News: Sandy Johnson to Stay with Mets
Jon Heyman of SI.com says Sandy Johnson will not retire, but will remain on as Vice Pres. of Scouting and assistant to Omar Minaya.
Johnson had been telling people he planned on retiring, according to a report last month in the Daily News. He is 69 years old.
According to Heyman, “Some Mets officials believe the unusual effort made to retain Johnson is another sign of diminishing faith in Minaya.”
…i agree… this looks to be a ‘just in case,’ type move… johnson is not a GM, but he’s an old school, player-oriented baseball guy, with strong ties all around the league… and so, if omar is ever fired, and, say, John Ricco or some other mid-season replacement is hired, sandy will be the perfect mentor, which is essentially what he initially was to omar…
…johnson was hired with minaya to be, from what i understand, a top advisor, someone for omar to lean on, who omar had worked with before, and trusted… sandy had a big hand in building the D’Backs of a few years ago, but before that worked with omar in texas, helping to bring along players out of Latin America, such as Juan Gonzalez, Pudge Rodriguez and Sammy Sosa… Brian Lamb, who now also works with the Mets, recommended omar to johnson when he first went to the Rangers… the thing is, as far as i can tell, johnson had been somewhat marginalized by the rise of Tony Bernazard…
Heyman also writes, “The Mets also are looking for another senior baseball executive to join Johnson and assistant GM John Ricco and form a strong triumvirate under Minaya.”
Heyman said former Padres GM Kevin Towers had been considered for such a position, but is no longer on the list, because the team believes he has no intention of leaving the West Coast.
…for what it’s worth, though, johnson drafted towers in his first job as scouting director for the Padres…
For more, including how the stage could be set for Minaya’s dismissal, check out Heyman’s report, here.
