NFT: Sounds like Billy Beane likely out

Gomes discussed as a potential GM candidate... this would suggest Sandy is in fact still going to be heavily involved in baseball decisions if they are discussing GM's before even having a POBO in place.

heard good things about Gomes FWIW, just strange to consider GM's before having your "boss" in place. I've also heard from one source the Mets may move on from Stearns if the Brewers advance too far. Concern he'd use them for an extension and it would be November without a hire, similar to what happened last year.

Know anything about football?
The team I love needs a GM .

from working in the A's front office.

In comment 15408733 k2tampa said:

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from working in the A's front office.

This is a brand new deal with Seatgeek. They have an exclusive deal with MLB.

A baseball executive famous for spotting market inefficiencies is getting in on the ticketing business.

RedBall Capital, a SPAC led by Oakland A’s executive vice president and minority owner Billy Beane and Redbird Capital founder Gerry Cardinale, is close to a merger with ticketing company SeatGeek.

Beane rose to fame as the subject of Michael Lewis’ 2003 book “Moneyball” and its subsequent movie adaptation.

writer just dm'ed me and informed me Beane's share of the A's per the books is now down to 1%, which is roughly worth 12 million. The belief is should this deal close he will be selling his remaining share but there are apparently roadblocks involved on the business end and not a guarantee to be approved.

Mets reportedly are considering "multiple" hires vs. landing a big fish. Ie the Dodgers model. In theory I'm all for it but you still need a final decision maker (LAD has Friedman). I'd love to see them hire someone like Eno Sarris in some role.

In comment 15408626 Joe Beckwith said:

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Know anything about football? The team I love needs a GM .

Depo did that... a Beane protégé

In comment 15408774 moze1021 said:

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In comment 15408626 Joe Beckwith said: Quote: Know anything about football? The team I love needs a GM . Depo did that... a Beane protégé

DePo is essentially in charge of the Browns, that's how highly thought of he is. Must have quite the mind for sports.

That runs a SPAC would be an issue? Generally when you SPAC the management of the company using it to IPO stays in place and the fund that was the vehicle simply converts their ownership to shares. Now perhaps being a large stakeholder in that could be an issue for MLB but it would be no different than being on a board or stockholder of any other company.

In comment 15408819 bhill410 said:

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That runs a SPAC would be an issue? Generally when you SPAC the management of the company using it to IPO stays in place and the fund that was the vehicle simply converts their ownership to shares. Now perhaps being a large stakeholder in that could be an issue for MLB but it would be no different than being on a board or stockholder of any other company.

It's unclear the setup of the merger but I was just told that should it go through Beane would be forced to sell his 1% remaining of the A's.


"Bloomberg cited an unnamed source Friday as saying that the two companies could announce a merger as soon as next week.
However, the news agency had no details on such terms as how much cash SeatGeek might get to go public via a SPAC merger, nor what valuation the company might have. Market tracker Pitchbook last valued SeatGeek at $571M.
The NYSE halted trading on RBAC for “news pending” at 12:33 p.m. ET and had not yet resumed trading as of about 1:30 p.m. ET. The stock had been only modestly higher prior to that, up 0.9% at $9.92.
Bloomberg said RedBall (RBAC) declined to comment on the matter, while SeatGeek didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment."

Mets also (for whatever the reason) have not asked permission to speak to him despite the A's being eliminated on 9/30, which might suggest they were aware of this being the case. Law said he's heard all 3 are "out" for the Mets job, so this too would make sense as to why the Mets didn't request permission here we are 2 weeks into Beane being "available".

Seidler says Beane to the Mets talk has "died down" in baseball circles. No clue if it's related to this but again, it's been 12 days since they have had a chance to request permission to speak and nothing has happened, nor movement once Theo passed. Seems to be something to this.

also Luhnow is not and will not be a candidate and his name being floated is from his camp. More than the cheating stuff, apparently this is more "behind the scenes" stuff regarding the culture and treatment of women during his tenure that would surely come up if vetted by Cohen/NY media. In regard to the cheating, he thinks the Mets would hire a "cheater" and that the Beltran buzz seems at least somewhat "real" if not serious.

Mets have a whopping 16 players that are arbitration eligible this season. That's an unusually high number, gotta expect quite a few non-tenders.

reportedly is high on Beltran FWIW. Byrnes/Gomes as a combo has also apparently been discussed to run the FO.

