Sandy Alderson’s plan on returning to the Mets was to oversee the entire organization, with a president of baseball operations and a general manager under him.
Then it became Alderson and just a GM.
On Tuesday it was all Sandy Alderson’s show.
Following GM Jared Porter’s firing – he was fired after ESPN reported sending lewd text messages to a female journalist in 2016 – Alderson said he has no immediate plans to fill the position. Alderson will lead the front office, with a kind of GM-by-committee.
The protagonists are assistant GM Zack Scott, senior strategy officer John Ricco, vice president of amateur and international scouting Tommy Tanous, head of professional scouting Bryn Alderson, and senior baseball operations director Ian Levin. In addition, Ben Zauzmer was recently hired from the Dodgers to oversee research and development. Joe Lefkowitz, a research and development manager, also attends the daily Zoom meetings.
Scott, a former Red Sox director, was Porter’s second for the GM job. Its strength lies in analytics.
“One of the things we’ll miss is about the same amount of contacts and information we’ve been able to get through Jared,” Alderson said. “Jared has a lot of contacts in the game – not just at GM level, but assistant GM level and below. This is a rich source of information and can lead to smaller deals that complement our roster. That is one area we must address. “
Alderson’s involvement so far is due to the larger deals, as evidenced by the one that brought Cleveland’s Francisco Lindor and Carlos Carrasco.
“My attention to the baseball side will grow a bit and we’ll see how things develop,” said Alderson. “One of the things I was happy about was how the front office team developed as a group, led by Jared.
“Jared was energetic, he was knowledgeable and I was very happy with the direction it was taking. That’s secondary in this situation, but I’ll be a bit more involved, but I have great faith in our group and I’m sure they will be able to take it a step further. “