New York Mets Add Allard Baird, Adam Guttridge To Front Office

While the New York Mets are busy exploring their options to improve the team on the field, new General Manager Brodie Van Wagenen is adding to his new front office staff. Van Wagenen has hired Adam Guttridge as an assistant GM in charge of systematic development, SNY’s Andy Martino reports. The team has also hired Allard Baird away from the Boston Red Sox to serve as their Vice President and Assistant GM of Scouting and Player Development, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports. The pair will join Omar Minaya and Ruben Amaro Jr in the front office.

These hires are absolute home runs for the Mets. Guttridge has an extensive background in analytics, having worked in that area for the Colorado Rockies and Milwaukee Brewers while also working for FanGraphs and taught about analytics at NYU. Baird, who served as the GM of the Kansas City Royals from 2000-2006, has spent the past few years with the Red Sox as one of their most trusted talent evaluators. That dimension was sorely lacking from the Mets in recent years, who saw their ability to identify the right players fall apart towards the end of the Sandy Alderson era.

These two hires also have no ties to the previous regime, giving Van Wagenen some new perspectives to work with. This is a huge positive since the Mets have spent far too often rehashing the same ideas over and over again. Van Wagenen has already begun exploring creative ways to improve the team, such as exploring a trade with the Seattle Mariners to get Edwin Diaz by taking on a significant portion of Robinson Cano’s contract, and having more bright minds in the mix will only help the cause.