The Mets are two days into MLB’s GM Meetings, and still don’t have an official general manager to represent the organization.
Candidates have declined or been denied permission to interview, but a professional New York sports team struggling to find a big-name candidate interested in the job is a surprise to many, including Mets radio play-by-play announcer Howie Rose.
“You would think that someone who’s looking to really make a name for himself and advance his career would be willing to put up with all of that to come to a franchise that has a deep-pocketed owner and is playing in the biggest market in the country for a team that has an incredibly loyal and passionate fanbase, and hasn’t won a World Series in 35 years,” Rose told Steve Somers on Tuesday night. “You would think that was a challenge people would be lining up to take.”
That hasn’t been the case, although Steve Cohen and Sandy Alderson are reportedly closing in on Adam Cromie, formerly an assistant GM with the Nationals, as a leading candidate following a face-to-face meeting with Cohen on Tuesday. But the fact that the search has had to drag out this long with so many denials is undeniably strange, even with the Mets’ history of discourse.
“It’s puzzling, it’s disconcerting,” Rose said. “But at the end of the day or tomorrow or the next day, they seem to have a pretty good handle on these one or two candidates that they think they’ve got a shot at, then we’ll go from there.”
It’s still undetermined who the Mets GM will be when the season begins next year, but Rose, who had to step away from the microphone for the final month of the regular season to have surgery to address a personal medical issue, wants it put in the books that he will be back in his familiar spot in the radio booth when New York opens up the 2022 season.
“That’s my plan,” Rose said. “That’s where we’re hoping to be. I’m looking with all signs pointing to that.”
Listen to Rose’s full interview with Steve Somers below!
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