responsibility.
Remember that before Porter and Scott were hired, Alderson was leading an operation that had signed Trevor May and James McCann, and had begun the groundwork toward Francisco Lindor and Carlos Carrasco. Those who were dealing with the Mets describe Porter as merely running Alderson’s playbook, albeit with a wider network of contacts in the game.
At that introductory press conference, Alderson said: “I’m not going to make the baseball decisions. I expect to have a seat at the table, but I don’t expect to be seated at the head of the table.”
But there was some Hyman Roth in “The Godfather Part II” in that. Alderson is too big a personality and thinker to have influence and not wield it. In a moment of honesty and clarity Tuesday, Alderson acknowledged, “In my mind I have been [running baseball ops] since I was hired. So that doesn’t change.”
He has to take the steering wheel for this season, lead the day-to-day grind.
Because he and Cohen are auditioning too. When Cohen’s money was injected into a big-market franchise, the thought was that candidates would fight to run the Mets baseball operations. Except Cohen and Alderson were dismayed when that didn’t occur. Many of the best and brightest — those Cohen and Alderson were initially convinced would all but beg for the job — took themselves out of consideration over concerns with Cohen.
One candidate told me the exposé “Black Edge” was being passed around like a library book among the top crop. That book detailed — among other items — a toxic culture at Cohen’s SAC Capital, which went defunct after paying a record $1.8 billion fine for insider trading. Cohen’s follow-up firm, Point72 Asset Management, settled a claim last year with a female employee who alleged a sexist work environment.
These matters gave pause to owners before they approved Cohen’s purchase of the Mets and threw up a stop sign to candidates to run baseball operations.
So Alderson and Cohen have this year to show this is a new business, a new day and the new Mets. Alderson has to find the old Marine in himself. “My goal coming here was to put a good team on the field and change the culture,” Alderson said. That can’t be farmed out in the short term to Scott or to someone who would emerge from another search that will have limited candidates until next offseason.
Cohen insisted his Mets would have integrity at its core, which he cited in firing Porter less than 12 hours after the lurid revelations.
That is merely step one away from the first crisis. Next is Alderson running baseball operations for this year. It is the best alternative to try to turn yet another Mets epic disaster into an epic story.
