Report: Mets ownership blames overuse of analytics for recent struggles

New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon is reportedly taking a rather interesting lesson from his team’s lost season.

According to Mike Puma of the New York Post, general manager Sandy Alderson, currently on medical leave as he battles cancer, is unlikely to return even if he gets healthy again. That means the Mets are in the market for a new general manager, and the 81-year-old Wilpon prefers to hand the reigns to a more traditional baseball person instead of a member of the new wave of analytically-minded GMs.

There is reportedly a belief among team officials that the Mets became too “analytics driven” under Alderson and the hire of a traditionalist will steady the organization going forward.

A lot of fans will probably see this and scoff. For many, Wilpon himself and his notoriously tight spending habits are a big part of the problem. With the Mets on their way to a second-consecutive losing season, nobody disputes that changes need to be made, but the blame for their current troubles has more to do with an anemic offense and a pitching staff that hasn’t been able to stay healthy rather than anything to do with analytics or sabermetrics.