Earlier this offseason, the Mets denied the Phillies’ request to interview baseball analytics director Ben Zauzmer about Philadelphia’s assistant GM opening, SNY’s Andy Martino writes. The Phillies instead went with another young executive for the role, hiring 27-year-old Anirudh Kilambi away from the Rays.
Like Kilambi, Zauzmer is also young (29), has a background in analytics, and already has amassed an impressive resume early in his career in baseball. Zauzmer joined the Mets only last year after a six-year stint in the Dodgers’ analytics department, but quickly established himself as an important figure in New York’s front office. This resulted in Zauzmer getting an assistant GM job with the Mets themselves, as the team announced the promotion in late December.
More from around the NL East…
- Also from the Mets, Jason Lefkowitz had been a candidate for an assistant hitting coach position, but Joel Sherman of The New York Post tweets that the Mets are instead “going in another direction.” A former scout for the Mariners and Astros, Lefkowitz runs a high performance baseball training facility. Back in August, the NY Post’s Greg Joyce wrote about Lefkowitz’s work with Yankees prospect Anthony Volpe prior to the 2021 season, and Volpe delivered a huge year at A-ball that has put him in the conversation as one of baseball’s top prospects. The Mets are still in the process of finalizing Buck Showalter’s coaching staff, though the lead hitting coach role was filled by Eric Chavez earlier this month.
- When the Braves signed Manny Pina in November to share catching duties with Travis d’Arnaud, it immediately created speculation that either William Contreras and Shea Langeliers could be used as trade chips. In the opinion of both The Athletic’s David O’Brien and an overwhelming 85.3% of respondents to a poll of Braves-related topics, Contreras seems the likelier of the two to be moved. Both catchers are 24 years old and Langeliers has yet to debut in the majors, though he is a higher-rated prospect, garnering top-100 attention in each of the last two seasons. Contreras has hit .225/.308/.405 in a small sample of 195 plate appearances at the big league level, though as O’Brien notes, defense is Contreras’ bigger issue. There is no guarantee, of course, that Atlanta might deal any of its catchers, as d’Arnaud’s long injury history would seemingly require the team to have a bit more extra depth behind the plate. The Contreras family are no strangers to trade buzz at this point, since William’s older brother Willson Contreras may also be available for teams in need of more established catching help.
Nice to see the Mets denying people too.
Mets over Astros in 2049
Nationals over (Oklahoma City) Red Wolves in 2054
Phillies over Twins in 2084
The world will be taken over by the new world order by then. No more baseball
IDK, Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall will be pretty old.
They already are. Does anyone else remember a wrestler gimmick guy named “Eugene?” He was probably the worst and most politically incorrect and offensive gimmick in top tier pro-wrestling history. At least in modern history. They scrapped him really quick because it was an awful idea. Does anyone else remember him, though? I’m not even that big of a wrestling fan but somehow I remember Eugene and most die hard fans I know don’t. I think he was WWE and he was definitely in tv in the 2000’s with paper view and everything. He was supposed to be the “Rain Man” of wrestling or something where he had some personal issues but was just a savant wrestler.
Eugene wasn’t scrapped that quickly. You qwant scrapped quickly…Google Seven, Moedecai, or Waylon Mercy.
I have a vague recollection of Eugene.
Hey when your nWo youre nWo 4-LIFE!!!
There should be a tab for wrestling rumors on this site
Wasnt he the guy who pretended to be like mentally ill?
StevencohenPOS. They are putting microchips in the vaccine to turn everybody into Mets fans.
@Joe the new world organization brother
Euguene is on his retirement tour. Dude is legit still booking Independent
Mars Musks over New Zealand Bunker Bezos in 2091
The Mets may not be ready for someone like Lefkowitz.
You’d gotta think that Contreras has to be the one to be traded. Inevitably, Pina and/or d’Arnaud will be injured at some point this year or next year, or one will play bad enough that they’re shown the door. This gives Langeliers two seasons to ease into his MLB career and get a show at holding down the full time job.
I don’t think either will be traded and I think the Braves planned it as such. To your point, it is likely one of the two starters will be injured or perhaps get in some AB’s at DH. I think they carry Contreras on the roster once the real schedule starts rolling in and give Langeliers more time. No reason to rush them.
The only reason they might be traded is if the Braves decide it’s just easier to find decent vets at catcher and they get a really good offer. I just don’t see that happening as I think most teams prefer to go with vets rather than rolling the dice on prospects at catcher(exceptions being the truly elite prospects).
It will be interesting to see what happens though. If they can get a piece they need then I am all for a trade, but I just don’t think they brought in Pina with that in mind.
@UGA Steve: This is completely off topic. A while ago you had batting stats for a player being shifted on. I was wondering if you could post the link where you get that because all I can ever find is hits and AB’s during the shift.
@UGA_Steve I just don’t see how they can keep 3 catchers on the 26 man roster. I mean, I guess they could send Contreras down to AAA, but I just don’t see how they keep all 3 up there
The best thing for contreras is to be traded, Langy is the future backstop. This year belongs to d’Arnaud but 2023 Langy could be his first MLB year of a gold glove career.
I’d take a Rays executive over a Mets executive any day if the week.
This^
That’s good because you can’t have Benny the Sauce Zauzmer.
He was just a Dodgers executive. The Rays guy was a fetus once.
The Mets only denied the Phillies for the shear sake of finally being able to deny someone else something.
And Lefkowitz is such a New York sounding name…
so that means the Mets were actually the first to deny a guy an interview for a promotion. makes sense now.
But they ended up promoting him into the same role anyway, so he got his promotion internally.
I’m happy with the hire that the Phillies ended up making tbh.
You nor anyone else knows anything about Anirudh Kilambi
We know he came from the Rays,that’s something
Anyone who follows MLB herd about Anirudh Kilambi a few years ago.He was part of an excellent Rays front office.You don’t ever hear of these type of guys
helping one guy on the team or picking in the draft.He is part of a very sucessful
front office so teams figure he can help out their people showing how the Rays did it.
He’s the best Smoochie, the best.
@smooch. I highly doubt you are correct. You really think nobody googled his name? That was the first thing I did when I found out about his new posting with the Phillies and I’m not even a Phillies fan. I suspect there are Tampa fans and now Phillies fans that might know something about him.
They should have given Lefkowitz a chance, he has a great background; One never knows..
I have to ask the question…… what exactly does “amassed an impressive resume early in his career in baseball” mean. Ok…. he came from the Ray research and development. One article mentions that he helped minor leaguer who had been around for a while “realize their potential”. Do we have any examples? Do we know of players that he has helped fix their swing or something? Don’t get me wrong…. the Rays make something out of nothing all the time with the money….and their trades are incredible…. but do we know specifics examples of exactly what this particular guy has done for the Rays?
Thank God the Phillies did not hire the Mets guy because when the Phillies win the division eventually the Met fans would have said it was all because of him they won.
Lol @phillies win the division