David Stearns doesn’t appear in any hurry to add a general manager to the Mets’ organizational hierarchy.
The position has remained vacant following Billy Eppler’s departure last offseason during an MLB investigation that determined he broke rules regarding usage of the injury list.
Stearns, the team’s president of baseball operations, said Wednesday that he’s “not eager” to hire a GM.
“I think we have got a good group in place here and I’m pleased with the performance that our front office has had in general,” Stearns said. “I think we’ve got a nice leadership team going.”
During the season it was announced that assistant general manager Ian Levin and director of major league operations Elizabeth Benn would be leaving the organization.
Stearns’ top lieutenants include special assistant Eduardo Brizuela, senior vice president of baseball operations Jonathan Strangio and assistant general manager Ben Zauzmer.
“If someone were to become available that I think would be really tough to pass up [for GM] then I would certainly consider it,” Stearns said. “But we’re not going to go through and entertain a huge search process here because I think we have got a pretty good group going.”
Ronny Mauricio could figure into the mix at multiple positions next season, but until the infielder resumes baseball activities, Stearns won’t start thinking about where Mauricio might best fit.
Mauricio underwent surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament last winter and later had an additional procedure to remove scar tissue in the knee.
“We’re now working on close to a year without baseball activities so that’s our goal as an organization,” Stearns said. “I do think we’re making progress. It definitely has gone a lot slower than we expected, but we need to get him back on the field doing baseball activities before we start thinking about what the positional distribution might look like.”
Stearns gave an endorsement to the team’s coaching staff, but stopped short of saying it would remain intact for next season.
Pitching coach Jeremy Hefner and hitting coaches Eric Chavez and Jeremy Barnes are holdovers from the previous regime.
“At the end of every season by practice we’re going to go through a little bit of an organizational evaluation period,” Stearns said. “We’re going through that right now, so we’re not at the point where I can make any declarative statements. I will say I was pleased by and large by the performance of our major league staff and I think we have got a lot of good coaches.”
