What the Hire of Sandy Alderson Means for the Mets

Incoming Mets owner Steve Cohen wasted no time making his impact on the Mets.

He named Sandy Alderson to oversee the team’s baseball operations if the owners approved his $2.4 billion Mets offer.

It’s surprising from Alderson’s perspective that he wants to get back to the grind. He left the Mets after being diagnosed with cancer several years ago. Everyone figured he would leave the game for good.

With some baseball owners questioning Cohen’s legitimacy as a baseball owner, the prospective owner decided it was in his best interest to hire Alderson for his chances to get his sale approved. Owners respect Alderson for the way he runs his baseball teams, and Major League Baseball hired him to oversee its operations for a long time. Cohen knows he can trust Alderson to build a professional baseball operation based on his work with the Mets a few years ago.

Remember when the Mets made the World Series and played in a wild-card playoff game a few years ago?

Alderson built that operation by changing the culture such as professionalism and organization that lacked for a long time. The Mets missed that when he left. Incumbent Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen failed to sustain the same culture Alderson created. Under Van Wagenen, player development stalled, and guys lost their way of playing baseball.

After the last two seasons, the Mets could do worse than hiring Alderson. It would be unrealistic to think Theo Epstein would leave the Cubs to join the Mets, and Dave Dombrowski may not wait long for Cohen’s sale to be approved for him to take the Mets job. Since Cohen trusts Alderson, it would have been in the Mets’ best interest to hire him. It’s important a baseball owner trusts his guy when it comes to baseball operations.

Cohen knew Alderson from his time as the Mets minority owner. Familiarity comes a long way, and it inspires trust altogether.

Alderson’s success with the Mets made it easy for Cohen to hire him.

Cohen knows Alderson drafted the current core nucleus such as Pete Alonso, Dominic Smith, Jeff McNeil, David Peterson, Michael Conforto, and Brando Nimmo, so it made sense to hire someone that knows a thing or two about scouting, drafting, and player development.

Yes, Cohen will spend to get players, but he also knows that player development and drafting serve as an impetus for a team’s success in the long-run. This is where Alderson enters the picture, and this is why Cohen had no problem hiring him.

For Alderson to say yes to Cohen, this bodes well for the new Mets owner. He must feel good about his time with the prospective owner to say yes to the job rather than wait and waffle with the decision.

Cohen made his first impact already just having Alderson say yes to his offer.

It’s a great start for Cohen, and it showed right there he has the chops to be a major-league owner. This goes a long way for owners that may have doubts about him. Also, Alderson would make Cohen’s transition as smooth as possible.

With a new owner, the Mets coaches and players could use a guy that can bring some sanity and wisdom. Alderson is just the right guy for it.

Cohen can look to the Islanders owners Scott Malkin and Jon Ledecky on what bringing a sage general manager can do to a team. Malkin and Ledecky hired Hall of Fame general manager Lou Lamoriello to oversee the Islanders and help them out to make the transition as owners, and it turned out to be a success with the Islanders making the Eastern Conference semifinal last year and the Eastern Conference final last year. The Islanders were a Brock Nelson breakaway goal from playing Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals against this year’s Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning.

This is why hiring Alderson is the right move. He is the right guy to oversee the transition of Mets’ new ownership.

He could provide wisdom to help Cohen steer the Mets in the right direction.

No one says Alderson is perfect. He made many blunders as Mets general manager such as hiring Mickey Callaway and letting Daniel Murphy and Justin Turner go. But no general manager makes perfect moves. It’s impossible. But the pros outweigh the cons when a Mets fan looks over his work as the Mets general manager.

Cohen can do much worse than hiring Alderson.

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