The New York Mets are hiring a new exec who's a former GM, but he won't be replacing the current GM.
The New York Mets are in the process of hiring former Minnesota Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey to a front-office job, according to The Athletic, MLB.com and other sources, with the move unconfirmed as of yet.
The pecking order here is very unclear. Falvey will not serve as GM under president of baseball operations David Stearns, per a source used by Anthony DiComo of MLB.com, but he will instead operate in a different executive role. The team has not yet commented on the move.
Falvey and the Twins parted ways in January, per Will Sammon and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Under Falvey’s leadership, the Twins reached the postseason four times, earning a wild-card spot in 2017 and winning the division in 2019, 2020 and 2023.
Falvey and Stearns have worked together in Cleveland’s front office as co-directors of baseball operations back in 2011-12, with Stearns moving on soon after that to become an assistant GM with the Houston Astros. Falvey stayed on in Cleveland in that organization’s version of the same role before he became the head man in Minnesota.
The Mets like to do things by committee, so this move tracks given that the Mets already have three assistant GMs in Eduardo Brizuela, Jonathan Strangio and Ben Zauzmer, as well as two special assistants to baseball operations in Carlos Beltrán and J.D. Martinez, per DiComo.
The move also tracks with comments made by owner Steve Cohen during the SNY broadcast of the second game of the Mets' weekend series against the Philadelphia Phillies. Cohen talked about adding “certain voices” to the front office that he thought would be helpful, and evidently Falvey will be one of those voices.
The move follows hard on the heels of the Mets promoting interim manager Andy Green with a three-year contract, so it’s fair to ask what Falvey’s role in that hire was or even if he had any. Stearns, meanwhile, is in the third year of a five-year deal, and he’s been playing defense for months now after nearly all the moves he made in a busy offseason backfired spectacularly.
Don’t expect any clarity, however. This is how the Mets roll, with a "ready, fire, aim" approach to new hires and personnel moves that are reflected by their current position in the standings. We’ll get some kind of announcement very soon, but there will almost certainly be plenty of questions about the rationale here regardless.
