Why A’s Billy Beane and Bob Melvin’s fit with Mets makes sense (and why it doesn’t)

It didn’t take long for the Oakland A’s Billy Beane and Bob Melvin to get swept into the drama that is the New York Mets. With reports that Beane’s mentor, Sandy Alderson, is returning as the Mets team president, is there reason to believe the rumors that the longtime A’s executive and manager would join Alderson in Queens? Yes and No.

The teams are on opposite trajectories. While the underachieving Mets are looking for a steady front office voice to build a contender at any cost, the A’s are stuck in an ugly stadium battle between Oakland and Las Vegas and a payroll disadvantage because of an ownership group unwilling to invest more than the bare minimum.

Alderson’s Mets badly need direction after a series of embarrassing front office blunders and an underperforming roster, but would provide Beane and Melvin an opportunity to do their jobs without the crippling constraints of a small budget. However, both Beane and Melvin, who are both 59, may be at points in their respective careers in which it’s too late for new beginnings or would want to pull up their deep Bay Area roots.

Plenty would need to happen for this to be discussed, including the A’s giving permission to the Mets to even talk to both parties. Here’s a look at why they may, or may not cross the country.

Make Moneyball work with money

Though the Mets’ new billionaire owner Steve Cohen has been outspoken about his willingness to spend on a contending team, his spending hasn’t translated to production on the field. After going through three general managers since Nov. 2020 and four managers since 2017, it’s clear the Mets’ baseball operations are in disarray. A talented roster featuring Jacob deGrom, Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso (to name a few) needs the support of a baseball executive seasoned in crafting effective rosters.

After more than two decades helping craft multiple postseason-contending teams on shoestring budgets as A’s general manager and six years as the president of baseball operations, Beane certainly has that experience. And, decades after almost being lured to Boston to do Moneyball with the Red Sox, he may relish the opportunity to apply what he’s pioneered in Oakland with a top budget.

Melvin, too, may see the appeal of managing a team with the flexibility, depth and talent a bigger budget affords.

It’s true that A’s ownership’s unwillingness to extend lucrative contracts to players seen as difference-makers flusters the baseball operations crew. How could it not? In 2021, the A’s have had to watch shortstop Marcus Semien and closer Liam Hendriks deliver impactful seasons that have helped both the Toronto Blue Jays and Chicago White Sox sprint past Oakland in the postseason race. Semien’s 6.2 fWAR in Toronto this year and Hendriks’ 2.1 fWAR for Chicago would have certainly boosted an A’s team scrambling desperately to overcome a three-game deficit in a crowded wild-card race. If the 2021 season proves unsuccessful, will they be up for another offseason in which they may need to head up a roster overhaul?

A’s owner John Fisher wouldn’t expand the budget enough to even consider extending qualifying offers of $18.9 million to both players after last season after breakout seasons in Oakland. In New York with Cohen at the helm, the budgetary concerns that have plagued the A’s for decades would be a virtual non-issue — how freeing for both Beane and Melvin.

Does Beane have another round in him?

Beane’s assumed role is a key to this hypothetical move. It’s worth noting that other rumors suggest Alderson’s primary target is Theo Epstein, the architect of World Series winners with the Red Sox and the Cubs. Beane wouldn’t join the Mets front office as a general manager, of course, but as president of baseball operations who can hire a general manager. That job still requires a dedication to the day-to-day grind. And we shouldn’t assume that Beane wants to hop back into the day-to-day.

Beane is very much involved in the A’s baseball operation decisions, but general manager David Forst has taken the reigns on the day-to-day operations. Beane mostly works remotely as he’s also started working on other passion projects. Beane is co-chairman of RedBall Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company that this winter attempted to take Boston Red Sox owner John Henry’s sports-holding company Fenway Sports Group LLC public. A deal that fell through. Beane has also been involved in English and Dutch soccer as an advisor and part-owner of Barnsley Football Club.

Beane has his hands in various other projects and ventures outside of Oakland, and baseball. While taking up a new executive job in MLB shouldn’t force him to abandon those ventures, one has to wonder if this new Mets gig would reel him back into the grind he was gravitating away from. And if he’d want that.

Bay Area ties vs. compensation

The A’s wasted little time picking up Melvin’s contract option for the 2022 season, getting the deal done this spring. The timing seemed odd and abrupt, but perhaps told us that the A’s decision-makers wanted to do what they could to make sure Melvin stayed put for at least another year.

Melvin has twice won manager of the year awards in his 11 seasons in Oakland. The Menlo native played baseball at Cal, spent two seasons for the San Francisco Giants and lives in the East Bay. He also played a season for the New York Yankees in 1994 and scouted for the Mets after his playing career.

He may want to stay put — he may be up for a new challenge without the struggles of managing a low-budget team — but the cheap A’s ownership may also see an opportunity to cash in on compensation returned from both Beane and Melvin’s departures. They would also get a return if Beane leaves and is forced to sell his minority shares in the A’s.

Sandy Alderson reunion

In 1990, Alderson gave Beane his first shot at a front-office gig as an advanced scout, then as assistant GM following Beane’s disappointing baseball career. Though “Moneyball” painted a picture of Beane’s pioneering of roster construction by sabermetrics, it was then-A’s GM Alderson who urged then-assistant GM Beane.

A reunion may be made even sweeter in New York because the Mets drafted Beane in the 1980 draft’s first round. For Beane, at least, his career could come full circle. Does it all add up to assume there’s fire where there is smoke? We’ll see.