Mets owner Steve Cohen met with reporters prior to Wednesday’s series finale against the San Diego Padres and discussed a host of topics, including finding the club’s next manager.
With Carlos Mendoza dismissed midseason, Andy Green moved from a player development role into the interim manager job. While the results have been promising (the Mets have gone 23-23 with Green), president of baseball operations David Stearns has said that Green will return to the front office after the season, and Cohen echoed that on Wednesday, though he did say he’d welcome Green changing his mind.
“Well, I’m going to take him at face value. He’s telling us that he wants to go back to the front office,” Cohen said. “We’re going to do a managerial search and if it turns out he wants to throw his hat into the ring, that would be great.”
Asked about what qualities he wants to see in the next skipper, Cohen said relating to the players in the clubhouse is near the top of the list.
“I want a manager that can really relate to the players. I love the idea of a manager that motivates the players,” said Cohen. “As we know, playing baseball is up and down. People have great moments and go into slumps. So how do you get the best out of your players? And I think that’s pretty important.”
Three of the last four full-time Mets managers – Mendoza, Luis Rojas, and Mickey Callaway – stepped into the managerial role with no prior experience as a major league manager.
Cohen was asked if past experience was a prerequisite this time around, but deferred to Stearns when it comes to handling the upcoming search.
“I’m going to leave that to David. That’s a little bit in the weeds for me,” Cohen said. “What I really think is we’ll see quality candidates and then we can figure out what to do next.”
Of course, there are already names floating around for the Mets job, including Alex Cora, who was fired by the Red Sox earlier this season but has a proven track record.
“I’m sure there’s a bunch of names out there,” Cohen said when asked specifically about Cora’s candidacy. “Once again, they’ll do a managerial search and they’ll figure it out then.”
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