New Mets owner Steve Cohen tweeted the other day that if all goes smoothly, he could be in position soon to officially take the steering wheel of the club's day-to-day operations. Perhaps as soon as Friday, or perhaps next Tuesday, sources confirm. That's when Cohen could first go after free agents like outfielder George Springer, or direct his baseball operations department to pursue a deal for shortstop Francisco Lindor.
But the first call that Cohen and returning Mets executive Sandy Alderson should make is to the Indians' ownership, to ask for permission to speak with Cleveland front-office superstar Chris Antonetti, the addition of whom would kick-start the new era of baseball in Queens.
You could have a debate about whether Antonetti is the Mike Trout or Mookie Betts of front-office types, or more appropriately in this context, the Jacob deGrom of baseball execs. But you get the point: Antonetti is widely regarded in the industry as one of the game's premier leaders -- and it may turn out to be that he is not an option for the Mets.
But Cohen should make the call, as other owners have, and attempt to pry Antonetti away from the Indians, for whom Antonetti has worked since 1999. As one official noted Thursday, feelers have been quietly extended for Antonetti just about every time a significant front-office opening has developed around Major League Baseball -- and for one reason or another, he has remained with the Indians. He is under contract with Cleveland as club president, and he is well-paid. It may be that the Indians' owners have deflected inquiries and would do the same to any Mets overture, and Antonetti probably has his own preferences -- he's got family ties to the eastern half of the country.
There are some reasons why the timing for the pursuit might be right, however. First and foremost, Cohen's takeover of the Mets provides an extremely attractive option to any competitive baseball official, similar to what drew Andrew Friedman away from the Tampa Bay Rays to the Los Angeles Dodgers: It's evident that the intention of Cohen, as the wealthiest owner in the sport, is to provide a full range of resources for whomever takes over his baseball operations department. With the Mets, Antonetti would not only have access to the best available and most expensive players -- like Lindor, the All-Star shortstop the Indians will likely trade in the months ahead -- but also the capability to build extraordinary scouting and development systems. Antonetti might be working with resources two or three or four times greater than what he has with the Indians.
But the Indians may also be at a crossroads, in their constant effort to compete in the AL Central while managing the challenges of being a small-market team. Following the 2020 coronavirus season and a summer of no fans in the stands, Cleveland's intention is to reduce payroll -- probably significantly -- which could be the driving force behind a winter trade of Lindor and other difficult choices. Moving forward, financial challenges leave the Indians more vulnerable than other franchises.
Would all of these factors make the Dolan family, the owners of the Indians, more open to giving Antonetti the opportunity to talk to other teams? Would Antonetti want to pursue a future with the Mets in a way he hasn't pursued other jobs? It's impossible to know for sure until Cohen and Alderson pose the question.
"It doesn't hurt to ask," said one high-ranking NL official, who joined the chorus of voices who have praise and admiration for Antonetti. "He's the perfect guy [for the Mets]."
Ross Atkins worked for years with Antonetti in Cleveland before Atkins became the general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays. "I think the best thing about Chris is his humility," Atkins said in a phone conversation this week. "He's always trying to learn, constantly, and he instills that in everybody he's working with. And he's also insanely competitive."
The combination of those two traits, Atkins said, means that every day, the leader of the Indians' baseball operations is wholly engaged in an effort to improve while operating under the assumption that he has more to learn, that there could always be a better way. Atkins noted that Antonetti would dive into presentations and conversations at the micro level -- about performance training, about pitch-sequencing, about small details that he could theoretically delegate to others down the chain of command. "That sets the tone for whole organization," Atkins said.
Another former Cleveland official said of Antonetti: "He chose baseball, but he'd be among the best leaders of any business he chose to pursue. He combines passion, intelligence, work ethic, care for people and ultimate humility better than almost anyone I know."
Less than 18 months after the Diamondbacks picked Trevor Bauer with the third pick of the 2011 draft, Arizona put Bauer on the trade block, partly because the team's staffers viewed him as difficult. Stubborn. Too independent in his thinking. Problematic to coach, or catch. What happened next, an Indians employee says, was Chris Antonetti at his best.
What Antonetti saw was a great buy opportunity for a small-market franchise that can't compete for premium talent in free agency. There was no question that Bauer was a premium talent, and as Antonetti dug into the question of how to best work with the pitcher, peers say he recognized that it made no sense to acquire Bauer and then attempt to force him to adapt to the methods and practices of the organization. Rather, Antonetti decided that the best course of action was to bring Bauer on board, let him be himself and then learn from Bauer. "Because he's crazy pitching smart," said the Indians staffer.
There were conversations with Bauer about pitching low and away, standard operating procedure, and Bauer talked about beating hitters at the top of the strike zone. As it turned out, Bauer was ahead of the industry with this concept, and with the use of technology to evaluate the physiology of a pitcher's delivery and release. A lot of the stuff that Bauer talked about after joining the Indians has become new norms, in how pitchers go through their bullpen sessions, and in how teams develop minor league arms. The relationship between the pitcher and the team wasn't always perfect, ending with an infamous fling of a baseball over the center-field fence in Kansas City, but Bauer evolved and became a star for the Indians, the best possible outcome for the player and the franchise. "And that would not have happened [for the Indians] if not for Chris being all-in on it," said the staffer.
Over the past two decades, the Indians' baseball operations department has been a reliable industry supplier of high-end front-office talent -- for example, David Stearns, the Brewers' general manager, and Derek Falvey, the head of baseball operations for the Minnesota Twins. Cohen needs to find out if he can lure the primary source of a lot of that talent, Chris Antonetti.