Given how often Andy Green talks about staying in the present – and frankly, no manager in baseball talks about it more – asking him about his future on Aug. 26 seemed likely to yield a predictable answer.
And indeed, when asked Wednesday whether his team’s recent success and the accompanying groundswell of enthusiasm for his work as manager is making his plan to return to the front office at season’s end more fraught for him, Green said exactly what anyone who has listened to him carefully would expect him to say.
“The most honest answer is you can’t live 45 days out in the future and be helpful to anybody,” Green, who has managed the Mets to a 26-26 record, said. “You can’t be a good player worrying about how the season ends on August twenty-something. So you have a lifetime of conditioning for being in the moment, not thinking about those things, not worrying about what happens or doesn’t happen – and being present for people. That gets the best version of players, staff, anybody. [The future], if you give it time, can occupy anybody’s mind.”
As of this moment, that plan to return to the front office remains intact. Last week, Steve Cohen said the team still plans to conduct a managerial search this offseason, one in which Green would be included should he throw his hat in the ring, though he says he will not do so. Ten days ago, David Stearns said: “My expectation, and I think Andy’s expectation, is that he is going to rejoin the front office, and I have no reason to believe otherwise right now.”
People familiar with the Mets’ internal deliberations affirm the plan remains for Green to return to the front office, though not necessarily in the player development role he held previously. One role those people floated as a potential fit: General manager, a position Cohen has talked about filling during Stearns’ tenure but never has.
Exactly how likely it is that Green fills that role – or even that the Mets fill that role soon at all – remains unclear. But Green makes sense for multiple reasons.
Optically, he is an uncomplicated pick at a benign moment. He has a close working relationship with Stearns over multiple years that would temper any awkwardness – real or perceived – around the power dynamic between a President of Baseball Operations and a second-in-command. And since he is not returning as manager, the Mets need a new job for him, which would explain away any notion that another disappointing season was the reason Stearns suddenly needed a second-in-command.
Logistically, Green knows the players in the organization better than anyone. He already built clout with players who came up in the Mets system. Carson Benge, for example, called him “an easy person to respect.” But his tenure as interim manager has given him a chance to understand clubhouse dynamics and build relationships with key Mets veterans. To a man, they say he has done so gracefully.
New York Mets interim manager Andy Green (center) stands in the dugout with bench coach Kai Correa (left) and third base coach Tim Leiper during the fourth inning against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citi Field / Brad Penner - Imagn Images“Initially, we sat down and we had a conversation, and other than that, it’s been very natural. Whenever we find each other around or have a minute to talk, we have a chat. He’s been great,” Bo Bichette said. “He has a pretty good idea of how to create conversation without it feeling forced, which I think is definitely important. He’s genuine. I think there’s a lot of characteristics about him as a human I think a lot of us can respect.”
Exactly what a general manager’s duties consist of varies from organization to organization. Practically, it is just a title – though one that does affirm a certain organizational weight to the opinions of the person holding it.
Whether in that position or another, Green will almost certainly remain a crucial voice moving forward, particularly because of his experience in a variety of on-field roles. People familiar with higher-ups’ thinking say this year led to the conclusion that they could use more people with major league experience in their operation, though whether that means hiring a manager with playing experience, adding voices to their front office, or both remains to be seen.
Stearns, meanwhile, has Cohen’s full public support entering his fourth year in the POBO role. People in the Mets front office, as well as his colleagues in other front offices, describe Stearns as someone who trusts the Mets’ internal projection models and is matter-of-fact about his decision-making. That combination, not unique among this generation of data-driven heads of baseball operations, can create a distance between front offices and the clubhouses they create.
After an offseason spent purging veterans while navigating an owner-acknowledged rift between the two remaining superstars, all while replacing a coaching staff, followed by a disastrous April and early June firing of the manager… one can understand why the Mets might seek more connective tissue between baseball operations and the clubhouse.
Publicly, at least, Green has already created some. His daily managerial press conferences have provided new insight into the Mets player development philosophies with first-hand perspective of someone who spent the last few years shaping them. He has communicated a desire to get more out of this Mets roster without ever suggesting that his predecessor, Carlos Mendoza, should have gotten more. The Mets’ offseason and early season were largely shaped by decisions that sometimes felt clinical and detached. Green’s brief tenure has helped the Mets feel more human and more self-aware.
“He is very honest. He’s not afraid to push people to get better, but at the same time, he’s very encouraging and uplifting. He has a way of letting people know how good they are, and it’s not fake,” Bichette said. “I don’t think he’s saying it just to give someone more confidence. I think he says it because it’s true in his mind, and obviously, that’s going to have more impact on us. He genuinely sees what we could be better at and our potential and lets us know that. And that’s powerful.”
Presented with the hypothesis that whatever his title, Green’s role with the Mets will always include handling the human element, he demurred.
“I wouldn’t define it that way. We have a lot of good people that understand that these are 26 guys trying to be the best version of themselves and it’s our job to get the best version out of them,” Green said. “That’s the most important thing any of us do. So the culture is hugely important to everyone here, and I don’t see myself as any different than anyone else.”
Green did say, however, that he is treating this managerial stint far differently than his first try with San Diego, when he went 274-366 over four seasons with the Padres.
“I used to think strategically, tactically, I probably saw that part of the game as 90 percent of what a manager did,” Green said. “Now I probably see it as 10 percent of what a manager does. These guys are really special athletes. They don’t need to be taught as much as they need to be reminded about how good they are, but you have to be connected enough to have that land.”
So far, so good – though everyone from Stearns to Green and his coaches are willing to admit it can be hard to know what exactly to learn from how the Mets are performing with postseason pressure long since off their shoulders. Still, the turnaround is a more favorable testimonial to the Mets’ revamped coaching staff – a coaching staff Green helped assemble this winter – than what the first two months offered. While the Mets plan to have a new manager next year, multiple coaches are under contract beyond this year and could therefore return as part of a reshaped dugout staff.
Either way, because the Mets have improved under Green’s watch, questions will persist about whether Green and the Mets should ditch their front office plan and name him next year’s manager. He said that while the questions are flattering, that does not mean they should shape his answer.
“There’s not a person in the world who doesn’t want people to think highly of them. So any person who holds an opinion in that regard, you appreciate that,” Green said of fans and others pushing for him to stay as manager after two strong months. “But you can’t let your actions be dictated by the opinions of others. You just want to do right by people, as much as possible. That’s what we’re trying to see every guy on the team do. What’s the next right thing? And how do we go do it together?”
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