Bryce Harper and Manny Machado Will Not Be Part of 2019 Mets

25 Jan

Bryce Harper Manny Machado

CBSSports.com:

We’ve got less than a month to go until spring training starts, and the two best free agents — Bryce Harper and Manny Machado — on the market this winter still don’t know where they’ll be playing in 2019. We do have some hints as to who some of the final teams might be in both players’ sweepstakes, but you can now definitely count the New York Mets out for both.

On Thursday, Mets Chief Operating Officer Jeff WIlpon and first-year General Manager Brodie Van Wagenen confirmed to the media that they will not be pursuing either of the two superstars.

“I don’t know how many teams have two $30 million players,” Wilpon said when asked why the team won’t pursue Harper or Machado. Wilpon is referring to Robinson Cano, who was acquired from the Seattle Mariners in a blockbuster trade this past December and Mets outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, whose 2018 season was cut short by surgery on both of his heels.

Did anyone really think Bryce Harper or Manny Machado was going to be in the 2019 Mets Opening Day lineup? Certainly not me.

Are The Wilpon’s Holding The Mets Back From Finding A New GM?

17 Oct

Fred and Jeff Wilpon
NorthJersey.com:

The Mets have already been turned down by Twins general manager Thad Levine, and former Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington also did not interview.

Sources have pointed to the poor reputation the Mets have around the league with candidates knowing they are not an easy team to work for, and just how much power the general manager actually will hold. The Wilpons are known for being involved.

There are also the limitations by ownership with regard to spending and the analytics staff despite insistence to the contrary.

“No young general manager wants to go to the Mets,” one source said.

The search will continue this week according to a source, and the current pool of candidates is primarily those who have been around the game a long time and are searching for their first job. Only one candidate can be considered a rising executive.

Hey, we haven’t won in 32 years with the only common denominator during that time being Fred and Jeff. So it’d be no surprise if finding a new GM would be difficult with those two in charge.