But I guess being a passive shareholder is problematic to MLB. Not sure what their conflict of interest policies are but I guess they prohibit ownership of shares of any potential mlb partner.

tells me their gut says 70% chance Syndergaard returns, "don't see it" in regard to Conforto. But expects Conforto to receive a QO and Syndergaard may (or may work out a deal with lower base + incentives)

Not @mets related per se but went to a soft-opening of the Wilpon owned Ebbs Brewery this weekend in Williamsburg. Nice space, dog-friendly, good beer, friendly bartenders, I recommend it if you're looking to try a new brewery.

But Mets aren’t that close, the DeGrom window might be closing so just got to move forward. If we have two 1st founders and now a comp pick for Conforto, then we can build our farm system pretty good, and Tanous has been an excellent drafter for a long time.

wouldn't hate seeing Conforto taking the QO but based on conversations with 2 in the know, the expectation is he's going to see multi year deals in the 20 million range from "multiple" teams. So it's hard to see a guy take 1 year 19 vs. say 4 for 80 (even if that's far lower than what he expected) anything is possible but with a very weak OF market (Conforto, Castellanos, Marte) being the top 3...it looks doubtful. Syndergaard at 1 year 19 probably makes sense for him, year 1 back from TJ, bank nearly 20 million and hit the market as a still young #2 SP? Makes sense to me. With SP, he's one pitch away from never seeing anywhere near that money. Ideally, the Mets could find a middle ground, less guarantee, bigger incentives but I'd like to see him back.

This team needs a total rebuild from the very top on down. They've got a new Owner. That's a Good Start.

Now they need a President of Baseball Ops, a savvy GM, a Director of Minor League Operations, an MiLB Pitching Co-Ordinator, MiLB Hitting Co-Ord, a complete new Athletic and Training Staff, a baseball-smart Manager, a sharp 3B Coach, and probably a good Team Laundry Facilitator.

The good news is there should be no Salary Cap on any of these jobs.

Long to the Phillies, it was suggested Sandy would be looking to hire him again.

In comment 15408982 DanMetroMan said:

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Long to the Phillies, it was suggested Sandy would be looking to hire him again.

aren't these moves that the POBO will be doing. Confused.

I get he will probably have to make QO's to Noah and Conforto because of timing. But everything else shouldn't be sandy call from the roster to the coaching staff.

In comment 15409008 mphbullet36 said:

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In comment 15408982 DanMetroMan said: Quote: Long to the Phillies, it was suggested Sandy would be looking to hire him again. aren't these moves that the POBO will be doing. Confused. I get he will probably have to make QO's to Noah and Conforto because of timing. But everything else shouldn't be sandy call from the roster to the coaching staff.

That's the million-dollar question including interest in Brandon Gomes as GM. I guess you could say "Sandy is high on him and will suggest him to..." but that already strikes me as weird when his son is already on staff as assistant GM.

In comment 15408916 CMicks3110 said:

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But Mets aren’t that close, the DeGrom window might be closing so just got to move forward. If we have two 1st founders and now a comp pick for Conforto, then we can build our farm system pretty good, and Tanous has been an excellent drafter for a long time.

I still don't understand the "Mets are not that close" narrative...

They had a disastrous year of underperformance, Conforto being one of the key examples. If every guy performed just the way they should, not even exceeding, they would be playing right now even with Jake hurt. So I just don't get it...

Certainly more than they made it sound like he would have when hired last year. Some of that is not nessacarily his fault, given the obvious things that happened with Porter and Scott.

But I don't see any evidence that Sandy is giving that up anytime soon. I get the impression regardless of who they hire and to what position, Sandy will be a lot more than just a consultant.

In comment 15408964 Named Later said:

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This team needs a total rebuild from the very top on down. They've got a new Owner. That's a Good Start. Now they need a President of Baseball Ops, a savvy GM, a Director of Minor League Operations, an MiLB Pitching Co-Ordinator, MiLB Hitting Co-Ord, a complete new Athletic and Training Staff, a baseball-smart Manager, a sharp 3B Coach, and probably a good Team Laundry Facilitator. The good news is there should be no Salary Cap on any of these jobs.

They could probably use a new PR guy too, someone who actually coaches the team what to/not to do mid season.

