Kuzul

This is the message sent to Mets fans earlier today from our good friend, Mets COO Jeff Wilpon:

“Dear Mets Fans:

As you may know, earlier today we completed the initial round of interviews with six talented candidates to become the new General Manager of the New York Mets.

Each was extremely impressive—Allard Baird, Rick Hahn, Josh Byrnes, Sandy Alderson, Logan White, and Dana Brown. All reiterated their desire and interest in pursuing this opportunity.

We will be in direct communication with each as we narrow the candidate pool by early next week. We subsequently will invite the leading candidates back to meet with Fred, Saul, and me.

We have an outstanding group from which to select our new General Manager. We look forward to sharing more information with you soon.”

As much as us Mets fans want to grumble and moan about ownership and the initiative they’ve taken in many aspects of the team (and honestly we have good reason to moan), it looks like they’ve been taking the correct steps towards finding a legitimate man to head the future of the Mets.

With the first round of GM interviews finally over, it feels as though ownership really wants to relay the message to fans that they are doing everything in their power to turn this team around.

However, talk is cheap and if they really want the fan base to buy into what they are trying to do, we need to see some action. That’s why I feel I can speak for Mets fans when I say the end of the World Series couldn’t come soon enough.

The past few years all we’ve basically heard was talk, and nothing amounted to the talk besides a couple sub-.500 seasons and September collapses.

With that said and those images of ’07, ’08 and ’09 in our minds, we need a GM who will fit all the pieces together that will lead to a championship ball club, a manager who can instill the fight in a team that will lead to great things and lastly, the players who will leave everything on the field, win or lose.

With that hopefully in the foreseeable future, the Wilpons, Saul Katz and John Ricco, from what their weekly e-mails advise, are quickly along the path to figuring this all out.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Yesterday, SI.com’s Jon Heyman tweeted that Mets have been ‘asking around about Daniels.’ Even though Jon Daniels is still under contract with the Rangers, the native New Yorker and childhood Mets fan still tops the list of the Mets need for a new GM, along with GM veteran Sandy Alderson.

He is able to opt out of his contract with the Rangers because of the change in ownership of the team, but the question still remains: will he do this?

The buzz has long since been that the Mets aim to hire a new GM after the World Series concludes, but if the Rangers make a run at the postseason crown, the Mets will not be able to interview him for the position until well after the final pitch is thrown. But that still brings us back to the question of whether or not he would actually consider leaving the Texas Rangers to help rebuild the struggling Mets.

Is he really worth the wait, time and effort or not? That’s hard to answer if you aren’t a New York Met insider, but this situation hints to be the same as a college ball player saying he wants to sign with the team that drafts him, but then going ahead to play college ball. It all seems like a waste of time to try and predict the future about whether or not Daniels would consider taking a position in the Mets front office. 

The Mets don’t want to make a rash decision when planning the future of the ball club, but they also don’t want to prolong the process more than it needs to be. There is and has been plenty of time for management to ponder their possible choices, so if they see Jon Daniels as the ultimate answer, is he really worth the wait?

If he is truly their number one choice and the Mets feel they have a pretty good chance at signing him to become GM, then of course they have to wait to see how it plays out, but if he’s just another name on their list and they know he may or may not leave Texas then why would they want to waste their time hanging around for his final verdict.

It looks as though the Mets are attempting to set themselves up to strike gold by creating a Plan A with Jon Daniels, and if plans fall through, their Plan B would be to bring in veteran Sandy Alderson. I see no harm in this, but let’s just hope this happens sooner rather than later, and if Jon Daniels really doesn’t want to leave Texas he tells the Mets this so they don’t hang around waiting on his word.

Overall, I don’t blame the Mets for waiting to hear from Daniels before they make a final decision. They obviously feel like they have a legitimate chance at luring him away from Texas and for that I praise the front office for making significant advances in their search for a new director.

 A few weeks from now, I expect many of these answers to finally be answered, until then, we can only speculate. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Fresh from the news press, word around baseball insiders is that the Mariners informed Bobby Valentine today he will not be hired to fill their vacant managerial role. So what effect does that have on his odds of working with the Mets?

He’s already removed himself from consideration for the Marlins job and earlier this week Jon Heyman of SI.com reported, “The Mets appear to be a distant third or (fourth) on a list of possible destinations for Valentine…”

So let’s break down the obvious: The Marlins and Mariners are already out, other teams with an open managerial job have yet to contact the favorite Japanese league coach, so does this mean the Mets have moved to the top of the list for Bobby V.? Possibly, but we can’t be quite certain as of yet.

With the pending GM search still underway, the favorite seems to be Sandy Alderson and he has already openly stated that the manager is only meant to carry out the real decisions made by the front office. This seems like it wouldn’t fit into how Valentine coaches and his method of dealing with players on and off the field.

Bobby V. would most likely have a clause in his contract that would ask for more control over team decisions and management, which doesn’t look like Alderson would be willing to promise to his future manager (of course assuming the Mets hire Alderson as the GM).

So as of right now, it’s going to be a waiting game to see who the Wilpon’s and Ricco will choose as the future director of this recently under-producing team. Mets fans, be patient, things will fall into place soon enough.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com