A’s Billy Beane on New York Mets reports: “To worry about this is to lend credibility to it”
"Normally the process is they would call the owner which has happened in the past. But to worry about this is to lend credibility to it. It’s all just press reports.”
When a vacancy opens in a Major League Baseball team’s front office, the Oakland A’s executives are typical targets to fill the spot.
So Billy Beane knew his way around the bush when asked on Monday if the New York Mets had called to request to interview him for their open executive vice president of baseball operations job.
“I wouldn’t even know that, honestly,” Beane said. “Normally the process is they would call the owner which has happened in the past. But to worry about this is to lend credibility to it. It’s all just press reports.”
Reports have indicated that current Mets president and former A’s executive Sandy Alderson would love to have Beane aboard to right the ship. The Mets, despite having the third highest payroll in baseball with a roster full of talent that includes Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Francisco Lindor, finished with a sub-.500 record in 2021.
They filtered through three general managers, and three now three managers since 2017 after relieving interim manager Luis Rojas of his duties on Monday. New team owner Stephen Cohen wants an adult in the room. Beane, along with executives Theo Epstein, formerly with the Red Sox and Chicago Cubs, and David Stearns, currently heading up the Milwaukee Brewers. If Beane is brought on, reports state they’ll want manager Bob Melvin to come along with him to Queens.
While Beane did not deny the reports, he brushed them off, noting he’s been approached numerous times — as has general manager David Forst and Melvin — when jobs open.
“Been around long enough. I’ll take it as a compliment that this has been the case with a lot of our staff,” Beane said. “I don’t even respond to newspaper articles, I appreciate you asking. I follow all the soccer news, but I haven’t followed that news.”
Beane also took time to acknowledge San Francisco Giants VP of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, who Beane first hired as an A’s analyst in the early 2010s.
“We couldn’t be happier. We say that truly. Normally if we said that, we would have been lying, but with Farhan over there it’s been a lot of fun and it’s been great,” Beane joked. “He’s an amazing person and executive…we couldn’t’ be prouder to be both friends with him and for what him and his organization accomplished. It’s fun. He’s such an easy person to root for.”
Zaidi came up as an assistant general manager in Oakland before the Los Angeles Dodgers plucked him as general manager in 2014. Zaidi took the Giants’ job in 2018 and returned to the Bay Area, leading San Francisco to a franchise-best 106 wins this season.