Wayyyy too many unknowns. I’m just glad they have 4 top 50 prospects that should be in the majors by 2023. I’m not optimistic about ‘22

Do it. I would love this.

Showalter would be interested in managing @mets if called per.. Buck Showalter

So is Carmelo

not shitting on Seatgeek in particular but man is the secondary ticket market a complete and utter scam. I tried buying tickets to LCD Soundsystem's fan presale, then the real general sale (20 dates) and they were sold out within 4 minutes... and then THOUSANDS of tickets were on the secondary market within minutes, what's worse is (this was through AXS.com) they allow secondary market resales, aka "somebody" (scalpers) could buy 8 tickets and immediately put them "legally" for sale on the AXS site for an upcharge (AXS then takes a taste of that), then they have another option "premium" where you pay more to get tickets from AXS... from the same sale... that they didn't put up initially.

Buster Olney
@Buster_ESPN
·
2m
Sources: One of the names that the Mets have discussed internally re: head of baseball operations is that of Josh Byrnes, a sr. VP for the Dodgers. Byrnes spoke to the Phillies last spring before withdrawing his name from consideration -- and before PHI hired David Dombrowski.

And the QO is 18.4

or this is BS?

John Harper
@NYNJHarper
·
8m
No idea what Steve Cohen is going to do, but in the last few days I've now spoken to two long-time friends of Billy Beane who say he's very much open to the idea of becoming pres. of bb ops for Mets. Would hire a GM to handle day-to-day duties of the job. We'll see.

Individuals who know more about spacs than Cohen, let’s just hope he doesn’t trade on it and get slapped with an insider finra inquiry while trying to court Beane. To even put Beane and Byrnes in the same sentence is laughable. Beane would be a huge get.

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JonHeyman's avatar Jon Heyman @JonHeyman The Mets planned to ask permission to interview Brewers baseball president David Stearns once they were out, so that may come any day. Although, it would be a surprise if Milwaukee OK’ed it. Stearns has only 1 year to go on deal but the Cree surely would like to extend him.

if he does he can force Milwaukee's hand possibly even to the point of threatening to sit out the last year of his deal if they don't give him permission. the met job may not be around then but he'd likely have plenty of suitors.

MIL may have declined permission last year but they didn't extend him. And what better time to negotiate a lucrative extension than when the richest guy in the sport is asking for you?

re: Beane, that makes the Byrnes rumors a little more interesting since presumably they have some kind of relationship?

and that they are waiting until their top targets are free so they can do it all in the same window without stringing anyone along. would be really great to get stearns or beane in the fold quickly.

so gotta think that means if it's stearns or beane we will could find out this week. If they agree to interview those guys are unlikely to have to go through an extended process.

In comment 15411479 Eric on Li said:

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Quote: JonHeyman's avatar Jon Heyman @JonHeyman The Mets planned to ask permission to interview Brewers baseball president David Stearns once they were out, so that may come any day. Although, it would be a surprise if Milwaukee OK’ed it. Stearns has only 1 year to go on deal but the Cree surely would like to extend him. if he does he can force Milwaukee's hand possibly even to the point of threatening to sit out the last year of his deal if they don't give him permission. the met job may not be around then but he'd likely have plenty of suitors. MIL may have declined permission last year but they didn't extend him. And what better time to negotiate a lucrative extension than when the richest guy in the sport is asking for you? re: Beane, that makes the Byrnes rumors a little more interesting since presumably they have some kind of relationship?

Why would Byrnes leave LAD for a lateral move? Beane as his boss is the same as Friedman. In fact, the Dodgers would likely block the move even if Byrnes tried it. Byrnes is being mentioned as POBO not WITH Beane

The Mets have discussed Josh Byrnes as a possibility in their ongoing search for a new president of baseball operations, reports Buster Olney of ESPN (Twitter link). Byrnes has spent the past eight seasons as the Dodgers’ senior vice president of baseball operations.

Unlike Beane and Stearns, Byrnes isn’t currently in charge of baseball ops elsewhere, which could make the initial hurdle of getting permission from his current club for an interview — should the Mets decide to take that step — easier than it is with the other candidates. The Mets already interviewed Theo Epstein, but the former Red Sox and Cubs leader will not be taking over in Queens.

