The New York Mets are reportedly hoping to name their managerial replacement to Carlos Beltrán in the next few days.
On Tuesday morning, Andy Martino of SNY tweeted that the New York Mets are hoping to select a new manager within the next few days. This comes less than a week after skipper Carlos Beltrán stepped down amid the Astros’ cheating scandal, which occurred during his playing days in Houston.
Feeling is still that Mets are hopeful of choosing a manager within the next few days. Still have not heard of a single external candidate (that's not to say there definitely aren't any). You want an opinion? Terry Collins for 1 year is best internal option they have.
— Andy Martino (@martinonyc) January 21, 2020
Later on, Martino reported that the managerial search is now down to Tony DeFrancesco, Hensley Meulens, and Luis Rojas. DeFrancesco is the Mets’ first-base coach and Meulens is their bench coach, while Rojas serves as the quality control coach.
Sources: Mets managerial search is now down to Rojas, Meulens and DeFranceso. Suppose there’s always chance of a late entrant but I don’t see it. They see benefits of going internal.
— Andy Martino (@martinonyc) January 22, 2020
This is just confirmation that the Mets are looking to hire someone who’s already a part of the system. At the end of the day, it’s a move that would make the most sense. Pitchers and catchers report on Feb. 10, while spring training games begin on Feb. 22.
The Mets are running out of time and can’t afford to hire a manager who’s an outsider. Needless to say, whoever takes over needs to be familiar with the players and not have to start from scratch.
It should come as no surprise to the baseball world if the Mets select one of the three aforementioned candidates to be a temporary manager just for the 2020 season. They could then hire someone with possibly more experience and success thereafter.
There’s a good chance this happens unless the manager they do hire surprises everyone and is able to take the Mets on an incredible playoff run.