Cleveland Indians: Mike Chernoff turns down Mets job

In a bit of a strange sequence of events, Cleveland Indians GM Mike Chernoff declined to interview with the Mets for their head of baseball ops position.

While the position to be the head of baseball operations may sound enticing, it’s not enough to drag Mike Chernoff from his GM position with the Cleveland Indians. Chernoff has spent considerable time with the Tribe.

He started off as an intern and served as assistant general manager as while as director of baseball operations in Cleveland. When Chris Antonetti was promoted to the president of baseball operations in Cleveland, Chernoff became the general manager.

This isn’t the first time Chernoff has turned down a position with another team, he declined the general manager position with the San Diego Padres in 2014. Maybe Chernoff just likes living in Cleveland. He has a wife and three kids in the city, why leave?

While a high-end position in New York may sound enticing, the New York media is prone to eating new faces alive. Just ask former Indians pitching coach Mickey Callaway. He took quite a beating from the media in just his first year as Mets manager. The success of Yankees first-year manager may have also played into that.

Chernoff has helped play a role in the Indians success as GM. He took over the position in 2015 and has helped the Indians make some key additions. We can thank him for players like Edwin Encarnacion, Yonder Alonso, Brad Hand, as well as the time spent in Cleveland by Jay Bruce and Andrew Miller. He’s done a good job of not selling the farm to get some of those key players.

While it doesn’t seem like Chernoff will leave willingly, front offices in baseball tend to have a lot of turnover. When thinking about these great years we have with the Indians, we can’t forget the guys up top who bring some of these players to us. After all, we could be like the Mets.