Shines & Scouts are Gone, Progress in Front Office

“Razor Shines is not being retained by the organization,” according to Adam Rubin on his blog for ESPN New York. I have also heard people are not expecting Howard Johnson to return as the team’s hitting coach, since Sandy Alderson and his the new manager will almost certainly want a coach more in line with their offensive approach… nevertheless, Johnson, as well as Dave Jauss, could be offered a different position within the organization. Original Post at 4:00 pm: Rubin said earlier that Mets scouts Ben Johnson, Russ Bove and Duane Larson will not be returning next season, nor will special assistant Sandy Johnson, who joined the team under Omar Minaya in 2005. As such, I was told today by two people who would know that a) the Mets started doing preliminary phone interviews with managerial candidates earlier this afternoon, to gauge interest, and b) they are making progress in their effort to add Paul DePodesta and J.P. Ricciardi to Alderson’s front offi...