So yeah, it’s Byrnes instead of Beane in this scenario. Not Byrnes leaving LAD for a similar role under Beane.

In comment 15411527 DanMetroMan said:

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In comment 15411479 Eric on Li said: Quote: Quote: JonHeyman's avatar Jon Heyman @JonHeyman The Mets planned to ask permission to interview Brewers baseball president David Stearns once they were out, so that may come any day. Although, it would be a surprise if Milwaukee OK’ed it. Stearns has only 1 year to go on deal but the Cree surely would like to extend him. if he does he can force Milwaukee's hand possibly even to the point of threatening to sit out the last year of his deal if they don't give him permission. the met job may not be around then but he'd likely have plenty of suitors. MIL may have declined permission last year but they didn't extend him. And what better time to negotiate a lucrative extension than when the richest guy in the sport is asking for you? re: Beane, that makes the Byrnes rumors a little more interesting since presumably they have some kind of relationship? Why would Byrnes leave LAD for a lateral move? Beane as his boss is the same as Friedman. In fact, the Dodgers would likely block the move even if Byrnes tried it. Byrnes is being mentioned as POBO not WITH Beane

His title threw me off I didn't realize he was functionally the GM under Friedman. Thought he was in more of a Depo role.

In comment 15411531 DanMetroMan said:

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Unlike Beane and Stearns, Byrnes isn’t currently in charge of baseball ops elsewhere, which could make the initial hurdle of getting permission from his current club for an interview — should the Mets decide to take that step — easier than it is with the other candidates. The Mets already interviewed Theo Epstein, but the former Red Sox and Cubs leader will not be taking over in Queens. So yeah, it’s Byrnes instead of Beane in this scenario. Not Byrnes leaving LAD for a similar role under Beane.

yea that makes more sense. im glad to hear that it sounds like the are moving forward on the other 2 and rightfully not considering him in that class.

Is essentially second in command which is why they may let Gomes leave, another guy the Mets reportedly are interested in

and Arnold are highly thought of but not POBO candidates given they lack of experience

then they can pick whoever they want for GM.

if they strike out this week Byrnes does have a very similar to Porter vibe so I could see that. the LAD are obviously a model worth emulating. would be an interesting candidate.

Again mentioned Heck as a potential GM for the Mets.

Teams could do a lot worse than Ron Washington as manager. 4 year span, Texas won 90, 96, 93, 91 games. Kind of ridiculous he never received another shot. We know Billy Beane is a "fan" given how much time Washington spent in Oakland

but Baty is on fire in the AFL (Cortes a good start too).

Michael Mayer
@mikemayer22
·
4m
Mets prospect Brett Baty is on some kind of roll right now, he's reached base safely in his first 7 plate appearances in the AFL.

4-for-4, 2 BB, HBP

huge on Baty. Wasn't amazing in AA but he's the future at 3b (if not traded). Vientos/Baty should both help the 2022 Mets. Mauricio is too raw.

Michael Mayer
@mikemayer22
·
2m
Mets prospect Brett Baty has reached base safely in 8 straight plate appearances to start the AFL season:

5-for-5, 2B, 2 BB, HBP

Tom
@Haudricourt
·
1h
#Brewers David Stearns on speculation he'd go elsewhere: "Consistent with how I’ve handled those questions in the past, I think I’ll shy away from any media or external speculation other than to say I’m happy here; my family is happy here. And we’ve got work to do here."

In comment 15412494 DanMetroMan said:

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Teams could do a lot worse than Ron Washington as manager. 4 year span, Texas won 90, 96, 93, 91 games. Kind of ridiculous he never received another shot. We know Billy Beane is a "fan" given how much time Washington spent in Oakland

Dan this post immediately reminded me of this scene from Moneyball: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyvu1nWjOlI

In comment 15414606 pjcas18 said:

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Tom @Haudricourt · 1h #Brewers David Stearns on speculation he'd go elsewhere: "Consistent with how I’ve handled those questions in the past, I think I’ll shy away from any media or external speculation other than to say I’m happy here; my family is happy here. And we’ve got work to do here."

the only thing missing from this response is a new extension in Milwaukee. If the richest owner in the sport was knocking on your door and you are up for a contract extension you'd think that would be a good time to negotiate. the fact that there was no extension announced last year when they made their first approach is actually kind of telling imo.