Brewers: New York Mets trying to hire GM Matt Arnold away from Brewers

Brewers owner Mark Attanasio was able to successfully prevent the New York Mets from interviewing David Stearns for their President of Baseball Operations position. But he may not be able to protect his entire front office.

A report from Mike Puma indicates the Mets have moved on from Stearns and on to his top lieutenant, GM Matt Arnold.

Because Arnold is a GM and the Mets are interviewing for a President of Baseball Ops job, it’s technically a promotion, which means Attanasio cannot block and must allow him to interview.

Puma indicates as well that an offer may already be on the table.

The Mets appear determined to steal a Brewers baseball executive for their top job, and Matt Arnold is their next best option.

Three out of the last four years the Mets have wanted to interview David Stearns and bring him in to run their baseball operations department. The Brewers have declined each time. In 2018, they also interviewed Brewers senior advisor and former GM Doug Melvin for their top job.

Now, once again after being denied Stearns, they’re going after someone else in this front office.

Matt Arnold is a qualified candidate, and was promoted to GM last year after being assistant GM under Stearns since 2015. Stearns held the title of President of Baseball Ops and GM for a little while. That promotion for Arnold was not only a recognition of his work and a well deserved promotion, but the change in title made it easier to protect him from other teams.

UPDATE: Even though this would be a promotion, Brewers owner Mark Attanasio still can block a request from the Mets to interview Arnold.

Stearns gets all the headlines in Milwaukee and around the league, and deservedly so, but Arnold has quietly been an excellent piece of this front office. While he hasn’t held the title of decision-maker, he’s been helping make the decisions and point the team in the right direction. After six years as the No. 2 man in Milwaukee, he’s ready for the No. 1 decision-maker job somewhere.

The Mets’ search for someone to lead their baseball operations department has been long and winding, and all of their top desired candidates have either been blocked, dropped out, or just didn’t work out for various reasons. Numerous other executives have taken their names out of consideration for their position.

Will Arnold take it? Or will he stay in Milwaukee? We’ll find out, but the Mets have interest in him and he appears to have interest back.

Losing Arnold would be a big blow to the Brewers front office. Arnold has been Stearns’ right hand man his entire tenure in Milwaukee.