Jason McLeod Talking to ‘Three or Four Teams,’ Mets Not Involved
Former Cubs exec Jason McLeod left the organization at the conclusion of his contract in October, ending a decade-long run spent mostly presiding over scouting and development. Jed Hoyer offered to carve out a new role for his longtime running mate in the reconfigured front office, but McLeod politely declined in favor of seeking out a change of scenery.
Said change may not involve a move to New York, as the Mets have not contacted McLeod about their vacancies. That’s weird because they’ve already been turned down by the dozen or so other people they reached out to, not to mention those who proactively removed their names from consideration. Things got so bad that Mets president Sandy Alderson had to pivot from seeking a president of baseball ops to merely hiring a GM because of the lack of qualified individuals who’d actually take his calls.
Not that it should really matter to McLeod, who told Gordon Wittenmyer he’s got quite a few other irons in the fire.
“There’s three or four teams I’m talking to a little more intently about potentially joining them in an executive position. It’s still determined what the exact roles would be,” McLeod said. “It’s kind of interesting. I’ve worked with Jed and Theo for so long that in a lot of ways this is exciting to talk to a lot of different teams.
“I’ve had a lot of different conversations with a lot of GMs and presidents of baseball ops. Even the conversations have been great, just on a different level than before.”
McLeod did indicate that he’d be willing to listen should the Mets come calling, and you have to think he’d be more interested in that POBO role than simply catching on somewhere as a VP or some such title. After all, he’s been in the mix for GM jobs in the past and hasn’t gotten them. He’s had experience with the Red Sox and Padres in addition to the Cubs, though each stop has involved Hoyer and/or Theo Epstein.
Any new team would give McLeod a chance to establish his own identity a little more clearly, but the Mets would provide a larger stage upon which to do that. Of course, working for Steve Cohen might present its own challenges when it comes to having a boss who holds the reins a little tighter and makes all the headlines.
“I still see myself as someone who can sit in that seat and do that job and would still want that opportunity,” McLeod told Wittenmyer. “It’s still something that I would hope to do some day.”
Wherever he ends up, I just hope he never again has to deal with the awkwardness of walking into a hotel restroom with a blogger and having his son ask him who pooped in the urinal. Yes, that actually happened. I’ve told the story before but can recount it below if anyone’s interested.
