Boy, did ESPN back off that quickly. Now Port’s interviewing for the job, and no mention of their announcement that he was hired.
Hey, Kaz Matsui rumors are floating again. I’ve advocated a Matsui acquisition, but I’d like to now back off that. Matsui would be an upgrade over Glass, but not by much — a little more performance, most likely, and almost certainly in durability. But the cost is likely to be astronomical. If the team’s ownership decides to sink money into him and it doesn’t come off their payroll, well, no skin off my back. But if it does, the team’s almost certainly going to be much better off letting someone else overpay tremendously and looking for cheaper, more effective options on their own, even if that’s just having Guillen out there and taping him together when he shatters.
In other GM news, it appears Gary Hunsicker will be staying with the Astros for at least one more season. This doesn’t affect the M’s directly, but if Hunsicker had taken the Mets’ job it could have had a slight domino effect which may have eventually gotten to the M’s.
Also, here’s the article from the Times talking about Port, in which he says he expects to interview this weekend. So hey, we now have one more or less “official” candidate of the supposed 6-8 on the final list.
I realize I don’t have the journalistic resources that Peter Gammons does, and he’s been doing what he does for a really long time, is respected in the industry, and generally gets news before everyone else, but that doesn’t change the fact that this time, he’s wrong.
Mike Port has an interview scheduled for Saturday afternoon. The preliminary talks he has had with the club do not infer that an offer will be made, regardless of how the interview goes. He may end up getting the job, but it is not a done deal yet.
ESPN’s reporting that Mike Port’s the new GM and it’ll be announced in the next couple of days. At least the last part seems unlikely to me: MLB wants all hiring and other big announcements to wait until after the World Series, and Selig has twisted some arms over this in the past. Since the M’s are (and let’s just be honest) run by people who aren’t the most outspoken or prone to break MLB rules to attract a spotlight, it would seem that even if they had made a hire, they’d take the commish’s request into consideration and wait until the Series is over.